As South Korean automaker Ssangyong considers a Jeep Wrangler rival as a launching point for gaining a foothold in the US, Chinese automaker BAIC already has a Wrangler competitor in its lineup, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it looks pretty close in design to the real thing.
The Beijing Auto BJ40, as it is called, is saddled with a 2.4-liter gasoline engine making just 143 hp and 160 foot pounds of torque.
But according to CarNewsChina.com, the 4x4 will soon receive a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine that its parent company, BAIC, received from GM’s fire sale of Saab parts bin items in 2009, along with the Saab 9-3 and Saab 9-5 platforms.
The BJ40C, which made an appearance in April at the Shanghai auto show, has been spotted in development form with signs denoting a 2.0-liter turbo engine under the hood. That engine was offered in the Saab 9-3 until the end of production.
CarNewsChina.com reports that BAIC planned to use this engine at the time of the updated 4x4’s launch in 2013, but could not make it work at the time. The turbocharged 2.0-liter has now reportedly been testing in the small SUV, and will be paired with a five-speed manual transmission when it goes on sale this year.
The Saab-engined BJ40 is expected to debut during the first week of September at the Chengdu auto show, though the 4x4 itself has been in development for years, having made its first appearance in 2009.
BAIC recently made the news for another iconic SUV clone, having created a Mercedes-Benz G class lookalike while in a partnership with Mercedes-Benz itself, drawing the latter’s ire.
National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the Chinese investor-backed company that acquired the main assets of Saab in 2012, has acquired two new business partners in the process of establishing a factory in Tianjin, China.
