BAIC BluePark's Dilemma in Turning Things Around
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Author | Wang Xiaojuan
Editor | Zhou Zhiyu
BAIC BluePark's 2025 report card presents a complex picture of “coexisting growth and losses.”
On January 19, BAIC BluePark announced an earnings pre-loss notice, showing an estimated net loss attributable to shareholders of between 4.35 billion and 4.65 billion yuan for 2025. Although the loss has significantly narrowed from 6.948 billion yuan in 2024, it remains high.
BAIC BluePark stated, “As the new product matrix is launched according to plan and cost-reduction and efficiency measures are further implemented, the company's profitability is expected to improve further.”
What is thought-provoking is that in the same year, BAIC BluePark sold 209,600 vehicles, an 84.06% increase year-on-year. Despite nearly doubling sales, it is still difficult for BAIC BluePark to deliver an attractive financial report. The company also admitted in the announcement that “scale effects have not yet been fully realized.” The subtext behind this statement is: growth in sales has not translated into improved profitability.
However, losses at BAIC BluePark are nothing new. Looking at its recent financial reports from 2020 to 2024, the company had net losses of 6.482 billion, 5.244 billion, 5.465 billion, 5.4 billion, and 6.948 billion yuan respectively.
The root of the paradox of sales growth yet continued losses is that the increase in sales is built on massive strategic investments, but the overall effect of scale has yet to arrive.
First, to promote high-end transformation and the new car cycle, BAIC BluePark’s R&D expenses have surged. In the first three quarters of 2025, R&D expenses were 1.573 billion yuan, up 43.26% from 1.098 billion yuan in the previous year during the same period. The company previously made it clear that ongoing increases in R&D investment and rapid expansion of sales channels are the main reasons affecting short-term performance.
Second, the “basic foundation” it previously relied on for survival is being overturned. The EU series, focused on the B-end market, once contributed 70%-80% of company sales, but also solidified its low-end, ride-hailing car brand image.
Now, the company is betting fully on the two medium-to-high-end brands, Arcfox and Jiuxiang.
But this new-old transition is far from being accomplished overnight. When sales of Arcfox and Jiuxiang have not yet fully filled the volume gap of the former mainstream, high investment in “new cars” has already begun, while the “old cars” that contributed profits have slowed down. This has led directly to the awkward status of “scale effects not yet fully shown.”
Currently, the two main points of interest for BAIC BluePark are its cooperation with Huawei and its receipt of the first batch of L3-level conditional autonomous driving entry approvals.
Huawei’s empowerment has yielded immediate results. The high-end brand “Jiuxiang,” jointly launched by the two, is becoming a new growth engine.
According to BAIC BluePark’s 2025 half-year financial report, the Jiuxiang S9 equipped with Huawei's latest intelligent technology successfully raised the company’s average price per vehicle by 8,000 yuan. Market research shows that consumers now regard Jiuxiang as a high-end brand on par with Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi—a level BAIC BluePark never reached before.
More importantly, the partnership has gone beyond simple technology supply, entering the stage of a “strategic community.”
According to the company, both sides have jointly established the “Jiuxiang Brand Strategic Community,” with BAIC planning to invest 20 billion yuan in the next three years to set up dedicated business units, manufacturing and supply chain systems, and sales/service channels. Huawei, on its part, will tilt resources from deep product definition in R&D to the formation of dedicated marketing teams.
BAIC BluePark’s other focus is L3-level conditional autonomous driving.
In December 2025, BAIC BluePark’s Arcfox Alpha S (L3 version) received the first batch of L3 entry approvals issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other departments. This is undoubtedly a landmark technological achievement.
Obtaining this “birth certificate” carries huge symbolic significance. It means the company is at the forefront of commercial deployment of autonomous driving in China, which has immeasurable value for shaping Arcfox’s tech image and boosting market confidence. The company also plans to continue deploying L3 models in its mid-to-high-end brands.
However, there is still a huge gap between the symbolic “entry approval” and the creation of real commercial value via “large-scale popularization.”
Currently, L3's commercialization trial scope is strictly limited; it can only be used on specified expressways and urban express lanes in single-lane mode. Vehicles must still have safety drivers onboard and are not sold directly to private consumers. The core current value is tilted towards test commercial operations for travel service companies in designated regions.
Additionally, technical maturity and cost issues remain prominent. Existing L3 systems still need to improve complex road recognition and face challenges during adverse weather. High hardware cost (e.g., multiple LiDAR units) makes it difficult to apply on mainstream, high-volume models in the short term.
For now, BAIC BluePark's L3 layout is more like sowing a seed for the future, which requires ongoing R&D investment and a long period of market cultivation, with limited direct contribution to reversing the financial situation in the short term.
Although still in loss, compared to previous years, the increase in sales has brought more confidence from the outside world.
Qiu Bailing, an analyst at Shanghai Securities, pointed out in a recent research report that the dual brands Arcfox and Jiuxiang both hit monthly sales record highs in December 2025, and Arcfox S (L3 version) became one of the two first L3 autonomous driving models in China. In 2026, BAIC New Energy is expected to launch several new models, which bodes well for its sales and overall performance in 2026.
In summary, BAIC BluePark’s dilemma is a microcosm of the self-rescue efforts of the first generation of Chinese new energy vehicle firms amid the wave of industrial upgrade. What it faces is not just the challenge of returning to profitability but a profound “self-revolution” of reshaping its brand soul and rebuilding market recognition.
Currently, the “Huawei card” is undoubtedly a powerful ace, helping BAIC BluePark achieve a leap in brand recognition and a reshaping of core competitiveness in the shortest time. However, growth built on “blood transfusion” must eventually return to the test of the company’s own “hematopoietic” capacity.
The path ahead for BAIC BluePark is already clear: to make good use of the time window of empowerment by Huawei, quickly establish Jiuxiang as a solid high-end pillar, consolidate Arcfox’s position in the mainstream market, and eventually let scale effect become the cornerstone of offsetting costs and generating profits.
As for whether BAIC BluePark can win this comeback battle, the answer remains uncertain.
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