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| Buick is preparing an all-electric SUV for the Chinese market. Photo: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst |
By Corazon Victorino, IBT
Buick has dropped an interesting teaser for its electric vehicle concept it is making for the Chinese market. The automaker did not reveal any information about the all-electric SUV, but it’s just one of the many EVs GM is launching in the next five years.
AutoBlog reported Monday that Buick is unveiling an electric concept car at an event it has scheduled to happen on April 17 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang in China. Ahead of the Buick Brand Night event, the company released a teaser image (found here) that only shows a portion of the EV’s back and Buick’s name badge.
Buick’s upcoming electric vehicle is called Enspire, and the company says it is going to leverage parent company GM’s global resources. This caused many car news sites to surmise that the Buick Enspire could be based on the Chevy Bolt platform. But then again Buick made it clear that Enspire is an exploration of design and new technologies, so consumers shouldn’t expect Enspire to look like the Chevy Bolt.
Buick also said its EV concept is “the brand’s latest example of innovation and application of future electric smart mobility.” It’s not clear yet as to what Buick is referring to in this statement, but the teaser image does hint at design cues that were never found on Buick’s existing cars. The vehicle in the teaser appears to have a rounded rear fascia.
GM has said that it is launching 20 new electric vehicles by 2023, and clearly Buick’s Enspire is one of them. The vehicle manufacturer is planning to initially release four EVs by 2020. It will the introduce a new EV platform in 2021 alongside 11 electric cars. The remainder will be released in the next two years. GM hopes that by 2026, it could already sell 1 million EVs on a yearly basis, as per MotorTrend.
Last year, Buick sold 1.2 million vehicles in China. This explains why its new EV concept is aimed at the Chinese market. It isn’t known if Buick is also planning to bring Enspire to the U.S. market. It’s worth noting that three years ago, Buick actually acquired a trademark for “Enspire” in its home country, as pointed out by GM Authority.
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