The Beijing Auto Concept 500 concept debuted today on the Shanghai Auto Show. The concept, which didn’t seem much more than a mock-up, is a retro-design experiment inspired by the classic Beijing BJ212. Beijing Auto didn’t see whether the Concept 500 will ever see production.

At the same time Beijing Auto is also still working on two never-ending projects that just can’t make it to the market; the Beijing Auto B40 and the Beijing Auto B80, and than we still have the Beijing Auto Zhanqi and the Beijing Auto B70. Must be busy @ Beijing Auto, fortunately they had a little time left to make a crazy concept!

The original Beijing BJ212 was based on the Russian UAZ-469, it debuted in 1965 and continued basically unchanged until 1989. Production of  its successors, which didn’t change much either, continues until today.

Confusingly the concept was also called BJ20. Size-wise it seems to have about the same size as the upcoming or not upcoming V80. The Concept500/BJ20 is certainly a nice looking car but where it would fit in Beijing Auto’s half-existing line-up is very vague. Furthermore, ‘retro’ doesn’t really tick a box in China, where car buyers simply consider retro-design as old-fashioned design, which of course it is. The Concept 500 might work better if it was smaller.

As an exercise very nice, otherwise…