Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Tianye Auto

Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™): Tianye Auto, a brand owned by the Baoding Automobile Factory. They were based in the great city of Baoding in Hebei Province. In the 1980’s and 1990’s they made a series of great looking pickup trucks and SUVs.

The company was born in 1949 as the Baoding Automobile Repair Shop. In the early 1970’s they started to make a local variant of the BJ130 light truck. In 1985 the company’s name was changed into Baoding Automobile Factory, and they started selling cars under the Tianye brand. In 1988 the started to make a small pickup truck based on the BAW BJ212.

In 1992 the company’s name changed once more; to Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Manufacturing, still using the Tianye brand.

Between 1992 and 1996 times were very good, and in 1997 the company decided to invest 500 million yuan to build a large factory with a capacity of 50.000 cars a year. They launched lots of different cars, and many more variants of those cars.

Hebei Zhongxing also tried to make a deal with Toyota to make the Hilux pickup truck in China. The deal fell through when parties couldn’t agree on the brand name: Toyota insisted it should be Toyota, while Hebei Zhongxing wanted it to be Tianye. The Japanese said ‘no’. Unfazed, Hebei Zhongxing decided to copy the Hilux instead, using molds imported from Taiwan.

Sadly, sales of the Tianye brand were not as good as expected, and loans obtained for the investment proved to be too much of a burden. The company was running out of cash in the late 1990’s.

The local government tried to arrange a merger between Hebei Zhongxing and Great Wall Motors, also based in Baoding. But the bosses of state-owned Hebei Zhongxing stubbornly refused to work with privately owned Great Wall.

So the deal was off, and the company continued its road to bankruptcy. Desperate, the local government looked abroad, trying to reach joint venture deals with Subaru and with Fiat, but it all didn’t happen.

In 1999 the company was near-dead, using only 10% of its production capacity. But just when times were worst rescue came. The savior was Brilliance Automobile, at the time a large van-maker from the northeast.

Brilliance bought a 60% stake in Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Manufacturing, and the company was renamed Zhongxing Automobile, using the abbreviation ZTE.  They started selling cars under the Zhongxing brand, and at this moment in time the Tianye brand disappeared.

We will get back to the many adventures of Zhongxing in a later article. For now, on to the Tianye cars:

Tianye used two logo’s: a badge with a mirrored Z, and a badge with the word Tianye in Chinese handwriting. In addition to that, many cars also had a badge with the word ‘Tianye’ in Latin script.

In typical style of the times the badges were used without much of a system. Some cars only had the logo, some had the logo and the badge, and others had the logo and the English name. Later on, the mirrored Z logo became the badge of the Zhongxing brand.

There are so many cars to show that I thought it wise to divide them into two categories: pickup trucks and SUVs. I will show them in time-line, the oldest first. Starting with the pickup trucks:

This is the Tianye BQ123 (same pic as atop. ), a very square shaped four-door pickup truck with round head lights. It was based, like so many of these old pickup trucks, on the BAW BJ212. It has a single fog light on the bumper, the Z logo and the Latin-Tianye badge on the grille, tiny black mirrors, and beautiful shiny wheel covers.

The BQ123 was powered by a locally made BQ492 petrol engine, licensed from Beijing Auto Works. Output was rated at 70 hp, and it was rear-wheel drive. The rear bench was big enough for three people, making the BQ123 a five-seater. Size: 4800/1800/1810, and wheelbase was 2800.

This is the BQ123A, a slightly modernized variant of the BQ123.

The Tianye BQ103o, a somewhat more upmarket variant of the BQ123. Same engine, same size.

The Tianye BQ1030 received a major update in the mid-1990’s. The front got a makeover, there are sporty stripes over the sides, and Tianye introduced a new very classy kind of wheel cover. Engine however was unchanged, still the BQ492, still rated at 70 hp.

Another updated BQ1030, this one without the stripes and with another kind of wheels.

The BQ1031 was based on the BQ1020, but it had far mode modern looks. Another front once more, and the cabin and fenders changed too.

Oddly; it was not an update, it was an additional model It was sold at the very same time as the BQ1030, although that one looks much older. I got both images from the front of the same Tianye sales brochure!

The Tianye BQ1020A is the Toyota Hilux copy. It sure does look like a Hilux, and Tianye dressed it up with a power bulge on the bonnet, bright paint, speedy stickers, and chromed mirrors. There is a ‘Tianye’ badge on the grille.

Another example of the BQ1020A with very classy wheels, and a small bull bar in front of the bumper. The BQ1020 was powered by a HY482Q four-cylinder petrol engine, sourced from a company called Hunan Huayu Engine Manufacturing. This engine had an output of 62 hp and 135 Nm. It was mated to a 5-speed manual, sending horses to the rear wheels.

Size: 4733/ 1691/1558, and wheelbase 2850.

Note the factory gate in the background. The characters read ‘Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Manufacturing’.

The BQ1020D was the two-door variant. The two-door was available with two engines: the HY482Q, and with the famous First Auto Works (FAW) CA488 2.2 liter petrol engine. This engine was a rebadged Chrysler K-platform unit.

FAW bought the rights, tooling, and production line for this engine from Chrysler in a 1987 deal. FAW used the engine for many of their own cars, including Hongqi limousines, and they sold the engine to zillions of small Chinese automakers, including Tianye.

In the BQ1020D the CA488 delivered 87 hp and 157 Nm. It was mated to a five-speed manual. I am not sure why only the two-door got this engine, and not the four-door, but that is what Tianye did…

And those were the Tianye pickup trucks. Now we take a step back in time to have a look at the wagons:

The BQ523A was the first Tianye SUV, based on the same platform as the BQ123 pickup truck, and it had the same engine under the bonnet. The mirrors are so tiny that I wonder whether they had any use at all.

It is a nice looking car, with a basic and clean design, and a standard high roof.

The Tianye BQ6470 was the SUV variant of the BQ1030. It is very close to the BQ523A, but it came with a two-tone paint job.

This red beauty is the next BQ6470, and the SUV variant of the BQ1031. The wagon-style SUV design is typical for the time, many other small Chinese car makers made similar cars. The tiny mirrors are mounted on the door, while there seems to be a space for the mirror just behind the A-pillar.

The BQ6470A was a more upmarket variant of the BQ6470, with a lower ride height. The BQ6470 was rated as a seven-seater. There were two small seats in the rear compartment.

The next SUV is the BQ5020, the SUV version of Tianye’s BQ1020 Hilux copy. They didn’t just add a simple roof over the bed, it was a new design from the A-pillar onward. Note especially the sharply shaped ‘extra’ side window in the passenger door. There were literally a dozen of variants. The ambulance variant on the photo was called the BQ5020XCQ.

Another variant, called the BQ5020XYZ. Tianye badge in the middle of the grille. The BQ5020 was powered by a CA488 engine, the HY482Q was not available in any version. Size: 4670/1675/1592, wheelbase 2850.

The Tianye BQ641 was based on the BQ5020. Again, there were many variants. This base-civilian version was called the BQ6471A.

There were four petrol engines available for the BQ641 range: we already know the first two: the HY482Q and the CA488. The third engine was called the Beinei 489Q, made by the Beinei Engine Factory in Beijing. It was a 2.0, delivering 83 hp and 148 Nm. Finally, the fourth engine was the 491 Q2, a variant of the old BAW engine, manufactured by the Shenyang Engine Factory. It was a 2.1 liter unit, good for 71 hp and 150 Nm.

One might wonder why Tianye would offer so many similar engines. The answer is: they all did, and many Chinese automakers continue this practice until today; offering a 150 hp 1.5 turbo and a 160 hp 1.6, and such and so on.

The Tianye BQ6471G was a variant with a high roof. I really like that Tianye designed a sticker especially for the top part.

And this beauty is the BQ6471C, a high end version with a bull bar and the classy wheels. The odd side window seems missing here, but I guess they blurred it out for the press photo! Characters on the license plate read ‘Tianye Auto’. This variant was only available with the CA488, which appears to have been Tianye’s high-end offering.

After the Tianye brand disappeared the BQ6471C continued as the first Zhongxing-branded SUV. But it was not the last Tianye.

This is yet another Tianye BQ6470A. It has a very modern and streamlined front, and it looks more luxurious then any other Tianye.

The Tianye BQ6470A was a seven-seat rear-wheel drive car, powered by a 2.0 liter petrol engine called 486Q2. Sadly I don’t know the output, but I do know that top speed was 115 km/h. Size: 4760/1750/1700, wheelbase 2750.

The BQ6470Y was a far more basic version of the BQ6470A, with a different nose. It was a little bit biggger: 4680/1800/1875, wheelbase 2750. The engine was a large 2.5 liter 492QA-2, good for 76 hp and 171 Nm. Top speed was just 98 kilometers per hour. Interestingly, the BQ6470Y was rated as an eight-seater!

The Tianye BQ6420 is a very interesting car. It looks like a Toyota Land Cruiser J80. The J80 has a very complicated history in China. There was official import, gray import, smuggle, official CKD-production, non-official CKD-production, and whatnot more.

But there were also numerous copies; bad ones, good ones, and some so good that they were closer to a clone than a copy. The BQ6420 appears to be a copy, without any input by Toyota. According to my catalogue, it was actually based on the very same platform as the BQ6470Y above.

Size: 4200/1800/1873, and wheelbase was 2750, which is indeed exactly the same as the BQ6470Y. Engine too was the same; the 492QA-2, with the same output and the same 98 km/h top speed. It too had eight seats.

The BQ6440 was a small minivan, looking very much like the Toyota LiteAce. The LiteAce has a similar history as the Land Cruiser J80; all sorts of production deals, official sales, smuggle, and many many copies. The BQ6440 was one of the latter.

Amazingly, it was based on the BJ2020 platform. The BJ2020 was a 4×4 off-roader, one of the many successors of the BJ212. Even weirder, the BJ2020 wasn’t made by BAW, but by the Beijing-Jeep (BJC) joint venture! The BJ2020 was basically an upgraded variant of the BJ212.

Over the years, Chinese carmakers have used the BJ212/2020 platform for dozens of different cars, including buses, trucks, and minivans. Funnily, the BJ2020 platform was 4×4 only.

And guess what..? The BQ6440 is indeed a 4×4! Power comes from the BAW 492QA engine, the same unit that powered the BJ2020. Output was 77 hp and 173 Nm, good for a 98 km/h top speed. Not a fast van this was… Size: 4500/1800/2040, and wheelbase was 2300.

And with that I end this story because there are no more Tianye cars. I will get back to Zhongxing soon, but it might take a while, because they made even more cars and endlessly more variants.

In anyway, see you soon.

Sources: photos and specifications: period books, brochures, and catalogues. History: Autohome, Hexun.