General Motors continues its push toward electrification, and it might take out a few Buick dealerships on its way.
Duncan Aldred, global vice president of Buick and GMC, revealed to the Wall Street Journal this week that all of the 1900-plus Buick dealerships in the U.S. will be given buyout offers to those who don't want to be a part of the brand's shift to selling only electric vehicles. Buick is requiring its dealers to invest in charging stations and other store upgrades as part of this change.
"Not everyone necessarily wants to make [the electric] journey, depending on where they're located or the level of expenditure that the transition will demand," Aldred told the Journal. "So if they want to exit the Buick franchise, then we will give them monetary assistance to do so."
While Buick isn't yet selling any all-electric models, the first Buick EV will be the Electra. The second and third and, well, all the rest will, too. Buick has announced that all of its EVs will carry the Electra name. The first Buick Electra should go into production in 2024 as a 2025 model. All new Buicks sold in the U.S. and Canada after that date will not only be electric, but the brand will exclusively sell SUVs in the future.
We don't know many details about the first Buick Electra, but since we expect it will use a GM Ultium battery pack with about 100.0 kWh of capacity, that should be good for 300 or more miles of range. The Electra will be revealed sometime in 2023, and we expect it will start at around $50,000.
Most of the Buick dealers in the U.S. also sell GMC models. According to Automotive News, there were only around a dozen stand-alone Buick dealerships, so taking a buyout would most likely keep the dealership in the GM family.
In 2020, GM offered buyouts to Cadillac dealers that didn't want to spend the $150,000 to $200,000 that GM was requiring to update the dealerships for Cadillac's first EV, the Lyriq, which is due next year. Around 175 Cadillac dealers took the buyouts, which were worth between $300,000 and $500,000, according to Automotive News.