We have been critical of the clones produced by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. (BAIC for short) such as its Mercedes B-Class doppelganger called the BC301Z, but the Saab 9-3 sedan pictured above is actually legit.

You see, GM sold the intellectual rights for Saab's older generation 9-5 and 9-3s along with select powertrain technology and tooling equipment to China's BAIC for US$200 million back in 2009, when it still owned the Swedish carmaker.

BAIC's subsidiary Beijing Auto Works (BAW) had previewed its own versions of the Saab 9-3 and 9-5 sedans with two separate concepts called the C60 and C71 respectively, during the 2010 Beijing Auto Show.

For its next move, BAIC is finishing work on a pure-electric model based on the Saab 9-3. Codenamed the Q60FB-C1, it will likely make its first public outing at the upcoming 2012 Beijing Auto Show in April.

The upcoming Beijing Auto Show in April will see another round of Chinese clones of familiar Western models including a Mercedes-Benz G-Class doppelganger crafted by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., which most people know as Beiqi or by the acronym BAIC.

It is believed that BAIC's new G-Class inspired model that goes under the uninspired name B80VJ, will be displayed as a thinly disguised concept at the Beijing Auto Show with the production model to follow shortly after.

And if you're not convinced about the resemblance between the G-Class and the B80VJ from the drawings or the single rendering, a spy picture of BAIC's 4x4 loaded on a truck bed leaves no doubts about where BAIC received its inspiration from.

What strikes us as the most remarkable thing in this matter is that BAIC is Mercedes-Benz's partner in China producing the German firm's models for the local market!