- GM and its Chinese partner Shanghai Auto collaborate on the design of a small plug-in hybrid crossover for the Buick brand.
- The Envision concept was developed at the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC).
- The production version likely will share underbody components with the Chevrolet Captiva.
SHANGHAI, China — General Motors and its Chinese partner Shanghai Auto are collaborating on the design and development of the Buick Envision, a compact plug-in hybrid crossover that is earmarked primarily for China, but may also be sold in North America and other global markets.
GM released a teaser image of the Envision on Wednesday and said the vehicle is being developed at the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), which is jointly owned and operated by GM and Shanghai Auto.
GM said the Envision concept will feature a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but provided no other details ahead of the vehicle's debut in mid-April at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show.
The Envision is expected to share its basic architecture with the Chevrolet Captiva and the Daewoo Winstorm. The Captiva, like the Winstorm, was developed initially in Korea and now is built and sold around the world. A version of the Captiva will go into production later this year in Mexico and will be sold in the U.S. as a 2012 model, primarily to fleet customers.
Another Winstorm derivative, the Saturn Vue, went out of production in 2009 when GM discontinued the Saturn brand. Before then, GM had been working on a plug-in hybrid version of the Vue, based on the automaker's two-mode hybrid system. But the proposed Vue Green Line plug-in hybrid, originally planned as a 2010 model, never made it to production.
After GM folded Saturn in 2009, it announced that the Vue Green Line plug-in hybrid would get a new face and carry the Buick badge, but an outpouring of criticism, mainly from consumers, quickly scotched the plan.
The Buick brand continues to enjoy considerable success and popularity among Chinese car buyers, prompting GM to launch such products as the Regal and the upcoming 2012 Verano months ahead of their U.S. introduction.
GM sold 550,000 Buicks in China last year, compared with 155,000 in the U.S.
In China, the production version of the Buick Envision will be slotted in size and price below the locally designed and built Buick GL8 minivan and the imported Buick Enclave crossover.
Inside Line says: Another future Buick is designed by the Chinese for the Chinese. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
mklrivowner says:
09:41 AM, 04/01/2011
@mardani -
GM IS listening. And unfortunately, everyone ...errr, most everyone, mostly the people who can't get over the fact that YES GM FORD and CHRYSLER have CHANGED THEIR GAME!!!... is screaming "American vehicles are crap-on-wheels and we'll never buy it". So why should any one of them release these vehicles for the NA consumer market?
I agree, they ought to bring them over, and I also LOVE seeing the new products the Big Three keep releasing as of late. But most people I hear comments from simply reiterate the "I hate old GM, so I hate new GM" mantra over and over. Give this one a little Euro-style tweak and *boom* instant hit as a Range-Extended Hybrid or with a small efficient gas engine.
mardani977 says:
09:20 AM, 04/01/2011
GM ARE YOU LISTENING?!?!?!
First of all, you should have learned by now american's like the more stylish products you design for other markets. I thought you guys figured that out with tweaking Opels and making them Buicks. Not knowing whether or not it would come to Buick's home market; where a vehicle like that, with the right styling and obviously priced far below the Lexus RX Hybrid would be a sucess, and offer Buick some bragging rights while making it more of a competitor overall. Of coarse if you guys learned from past mistakes you would not be afraid of making the sexy 2 door Cadillac version of the Volt and selling it for in the 45-50k range, all while looking so much more exciting than those $40K loaded priuses, and all those new Lexus Hybrids that look like barely dressed up Corollas and Matrixes.
In addition to bringing it here in the first place, the front end is too plain Jane, it needs headlights that do not look like they come from the cheaper captiva and deceased vue, and didn't Buick have a minivan with that grill a few years back, sistered with the Montana and Uplander? Even the Rendevous had a better looking grille!
And considering all those people I still see driving Rendevous, there might be more than a few that would appreciate a smaller than enclave crossover from Buick, especially if it gets the great mileage a plug in hybrid should, and it would set it further apart from its corporate cousins from Chevy and GMC which would allow it to command more $ while stealing sales from Lexus instead of other GM divisions.
higcorners says:
08:29 AM, 04/01/2011
Cheap looking front.
ms_3 says:
02:19 PM, 03/31/2011
Buick's back bitches! Love it
icecubefosho says:
11:37 AM, 03/31/2011
Rear looks like a copy of the Infiniti Essence/Etherea