Community Question: Should Buick Bring The LaCrosse Hybrid To The U.S. Market?
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For now, it seems Buick is keen on just offering the bread-and-butter, 3.6-liter LGX V6 engine for its flagship sedan. We poked around as best we could during our initial drive of the 2017 Buick LaCrosse, but we felt the temperament over additional powertrains relied on how the vehicle itself is received in the market.
In China, it’s a different story. Not only is Buick immensely more popular and sought after, but government incentives for green vehicles also mean these types of vehicles are tremendously more attainable, even if it is a big Buick sedan.
Yesterday, Buick China announced official pricing as it launches the 2017 LaCrosse Hybrid EV, but we’re here to ask if the brand should follow suit in the U.S. in today’s Community Question.
If Buick were to bring the LaCrosse Hybrid to the U.S., we could imagine the brand taking a cue from Cadillac and the upcoming CT6 PHEV. We can’t imagine a major demand for a LaCrosse Hybrid, but we can imagine Buick importing a handful from China to sell locally in the U.S.
If it does, consumers would be in for a luxurious and fuel efficient set of wheels. Converting metric measures over to U.S. units, the 2017 Buick LaCrosse Hybrid manages 50 miles per gallon with its 1.5-kWh high-performance lithium-ion battery unit. Whether the U.S. variant would receive the China-only 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine is anyone’s guess.
So, we turn it to you now. Should Buick bring the LaCrosse Hybrid to the U.S.? Or should it stick to sole engine offering? Vote below, and as always, do talk to us in the comment section.
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“In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory,” Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”
“Maintaining temperatures below the 1.5C guardrail requires significant and very rapid cuts in carbon dioxide emissions or co-ordinated geo-engineering. That is very unlikely. We are not even yet making emissions cuts commensurate with keeping warming below 2C.”
Schmidt repeated his previous prediction that there is a 99% chance that 2016 will be the warmest year on record, with around 20% of the heat attributed to a strong El Niño climatic event. Last year is currently the warmest year on record, itself beating a landmark set in 2014.
“It’s the long-term trend we have to worry about though and there’s no evidence it’s going away and lots of reasons to think it’s here to stay,” Schmidt said. “There’s no pause or hiatus in temperature increase. People who think this is over are viewing the world through rose-tinted spectacles. This is a chronic problem for society for the next 100 years.”
Schmidt is the highest-profile scientist to effectively write-off the 1.5C target, which was adopted at December’s UN summit after heavy lobbying from island nations that risk being inundated by rising seas if temperatures exceed this level. Recent research found that just five more years of carbon dioxide emissions at current levels will virtually wipe out any chance of restraining temperatures to a 1.5C increase and avoid runaway climate change.
LaCrosse in any form has little to do with whatever happens with the climate and temperatures, as long as, for example, a lot of people drive many L V8 pickup trucks as their everyday vehicles.
Hybrid LaCrosse should be a nice vehicle for sure, if its trunk is not that much smaller than that of a regular V6 version, because smaller trunk, in general, greatly compromises any family sedan usability beyond grocery shopping – say, going on a long road trips with lots of stuff, or transporting some furniture with rear seats being folded down.
H**l yes
I currently have a 2011 Regal Turbo and I’d be very interested in the LaCrosse Hybrid and it’s upcoming Regal/Insignia analogue.
I think yes. I’ve seen a lot of take rates for the hybrid Avalon/ES in my streets but then again it’s pretty much old people
So you’d rather make me go buy a Hyundai Hybrid rather than sell me a Buick Hybrid. I’m not sure what your holdup is. Some people will buy the hybrid regardless of gasoline prices. I’m going to buy a car that gets me 40+ MPG whether the price of gas is under $2/gallon or over $4/gallon. Hyundai Hybrid’s will be available in April, you have until then to make the LaCrosse available or you lose 1 sale. I’d guess there are others that would choose Buick over Hyundai if available. I guess it’s a matter of what you want with your sales department.