GM’s Buick subsidiary reportedly green-lit a new crossover.
Buick may be on the verge of a design renaissance. At least, that’s what Executive Design Director Helen Emsley implied to Car Design News. “For awhile we’ve been trying to reinvent Buick and find out what it is,” she said.
As GM jettisoned its Opel and Vauxhall brands, it left an important question in the air. What would happen to future Buicks? Several key models, from the Regal to the Encore, are based on Opel platforms. Now, free from European design pressures, it’s up to American designers to carve out a new identity for the brand. That is what it has been reportedly doing, and there will soon be a new addition to the brand’s lineup.
While Car Design News had access to GM’s Warren, Michigan design studio, it did not publish exactly what’s cooking for the future. The general consensus leans toward the Ensire concept, which Buick showed in Beijing last year. Bob Boniface, Buick’s global director of exterior design, said this new crossover would come “in addition to, and not a replacement of” anything in current production. We expect GM to tone down any production model quite a bit from this concept, though. Even then, this looks like a styling winner for the brand.
More info to come
Size-wise, the Enspire concept looks somewhere between an Envision and Enclave. However, that does not mean this is where an impending Buick crossover would end up. Whether this electric concept will remain an electric vehicle in production is also a question mark. In order to stem its flagging sales, Buick may make this a more traditional crossover to attract a wider audience.
Buick is still mum on its design language, so a new model may look different from the Enspire, too. We’ll have to wait and see when the company officially announces its new model. Still, this may be just what the doctor ordered to give Buick a distinct identity from the rest of GM’s brands.
