The Jeep Cherokee XJ Lives on as a Pickup With a Mitsubishi 4G63T in China

China's car industry is a mix of copying, Frankenstein engineering, and originality that boggles the mind. They build everything from a chibi Toyota Tundra with an Isuzu engine to a fake C1 Chevy Corvette that's also a plug-in hybrid. It may come as no surprise, then, that China is still building a derivative of the Jeep Cherokee (XJ) as a military vehicle. But what you wouldn't expect is that it's powered by one of the greatest tuner engines ever, the Mitsubishi 4G63T. And as you'd expect, its origin story is a rollercoaster ride.

Telling it requires turning the clock all the way back to 1984, when Jeep's owner AMC became the first western carmaker to establish production in China. Under government-mandated joint venture Beijing Jeep, it cranked out a combo of Russian UAZ-based off-roaders and license-built XJ Cherokees for the Chinese market. When Jeep was bought by Chrysler—then in its Diamond Star Motors era—it became a cousin of Mitsubishi, which lent it the 2.4-liter 4G64, setting the stage for what's to come.

China produced the XJ almost unchanged until the mid-2000s, before adapting it into the Jeep 2500, 2700, and later BAW Qishi, which stuck around until 2014. Around this time, Beijing Auto Works (as it was now called) was developing a new military vehicle with the help of Chrysler: the BJ2022.

When I say "new," I use that term loosely: It was based on the XJ, but with a slightly larger body and an added inch to the wheelbase. BAW also switched its front suspension from multilink to a choice of MacPherson strut or leaf springs. As before, the rear is a leaf-sprung solid axle.

First built in 2005, the XJ-derived BJ2022 would outlast the Cherokee, and remains in production today. Like China's Hummer H1 clone, it too spawned a civilian version, the Yongshi (or Warrior). Introduced in 2017 or so, it has been produced in a variety of body styles, from single-cab pickups to four-door SUVs, and with a variety of engines. While military models are said to use Isuzu and Nissan diesels among other motors, the civilian version is said by Chinamobil.ru to employ a series of Mitsubishi engines. And one of them is a 4G63T.