- Search Cartoons
- Comic Archive
-
Payne
Store
Henry Payne RSS
Payne: Ambitious, SUV-focused Buick is not your grandma’s doddering sedan brand anymore
Posted by Talbot Payne on July 12, 2023
Ann Arbor — As the poster child for General Motors Co.’s radical transition to an all-electric vehicle manufacturer by 2035, Cadillac will be all-EV by 2030. To that end, Caddy has redesigned its logo, updated its design language, unveiled the sport-utility Lyriq EV, and introduced a halo, custom-built, $300,000 Celestiq electric sedan to compete with Rolls Royce. Whew.
But another GM premium brand is undergoing a transformation that is just as ambitious.
While Cadillac still churns out sedans in an SUV-obsessed marketplace, Buick has remade itself as an all-SUV brand, one of the first premium marques to do so. On top of that, Buick has also reskinned its logo and design language in anticipation of going all-electric by 2030. But wait, there’s more.
With the stylish 2024 Envista, Buick is positioning itself as a value brand, conquesting entry-level buyers with a subcompact SUV that begins at just $23,495 — a staggering $18,000 below an entry-level BMW X1.
“Back in 2019, just under 50% of the market was vehicles priced under $30,000. Fast forward to 2022 and that number was 15%,” said Buick marketing chief Sam Russell at the Envista’s media test drive here. “In our estimation, you’ve left an enormous amount of orphans in the marketplace looking for great product. (Envista) not only meets their technology, styling, and quality demands, but also at a price point they can afford.”
The strategy gives Buick a white space opportunity as industry pricing has accelerated out of reach of many buyers. The industry has flooded the market with pricey EVs (including the $60k Lyriq) to meet government regulations — and expensive trucks and SUVs to pay for them.
“Buick is in a good price position right now as pricing becomes more of an issue in a slowing economy,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director for S&P Global Mobility.
That’s a lot to put on the plate of a Buick brand that was gasping for air just 15 years ago as GM slipped under the waves of bankruptcy. The brand was saved — not by its domestic offerings — by the Chinese market, where Buick was a Top 5 seller in the 2000s. Buick’s U.S. push comes as its Chinese sales were off 18.2% last year to 677,938 units (though in a sign of Chinese taste for SUVs, Envision SUV sales topped 100,000). The brand’s U.S. sales, by comparison, slid 42.4% to 103,519.
On the positive side, Buick sales surged 48% in the second quarter of this year.
To meet its ambitions, Buick brought over Cadillac designer Bob Boniface and went back to a mid-20th century playbook when it was a cutting-edge brand.
“Buick was the first GM brand to build a concept car when Harley Earl introduced the 1938 Y-Job Concept. That was followed by a series of Wildcat concepts starting in 1953,” said Boniface. “For this new generation of Buick, we designed another Wildcat, which takes design cutes from the original Wildcat concept: low grille, high lamps, tusk-like accents. The Envista is the first full expression of the modern Wildcat.”
Boniface circled the Envista, his head sweeping over the attractive, coupe-like hatchback. Simple but elegant, the roofline, said the designer, was a signature of the 2022 Wildcat concept. Including the 19-inch screen that stretches across the interior dash, the sum total is a Buick that is instantly different from its predecessors, yet as affordable as a Subaru Crosstrek.
Russell acknowledged that Envista could have been an opportunity to introduce Buick customers to an affordable, $20,000-something EV in a market where the average electric vehicle retails for three times that. But with so much on the brand’s plate, he said it’s important that the brand set priorities.
“You will find people who only think we build sedans. That transformation (to SUVs) is already hard to follow,” he said. “We’re making sure we’re introducing the brand to people at all pricing levels, and right now an EV would not have been something we would have been able to accomplish.”
There are only two EVs sold under $30k in today’s market — the Nissan Leaf and retiring Chevy Bolt — and neither is from a premium brand. Defying industry predictions that lithium-ion prices would plummet, the average battery pack increased by 7% this year — to $151/kwh.
With internal combustion engine premium subcompacts priced at about $40k (the best-selling German subcompact, Audi Q3, is $37,995), Russell’s team saw the opportunity for a $23k Envista.
It continues Buick’s trend as a segment-buster.
In 2013, Buick introduced the Encore, a tiny SUV so adorable and affordable it maintained a Top 3 sales position even as mainstream brands like Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet entered the segment. Combined with the Enclave in the large three-row segment, the Encore remade the octogenarian sedan brand as an SUV maker. The subcompact Encore GX — similarly-sized to Envista but with all-wheel-drive for northern climates — and compact Envision SUVs filled out the revamped lineup as Buick sedan staples like the Regal were put out to pasture.
The strategy has borne fruit with GM’s Global Brand Tracking Study, which showed just 7% of consumers in 2014 were considering Buick for their next vehicle. That figure improved to 11% in 2022.
“It has been a journey for the brand beginning in 2013 with Encore,” said Russell. “We saw the transition going on in the industry, and we were ahead of the curve” in going all-SUV.
We’ve become the first exclusive premium SUV brand in the market since 2021.”
Getting that message across to shoppers (trading in, say, a Regal sedan) is key in a landscape transformed — not just by SUVs — but by technology like big screens and electronics.
“The Envista is super attractive,” said auto analyst Brinley. “Its objective is to sell to SUV buyers and sedan buyers coming back into the market. It’s a blend of sedan and SUV.”
Built on the same chassis as the Chevy Trax — also remade for ‘24 with striking design — the vehicles share interior switchgear and drivetrains. But while Chevy kept the Trax name, Buick decided to give its entry-level ute a new name, Envista.
“This vehicle is such as departure from what the Encore was, that ultimately it deserved a new name,” Russell said. “A lot of equity of the Encore (badge) translates to Encore GX — naming (the Envista) the Encore would have undervalued its uniqueness. We much preferred that the customer would come in with a blank slate.”
Transitioning to an all-EV brand in just six years will bring more challenges.
General Motors, like other automakers, faces hundreds of millions of dollars in fines if it doesn’t hit government sales targets for EVs. Yet, Buick clearly sees the Envista’s market as ICE, and changing it to battery power in just six years would be a massive marketing and logistical undertaking.
“Consumers aren’t ready for the market to go all-electric,” said Brinley, noting that EV sales have stalled this year at about 7% market share, while EV inventories have stacked up on dealer lots. “Driving an EV requires a level of flexibly from customers, including having a house in which to charge. That’s why premium brands are going EV first because their customers are better able to absorb the cost.”
Buick customers, however, have an eye for luxury — but at an affordable price. Brinley said that means Envista and three-row Enclave buyers need the dexterity of gas-powered vehicles.
Buick’s first electric vehicle, the Electra — due for the 2025 model year — is an aspirational vehicle likely to be priced over $50,000. For now, Buick wants to fill showrooms with SUV buyers who may one day buy an EV.
“The Envista shows what we can offer at 23 grand and will keep customers in the brand as they go through different life stages,” said Russell. “So you can move up to an all-wheel-drive GX, larger Envision, or maybe your family got real big overnight and you need an Enclave.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.