While if you were after an EV camper, you would have few options, until now if you wanted one with a pig nose you would have been sorely disappointed. Chinese media have perhaps somewhat unfairly branded this camper van from Beijing Automobile Works as having a pig nose. What do you think?
The appropriately named Freedom Kingdom Vala is sold under the BAW Ruisheng brand. BAW is a Qingdao based subsidiary of BAIC Group. Chinese netizens are naming it the most abstract domestic car of the year after it appeared in the list of new cars declared by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 6.
The Freedom Kingdom Vala is based on the Ace M7 a cheap MPV which originally appeared as an ICE in 2022. It has since gained a van version and EV versions of both the van and MPV.
The nose though of the Freedom Kingdom Vala, pig like or not, is very different to the Ace M7 and has a retro feel reminiscent of some European or Japanese vans from the 70s. Certainly it doesn’t really match the rest of the car and also doesn’t look EV like.
Rated as a four seater the vehicle has two passenger seats mounted on rails in the back which allow them to be moved. There are also a couple of storage boxes come tables, one of which seems to have some sort of water dispenser. On the roof is a raisable tent for sleeping.
The wheelbase is 3200 mm and overall length is 5240 mm although much of that must be accounted for by that long snout. Meanwhile width is 1900 mm and height 2075 mm. Power comes from a 90 kW electric motor on the rear axle. There’s no word on the battery but it’s likely the same as the 50.3 kWh one used by the electric version of the MPV.
“BAW is a Qingdao based subsidiary of BAIC Group.”
It seems BAW is now fully independent from BAIC, and located far away in Shandong Province.
“……Freedom Kingdom Vala is based on the Ace M7 a cheap MPV….”
Cheap is what what now separates BAW, the classic nameplate, from BAIC.
BAIC really doesn’t seem to be doing well. I don’t believe any of their own brands sell well. The Hyundai JV is in danger of disappearing. That really just leaves them with the Mercedes-Benz JV. They’d better hope Xiaomi does well as they contract produce the cars.