If you’re into campers, you’re familiar with the usual suspects—the big vans, the teardrops, and so on. What you probably haven’t seen before is a sleek, retro-look camper straight out of China. This year, the Beijing Auto Works has brought us just that.
Beijing Auto Works, BAW for short, is one of the more interesting automakers on the planet. It’s still building perhaps the oldest vehicle currently on sale and has built everything from cute electric city cars to hardcore offroaders.
The Chinese automaker has also been active in the MPV segment. That left an opening to create a comfortable camper version for adventures, and thus the BAW Free Kingdom Vala Life was born.
BAW Vala is a new electric camper for China.
Camping is super popular in China. Many car makers develop special camping versions of existing cars.
BAW has just launched the Vala, a camper based on the Ace EM7, an MPV. To get from MPV to camper, BAW completely changed the nose… pic.twitter.com/VKXxutdVhQ
— Tycho de Feijter (@TychodeFeijter) October 17, 2024
As covered by CNEV.cn, the Vala is based on the BAW Ruisheng Ace EM7, an electric version of the popular M7 minivan. The EM7 sticks pretty closely to BAW’s established corporate look, with a glaringly ugly “waterfall” grille and lighting design that really messes up its face.
For the Vala, however, BAW totally retooled the front end with a lovely retro look, with straight lines, round headlights, and lots of chrome. It’s a very California look. The paint schemes are not dissimilar from those on the VW ID.Buzz, while the front ends are very reminiscent of what Cal’s Motor is doing over in Japan.
The Vala has the same rear-wheel-drive single-motor drivetrain as the EM7 it’s based on. Power is a humble 120 horsepower, while it will deliver 199 pound-feet of torque. The van features a 65 kWh battery pack which is good for 236 miles of range according to BAW.
Being an EV, that battery comes in handy for your campsite, too. You can draw up to 6 kW from the vehicle’s power sockets to run whatever you might need. Onboard power has become a super-popular feature in recent years, and it makes perfect sense to leverage that on a camper.
As for the camping features, the Vala Life is well equipped. The vehicle sleeps four—two on the fold-down rear seats, and two more in the charming pop-top roof tent. Inside, there are cabinets for storage, a small bench, and a sink, along with some nice wood flooring. There’s also a retractable awning on one side to give you some shade.
You’re probably wondering about the price. BAW have announced the Vala Life will come in just one configuration at 248,000 yuan—or roughly $35,000 USD. It’s worth remembering that cars in general are a lot cheaper in China. It’s also a relatively low-performance vehicle, with limited power and range. This helps keep costs in check.
Ultimately, it’s not surprising China has a market for pop-top camper vans. What is striking is how good this one looks. Sometimes, all you need is a set of round headlights and some simple trim to elevate a bland design into something remarkably tasteful.
[Mercedes’ Note: These are basically the Chinese interpretations of Westfalia vans, but they’re also a little silly. The van builder couldn’t integrate a refrigerator, so they just bought a cheap Coca-Cola-branded mini fridge that probably plugs into the wall. I’m also not a huge fan of the incongruity of the interior, with expensive-looking materials on the floor and seats, but cheap cabinetry and appliances. Also, what’s with the Union Jack pillow? – MS]
Image credits: BAW, BAW via CNEV.cn
“with expensive-looking materials on the floor and seats, but cheap cabinetry and appliances”
But now I’m wondering, while the cabinetry and appliances are cheap, is the quality any worse than what has been coming out Elkhart, Indiana lately?
I’m kinda looking what China is producing. Provided quality and crash worthiness is up to snuff, I’d definitely consider a Chinese car. Of course, there’s bs protectionist policies standing in the way…
Not a camper without a sink
If you can lie down and sleep in it with some comfort it is a camper for me. Sinks freeze, leak, and need maintenance. No thanks.
Just wash your hands in your portable toilet.
This van looks like a giant Cologuard box, especially from the front.
I do wish there were still things like this sold here. There were pop-up versions of the Metris, Element, and nv200 Nissan Van in the aftermarket but they never sold a lot of them.
Is this one of the slave-made-parts-free models?
They’re not ‘slaves’, they’re ‘re-education pupils’.
VW should take lessons here on what a simple retro throwback looks like.
Are we looking at the same van?! That front end is… Nauseating. It’s like west coast customs tried to pimp the front end. It’s like designers at Mitsuoka got drunk and tried to replicate a 70s GMC van. The pop top version also seems to have gained like 6 inches of front overhang vs the original. Cool interior, but damn this thing needs a nose job.
It does look pretty bad. But at roughly 30k cheaper than an ID.Buzz, and honestly not that much shorter range…
Eh but like he said, cars are cheaper in China so the cost comparison is apples to bananas. And I’d rather get an old Sienna and pay to have a pop top added than to ever have to look at that thing.
I was just trying to compare electric van to electric van. But yes, in general I’d rather just have an ICE or hybrid van over something like this.
Yeah but the price disparity between anything made in China vs anything not makes that a not very direct comparison. There really is no apt comparison to this outside of China which makes it hard to know what to expect from it. If they tried to sell it in the US, it would start at $70k after tariffs, so then it’s more expensive than a Buzz, though the buzz isn’t a camper so even that’s not relevant. When looking at Chinese cars I feel like the price just ends up being a red herring because it just doesn’t make sense against anything else.
Oh and I understand that too, this isn’t exactly a foolproof analysis of the products lol. I just want a 35k van. Really, any 35k van. And really, I just want to stick it to VW for pissing me off with how expensive the ID.Buzz is.
Yeah no kidding. My current Sienna is getting old, and I would love a new one, but I can’t find a new one that’s not close to $50k and it’s just not worth that to me!
That figure is no doubt CLTC. EPA range would be more like 150.
Oh I’m sure the actual range is pretty shit. But even then the ID.Buzz range also sucks for anything that isn’t around town duty.
This was more meant to be a shot at the ID.Buzz than it was an endorsement of Rectangle McRectangle face.
The front end makes it look like it’s about to come to life in a “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” kind of way, which I don’t think is a compliment.
I think it’s refreshing.
As opposed to the IDBuzz’ corporate VW face.
The styling is horrible on these things. The wheels/tires look tiny, the front looks unfinished, the back (while styled better than the front) doesn’t match the front at all. What’s going on. It literally looks like someone asked AI to design a camper van, and only trained the AI on campers and vans separately; showing it modern vans and campers from before the ’80s.
Honestly I like how it looks a lot more compared to all the angry looking trucks I see on the road these days.
This thing doesn’t look angry at all… it looks happy.
And I like that.
I’ll give you that, but the vans don’t often look angry, so while that’s a plus when compared to trucks, it’s still ugly compared to vans.