Executive investigated, quality issues exposed! wang hao of beijing off-road enforces strong anti-corruption measures

Above the character for "greed" sits the character for "person"—where there are people, there is greed.

The hottest gossip these past two days is probably the scandal involving a certain monk. People have discovered that behind the monk, there can actually be a businessman.

With the investigation of Shi Yongxin, the shadow of corruption in human nature is once again exposed to the public eye. However, corruption incidents across various industries continue to emerge repeatedly, and people have become so accustomed to them that they merely serve as additional topics of conversation.

Corruption incidents occur frequently in the automotive industry.

Recently, according to relevant authorities, Zhang Chunsheng, former Director of the Equipment and Power Department of the Branch of Beijing Automotive Group Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd., is suspected of serious violations and is currently under investigation by the relevant authorities.

Zhang is in charge of the Equipment and Power Department, which serves as the "central hub for production support" in the automotive company. In simple terms, in addition to managing equipment operation and ensuring stable power supply, the department is also responsible for safety compliance, directly impacting Beijing Off-road’s production efficiency, product quality, and operating costs.

Even setting this matter aside, the production flaws of Beijing Off-road are obvious to anyone with a discerning eye.

Two months ago, the media outlet "Auto 365 Hotline" reported an issue with BJ60 where smoke appeared during charging. This month, the media "Car Talk" also exposed several quality problems with BJ30, such as power limitation, difficulty starting due to the small battery being depleted, and rusting of the chassis. Some owners even experienced the power malfunction light turning on the day they received their vehicle, and the issue was only resolved after replacing the turbocharger.

It is difficult to fully attribute these quality issues to Zhang Chunsheng. Some informed netizens have described Zhang as "a small fry who doesn't even qualify as a division-level cadre." Whether there are more responsible figures behind him remains to be further investigated.

It is evident that four months after taking office as Chairman of BAIC, Wang Hao finally launched a tough anti-corruption campaign, and Zhang's investigation is just the beginning of this battle against corruption.

On July 18 this year, BAIC Group held the 2025 "Learn from Cases, Promote Reform through Cases" Warning Education Conference. BAIC stated: "For behaviors such as abusing power for personal gain, profiting at the expense of the company, and harming the interests of the Group, we will investigate to the end and show zero tolerance."

Less than ten days after the conference, the first example was caught.

While fighting corruption, Wang Hao is also committed to building a "down-to-earth" persona by being highly active on social media. Last month, Wang Hao jokingly called himself "the car industry chairman with the fewest followers online" with only 508 followers, but this month his follower count has reached 30,000.

In July, Wang Hao posted 19 Weibo posts and 18 videos, creating a stark contrast in camera presence compared to previous state-owned enterprise leadership teams. Moreover, Wang Hao responded to many of the after-sales and quality issues raised by netizens in the comment section.

"The path of new media must be pursued, but the mindset of traffic-oriented ideology must be firmly rejected," Wang stated at the 2025 China Auto Forum.

Fortunately, Beijing Off-road has not been affected by a small number of quality issues.

In the first half of the year, Beijing Off-road Vehicles had a cumulative insured volume of 45,300 units, compared to 20,700 units in the same period last year, representing a year-on-year increase of 118.8%.

Among them, the main models in terms of insurance registrations are the BJ40 and BJ30, with cumulative insurance registrations of 22,300 units and 21,200 units respectively. Last week, the extended-range version of the BJ40 even topped the hardcore off-road vehicle chart, pushing the Tank 300 and Leopard 5 behind.

In the first half of the year, the remarkable performance in monthly sales was mainly focused in the second quarter. In the second quarter of this year, Beijing Automotive's sales exceeded 10,000 for three consecutive months, coincidentally overlapping significantly with the period when Wang Hao was in office.

On July 20th, the new BJ40 fuel version was updated again, with a refreshed price of 126,900 yuan, which is 70,000 to 80,000 yuan less than the old model. By reducing the price to boost sales, Beijing Off-road might have more room for growth in its sales volume.

As the malign elements are gradually purged and new cars are launched, Wang Hao has now completed his fourth full month in office. Under Wang's rectification, whether Beijing Off-road, with its "national off-road dream," can carve out a share in the off-road field where Jietu, Tank, and Fangchengbao are intensely competing, remains a point of interest for us.