On April 20, "Let Fashion, Classics, and Technology Accompany You — 2026 BAIC Innovative Products Appreciation Event" was held in Beijing. Zhang Jianyong, Party Secretary and Chairman of BAIC Group, gave a keynote sharing as "Chief Product Officer," systematically explaining BAIC's explorations in product definition, user co-creation, and category innovation for its independent brands over the past two years, and officially unveiled two new-category models, Beijing 81 and Beijing · City Hunter. BAIC is advancing its independent-brand passenger vehicle business upward at a faster pace with a clearer product orientation and more pragmatic user thinking.
Not only must one be a good chairman, but also a good chief product officer
At the event, Zhang Jianyong, in the capacity of "Chief Product Officer," shared his thoughts on participating in product work and driving product innovation over the past two years. He said that for an automaker, it is essential to pay attention to whether users truly recognize its products and whether they are willing to continue choosing the brand.
In Zhang Jianyong's view, competition in the industry continues to intensify, users have more and more models to choose from, and their needs are becoming more and more specific. "Wanting this, wanting that, and wanting more" has become the norm. As a state-owned automaker, BAIC has years of technological accumulation and manufacturing foundations, but must also face the reality that its capabilities in product definition, user perception, and creating hit models still need improvement.
Therefore, "Chief Product Officer" is not simply an identity expression, but an important signal that BAIC is strengthening product leadership and promoting a transformation in its business logic. BAIC must place product definition, user insight, and category innovation in a more important position, making product work closer to the market, closer to users, and closer to real demand. Only when products are truly recognized by users can the brand continue to build trust and the company form long-term competitiveness.
Taking Users as the Core: From "Listening to Advice to Build Cars" to BIP Car Building
Regarding the current auto market, Zhang Jianyong said that although competition is fierce, opportunities always exist, and the key is to have the right product approach. For BAIC, on the one hand, it must cherish the old users it has accumulated over the long term and provide suitable new products for them when they repurchase; on the other hand, it must also re-enter new users' shopping lists through products with greater distinctiveness and memorability.
To create hit models, one must first know what users really want. To this end, BAIC has pushed brand leaders to go before users and establish more direct connections with them through self-media accounts, user clubs, and other means, allowing user suggestions and real feedback to enter the product definition and refinement process. In this process, BAIC gradually formed the methodology of "listening to advice to build cars." Taking the Beijing Off-road BJ40 Range Extender as an example, when users reported that off-road vehicles have high fuel consumption, BAIC launched the BJ40 Range Extender, which balances urban commuting on electricity and outdoor off-road power; when users wanted more worry-free highway driving, the Yuanjing Smart Driving Edition strengthened intelligent assisted driving capabilities; when users believed that "an off-road vehicle is as good as not bought if not modified," the official modified Chitu Edition responded to users' needs for personalization, compliance, and off-road equipment. These product actions further verified the practical value of user orientation for product optimization and market performance.
On this basis, BAIC further explored the BIP (Build in Public) car-building model, encouraging users to participate from the early stage in product definition, function refinement, and experience optimization, truly realizing "the user's car, built together by users." This is not only an upgrade of the user co-creation approach, but also means that BAIC is accelerating the transformation of product development methods, organizational collaboration methods, and corporate working methods.
Breaking Through with New Categories: Beijing 81 and Beijing · City Hunter Join Forces to Open Up Blue Oceans
Facing an increasingly competitive auto market, BAIC chose to seek new growth space through category innovation based on its own advantages and user needs. At this appreciation event, Beijing 81 and Beijing · City Hunter appeared on the same stage, representing two new-category explorations by BAIC's independent brands in the boxy vehicle and high-end SUV markets, respectively. These two models are also important product achievements led by Zhang Jianyong as "Chief Product Officer" in advancing with his team.
Among them, Beijing 81 is positioned as a "tactical boxy vehicle," building on Beijing Off-road's long-accumulated military vehicle DNA and hardcore off-road heritage to further strengthen Beijing Off-road's differentiated expression in the boxy vehicle market. As the first representative model of this category, Beijing 81 carries military quality while also placing greater emphasis on emotional value and cultural identity. The vehicle will start blind pre-orders at the Beijing Auto Show on April 24 and officially launch on August 1.
Beijing · City Hunter, by contrast, is positioned as a "high-stance SUV," seeking new incremental growth in the larger high-end SUV market. BAIC believes that true high-end is not simply stacking configurations and increasing dimensions, but returning to users' real needs for design, quality, driving experience, and scenario value. As an important model for BAIC to improve its high-end SUV layout, Beijing · City Hunter will further expand the market space of BAIC's independent brands with a product approach of "cultivating both inside and outside," and is planned to launch in the first half of 2027.
This innovative product appreciation event was not just the debut of two models, but also a concentrated expression of BAIC's independent-brand product methodology: deeply cultivating co-creation for users, innovating differently for competition, and efficiently delivering for itself. BAIC is taking the "Chief Product Officer" mechanism as the driving force, using the "new BIP car-building model" and "category innovation" as the two fulcrums to leverage the market, and with unprecedented determination for change and a pragmatic stance, striving at full speed to reach the first tier of independent brands, win market trust, and lead the journey ahead.
