Nearly 50% Of All Buick's Dealerships Are Gone After Pushing Back Against Electric Cars
Last year, Buick announced that its lineup will be 100% electric by 2030. Naturally, that kind of overhaul would include sweeping changes to its dealership network. According to a report by CNBC, about half of Buick's 2,000 dealerships in the United States aren't happy with GM's push towards electric vehicles and have taken a buyout.
Time will tell whether or not Buick's commitment to go all-electric will result in the brand shooting itself in the foot. One may notice that as of now, at the end of 2023, Buick does not offer any electric cars in its lineup, with the entirety of Buick's footprint in the United States consisting of four SUVs. Only two of those SUVs, the 2024 Encore and the new 2024 Envista, even feature Buick's new branding or design language.
The upcoming launch of the Buick Electra line of EVs might help matters a little bit, but the brand has a significant amount of work to do before 2030.
What now?
Dealers that took the buyout will likely close or possibly transition to a different brand, one that doesn't require as much EV-centric infrastructure. CNBC notes that mostly smaller dealerships opted for the buyout. A larger dealer (likely one also connected to either a GMC or Chevrolet dealership) has a greater likelihood to afford the extra changes, whereas a store relying only on new Envista or Encore sales to keep them afloat can't play to GM's tune.
The dealers that stayed within the GM family are possibly going to see a host of changes in the coming years, notably the addition of EV chargers and equipment suited for replacing and repairing GM's Ultium EV architecture.
General Motors and the Buick brand have a very long and arduous road ahead if it wants to make the EV switch by the stated timeline. Automakers can just switch the entire lineup and expect dealerships to be happy investing massive amounts of time and cash for proposed future lineups that currently don't exist. Additionally, customers need to actually buy the vehicles in question. If the sad, recent state of Ultium sales is anything to go by, GM might need to go back to the drawing board.