BAIC Off-Road dressed the BJ40 as a Qing prince at the Forbidden City. It backfired.

On the evening of December 15, 2025, BAIC Off-Road's official Weibo account posted a launch poster for the BJ40 extended-range SUV: 'When Lord BJ4 meets the Forbidden City's first snow.' The image showed a model in Qing-dynasty court robes and a long queue standing beside the vehicle in front of the palace's red walls and yellow tiles, with the line 'This is our home turf — Lord BJ4 arrives' — a pun on the model number BJ40 and 'Si Ye', the title of an imperial prince.

The backlash was immediate. Critics read a car posing inside the Forbidden City as an echo of the 2020 'Mercedes G in the Forbidden City' scandal — a symbol of privilege at the country's most sensitive heritage site — and the imperial-court styling as nostalgia for rank and hierarchy. Buyers asked online whether purchasing the SUV came with a queue. Customer service told reporters it knew nothing about the campaign and could not reach the team responsible.

At 15:05 on December 16 the post was quietly deleted. No apology followed. The stumble landed at the brand's commercial peak: November 2025 sales had just set a record of 22,427 vehicles, the eighth straight month above 10,000, with cumulative sales of 135,000 — proof that the product was working while the brand's storytelling had fallen behind it.