I don't know if you've seen the Beijing Off-Road new product launch, but my WeChat Moments was definitely flooded by a "jumping car." Sun Honglei made his entrance sitting in it, the body bouncing up and down to the rhythm, and the visual impact was comparable to Hua Qiang's aura in *Conquest*. The star of the show that can turn a hardcore off-roader into a "jumping car" in seconds is the just globally launched Beijing Off-Road Tantalum 700.
A lot of people have asked me, what exactly is this car about? Today we're not talking fluff—let's go through a few points that genuinely surprised me and talk about this new contender that has the off-road crowd a little "shaken."
The price really is a bit "unreasonable"
As usual, let's start with the price. This time the Tantalum 700 comes in three trim levels, with guide prices from 279,800 to 379,800 yuan. But what really surprised me was the "super renewal price" starting at 249,800 yuan.
You have to know, this is a mid-to-large SUV over 5 meters long with a body-on-frame chassis. In the past, at this price you might only be able to touch the entry-level "stripped-down" version of some joint-venture hardcore off-roaders. But the luxury version of the Tantalum 700 gives you, right from the start, a CATL Xiaoyao battery, dual 15.6-inch large screens, tactical turn-around, and a 12-speed crawl mode.
"Brutal" hard power, and "gentle" luxury
Of course, being cheap alone is useless—you still have to see whether the capability is solid. What interests me most about the Tantalum 700 is that it fuses two contradictory sides together.
On the one hand, it's very "hard." The eight-crossmember, two-longitudinal high-strength steel ladder frame is a genuine hardcore foundation; front and rear dual motors plus three locks bring wheel-end peak torque to an astonishing 11,000 N·m; paired with factory nitrogen shocks and all-terrain modes, this is a foundation born for the wilderness.
On the other hand, it is unexpectedly "soft." Inside the cabin, it worked with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on a maternal and infant-grade "0 formaldehyde, 0 benzene" standard, with formaldehyde levels after sun exposure surprisingly low; the seats are the same graphene physiotherapy seats used at the Winter Olympics, empirically shown by the National Orthopedics Center to relieve fatigue; it even packs in a medical-grade dual-mode oxygen generation system. This is like a muscle-bound tough guy who always carries throat lozenges and a massager in his pocket—every detail maxed out.
The "strongest brain," specifically to cure the prejudices of the "old guard"
In the past we always said hardcore off-roaders couldn't do intelligence, because intelligence was for city people. But the Huawei Qiankun ADS 5.0 MAX equipped in the Tantalum 700 is breaking that prejudice.
The hardware is pretty fierce: an 896-line dual-optical-path image-grade LiDAR, with 30 sensors throughout the vehicle. It also has something in its signature strengths: the industry-first "off-road NOA" and "wilderness return." This means intelligent driving has been brought onto unpaved roads for the first time. At the launch it was said to have completed the world's first nighttime zero-intervention crossing of the Lanying Cliffside Sky Road, an 8-kilometer high-risk cliff section the entire way, without anyone touching the steering wheel. This means that when a novice goes off-roading, there may really be a "digital navigator" there to back them up.
Finally, a small detail. This time Beijing Off-Road also launched an official owner club--Guanshan Society. An exclusive LOGO, customized routes, and campsite arrangements turn off-roading from a solitary sport into a social arena with a circle and a sense of belonging. "The end of off-roading is never the wilderness, but finding a group of like-minded fellow travelers." This copy really hits home.
In short, the Tantalum 700 feels to me not just like a car, but more like a problem-solver trying to redefine the proposition of "luxury off-roading." With a lower price threshold, a smarter brain, and a more refined cabin experience, it tells us that an off-road vehicle can also be calm and confident, and does not have to be forever "domineering."
