GM will offer buyouts to operators of Buick storefronts that do not want to make the required investments to equip their dealerships with vehicle chargers and other equipment necessary to sell the brand’s upcoming EV models.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Buick brand boss Duncan Aldred said the buyouts will be extended to all 2,000 of its U.S. franchised dealerships, although he declined to say how many he thought would accept the offer.
GM offered similar buyouts to its franchised Cadillac dealers in 2020 as it prepared for the arrival of the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, which brought its U.S. store count from 900 down to about 565. The automaker had previously told these dealers a six-figure investment would be required to prep for the arrival of new EV products, supporting the installation of new maintenance facility tooling and EV charging stations, as well as employee training. The majority of dealers that accepted the buyout were located in rural areas where EVs will likely remain unviable, or in markets where eco-friendly vehicles are simply unpopular.
“Not everyone necessarily wants to make that journey, depending on where they’re located or the level of expenditure that the transition will demand,” Aldred told WSJ. “So if they want to exit the Buick franchise, then we will give them monetary assistance to do so.”
While Buick does not currently sell any battery-electric models in the United States, the premium brand has EVs in development. It will introduce its first production EV in 2024, which will kick off a slow transition to an all-electric model portfolio that will be complete by 2030. The first Buick EV, which will receive the ‘Electra’ moniker, is expected to be a small crossover of some type. Future Buick EVs will tap GM’s Ultium modular battery design and Ultium Drive electric motors.
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Comments
It seems pretty silly for a Buick dealer to not want to take the payout and switch to a brand that people might actually buy.
I guess we’ll see.
Maybe their holding out for GM’s next bankruptcy, which a this rate is inevitable. Is GM planning on another government bailout? At this rate I hope most of these big work companies go bankrupt just out of spite. They’re terrible.
Taxpayers will bailout out and fund this FORCED switch the EV junk one way or another. Bailing out “American” auto companies again, the inevitable “cash for ICE” program (the used auto market NEVER recovered from cash for clunkers), and the untold tax dollars going to try to fund the infrastructure change over.
The REAL problems are going to be the sheer amount of natural resources that will need to be found and extracted, the complete reorganization of the world’s supply chains to more regional based chains, and the lack of investor money to do it all as the Boomers liquidate and use up their wealth while the populations of most industrialized countries shrink.
The Detroit automaker said Tuesday that it made $10.02 billion for the full year. And it predicted record pretax earnings in 2022 of $13 billion to $15 billion and net income of $9.4 billion to $10.8 billion. Usnews
Cool story bro…. Keep selling it. Fact is that is “net” not gross. Top years for GM revenue was 2011-2015….. low gas truck years 😇 2020&2021 shows revenues down 30% from those years, but the same “net” income. Yeah it’s easy to post a profit when you ferlough half your workforce and sell off all your inventory. In the business world that called a going out of business sale. GM has to reinvest a $$$$ ton of money into restocking, so those number will not be possible next year period, and EV’s have a way lower profit margin and GM is planning on selling fewer vehicles by the looks of it.
There is only 1 way those numbers make sense. GM is exspecting 30-40% inflation over the next 3 years, which is BTW, the same rate from 2011-2022. So their “record” profits of 10million is equivalent to 7million in 2011 when their net was 9.8 million. BILD BAK BETER is the death sentence of manufacturing
Not from EV’s. GM will lose millions of customers
Why? Are not most Buick-aged owners are already driving electric golf carts in their communities.
Is this all that GM Authority is, a bunch of insults and negative opinions, rather than news of GM’s brands and excitement over their present and future vehicles?
They are getting rid of everything exciting and making more and more CUV’s for old women and going all EV. The Camaro is dead. V8’s are all but dead. Other than the C8 Z06 which is way overpriced with absurd dealer markups and the fact that GM is only going to make roughly 10% of the orders, there is nothing to be excited about for GM’s future. Especially if you are a car enthusiast.
John: Have you driven an EV? I’m just curious. If yes, what did you drive? If not, then maybe you will have some type of change of heart about this after you drive one.
Some of what you say I do agree with. But assuming that EV’s are not fun or exciting is absolutely wrong.
EVs can be quite fast and fun to drive. But, some need to add an aftermarket loud exhaust, so maybe that is part of it.
I won’t go electric until long after the infrastructure is there to support it, and I can go 500 highway miles on a charge. As I am elderly and not in great health, I likely won’t live to see it.
Only a childish fool wants their car to sound loud.
But, we’ve got so many of those out there…
Only a bigger fool makes statements as such.
Exactly my point. A variation on that theme are those who take the silencer devices or whatever they are off of their turbocharged engines so the rest of us can hear the scream when they climb on the accelerator. That seems to be a Ram Diesel thing.
Oooh! I’m sooo impressed!
@The Gentle Grizzly
As far as Infrastructure goes you can go BEV right now if you want, it will just have to be a Tesla though. Zero problems finding Tesla Chargers.
But yes for overall adoption I agree with you that in this Country we are faaaaaaaar behind Charging Infrastructure. Far behind!!!
Which is probably why getting rid of the Chevy Volt was foolish. Plug-in hybrids are a good transitional vehicle to full electric. GM could have been there, but nooooo!
Lurch: Thank you. And I mean THANK YOU!!
The fact that Chevy had one of the best PHEV’s out there, spend so much bringing it out and then just drop it like a dead rat is stupid at best. The Voltech system should have been applied to small trucks, mid to small SUV/CUV’s and other cars. I can only wish that I could have a car like my Malibu with that same Voltech system that the Volt used. The reason I never purchased a Volt was 1. price and 2. lack of usable room. The Malibu as a PHEV would be perfect.
I would like to have seen the VOLT drivetrain put into the BOLT body. I need the headroom, and the center stack in the Bolt doesn’t get in my way. If they offered a hybrid Bolt I’d order one tomorrow.
EVs may be quick because of the instant torque but there is more to the discussion. Some of us enjoy the sound of an engine. The real engine sound not augmented sound through the stereo speakers. There still a lot of us who like cars to be simple and not techie. Some of us like the idea of refueling in minutes not an hour or hours in most cases. The problem with charging EVs at home has already started to surface. In California where they are pushing all EVs for awhile now they’re now asking people to use less electricity. So buy and EV but don’t charge it. What a mess they’ve created with this nonsense.
I will likely be purchasing my last two new GM vehicles just prior to the EV switch over. So I can drive ICE as long as possible. Then I will be in the business of supporting the remaining ICE vehicles still on the road.
Yes, the reporting is amongst the best but comment section is the worst!
So what you want is fans in an echo chamber?
No, what we might hope for are people who ARE fans of the particular brand, in this case, Buick, or can at least respect and be polite to others who are. Furthermore, readers here don’t have to like EVERYthing about a brand, but they should like SOMEthing about it. Buick has quality, reliability, and high rankings in JD Power and Consumer Reports surveys. If you don’t like Buick, never bought one, never will, then please spend your time with whatever brand you DO enjoy. Wouldn’t you rather be positive about a brand than always negative? Just don’t ruin it here for people who WANT to be here and WANT to be supportive of Buick. Buick will be changing in the next five years and I, for one, want to see their offerings. I plan on buying a new Buick during that time, though because their product plans haven’t been fully revealed, I don’t know exactly which model it will be.
Realistic would be helpful. Not a bunch of nimrods.
So Sad that here in Brazil we do not have the GM’s full LINE ….only Chevrolet ‘s products. We are tired of seeing the always-the-same-cars from BMW, Audi , Mercedes Benz . Buick, GMC and Cadillac , and why not Lincoln , for sure would have big success in our land.
Honestly, you have so many Chevrolet products I’d be interested in, and all we have are boring crossovers by comparison, I’d gladly trade you.
GMA is no longer taking about cool cars, big trucks and automotive tech. 90% of their content is now how you will drive EV’s and learn to like it you smelly peasant!, so yeah, the populace is rising up.
If I had to guess, Bezos called and told GMA if they want their domaine, get with the program.
Yes, insults and negativity has been the new norm for several years now. Wonder if electing a bombastic crook to leadour country in 2016 had anything to do with this.
If that were so, then, the comment section at Ford Authority would be just as bad. It isn’t. Nowhere near as much.
People read ford authority?????
Bob, I think you are on to something there.
Right! Why do people car if it’s a electric or gas? As long as you can charge up in 10 minutes who cares ! It’s cheaper to make electric cars and cheaper to own less maintenance, anyway and we have to change at some point it’s not being forced to you. What does one person do to any new car? Not much performance wise I don’t get all the hate. I’m a GM tech and I’m embracing the change most of my work involves electrical so no biggie for me. Everyone here acts like they rebuild engines for a living and will be out of a job
I’ve been in this business for a total of +/- 20 years now. We are heading into a new era of how you shop for vehicles and how you buy/lease (RENT) them. This transition has been taking place for about 5 years in full and brands like Volvo have been some of the leading ones. They call them subscription based services. What’s stopping all the brands from going to entirely online sales with places where you can go and look at products and test drive is the state laws pertaining to auto sales. But it’s going that direction and faster than many may think. Sadly, the days of going into an old style dealership, shaking the hand of your sales person and walking the inventory are almost over in most places. Now you go online, look at what interests you, set up an appointment with a product specialist (if you so desire) and then place your order/subscription if you want that vehicle. Don’t believe me? Just look at Tesla. In time, what dealerships are left now will become service only centers for the vehicles you order online.
Will the buickGMC dealers that opt out get to keep their GMC rights?
I was wondering about that too.
I would venture to say that the GMC brand probably carries these combined dealers.
How is GM “forcing” EVs on people? GM is taking the same gamble as Ford by betting the farm on an all-EV future. If the market does not take them up, then they switch back, or they persist on trying to sell something no one wants, and go out of business.
If you still want an ICE vehicle, there are Stelantis, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, VW, Mitsubishi, KIA, Hyundai, Jaguar, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, and others I can’t think of off the top of my head.
Grizzly: That’s not necessarily true. Stelantis and most of those other brands are all heading to pure EV soon too. I work at a Volvo store and they are certainly heading to all EV. Basically, by 2030 or shortly thereafter you will be hard pressed to be able to buy an ICE vehicle outside of heavy duty trucks and maybe a few large SUV’s.
GMC is under the Naz-I boot as well. Remember they are required to service hummer EV’s.
Apparently the answer to my question is “yes”
I can’t see a reason they wouldn’t. My local Buick GMC dealer stocked only a handful of Buicks at any given time, even when supplies of all brands were plentiful. I seriously doubt they’d miss having Buick.
If I was a Buick dealebeing bought out I would buy a Toyota Honda Hondi Kia dealer that still sells cars and if you look their sales are way up including a lot of sedans I drive a 2019 caddy XTS and love the car.looks like noore American car for me.
My brother is quite friendly with the sales manager of a GM store (Buick, Caddie, Chevy, GMC) in SoCal. GM has been shorting them on what stock is available, canceling orders on which deposits have been placed, and other monkeyshines. He’s not making a cent on new car sales.
They are giving serious thought to taking on Mitsubishi. Laugh all you want, but Mitz offers a line of cars well-suited to their marketing area: elderly who want a small grocery getter, and another crowd interested in hybrids but are sick of being [intercoursed] by the local Toyota store.
Everyone …… you watching the end of General Motors play out. Why? The electric infrastructure will “never” be able to handle the current needs, let along the extra load of millions of EV vehicles that this insane POTUS an other gov/entities are pushing. Makes with names like Toyota, Hyundai to mention two are laughing their arse off right now. But it isn’t just a GM crazy plan but Ford is right in step with them.
Electric infrastructure is expanding rapidly in the Midwest. Solar panel “farms” are popping up faster than corn in July. New long distance high voltage power lines being built also. President Biden”s infrastructure plan is a good idea and none to soon.
I wish that GM could purchase all the dealerships and just turn them into Service and delivery centers.
The Younger Generation wants absolutely NOTHING to do with purchasing a vehicle at a Dealership. This will only keep getting worse as the years go by. Startups have a leg up with the Younger Generations that is for sure.
I like that GM is trying its best to get as many dealerships out of their Network. I just fear it will not be enough and something will have to give in the Future.
I literally ordered my car on my iPhone in six minutes. When it arrived I signed everything in the car (It was placed in the car for me) and placed the folder through a slot at the store. They checked over everything and texted me a code to unlock my vehicle to be transferred over to me which would allow me to drive off. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. There is NO going back for some customers after experiencing something like that.
Also, I have only visited the service center once which turned out it was nothing but some debris that dried up and was stuck in my window track that I could not see and made a very minor noise. Took them 10 minutes but I did have to drive there. They could have done it at my house or office had I known what the noise actually was.
Other than that zero issues and they come to my house or office while I sit inside and the Tech performs my tire rotations. I don’t even see them to sign anything. All done on my App. My only maintenance is walking into Auto Zone and selecting Wiper Fluid.
Cannot wait for the Day GM offers me the same experience!!!
“The Younger Generation wants absolutely NOTHING to do with purchasing a vehicle at a Dealership.”
This old antique doesn’t want to do business with dealerships either.
I change vehicles fairly frequently, although my next one will likely be the last one. No matter how business-like things feel at a particular store, I can’t get past this feeling inside that I, somehow, got robbed.
I fight off the junk like nitrogen in the tires (many now are nitrogen fill at the factory), lug nut locks, a superficial wax job they call “ceramic coating”, and other such nonsense.
Exactly my point.
Uhm… what make of car? I have heard of internet sales, and of the “vending machine” sales of used cars at Carvana, but nothing like this.
Thank you.
Somehow you’ve managed to miss all of the news regarding Tesla over the last decade? All the states trying to ban their sales because of dealership laws?
Basically all the startups are doing this too. Even Ford has been talking about it.
What about the small Cadillac Dealer that was dualed with Buick in a rural market and accepted the turn in of the Cadillac deal? If he had known Buick was going to do the same thing, they might have accepted the Cadillac expense and had been ready for “EV” Buicks with minimal additional cost. Sad for them. Can they get the Cadillac franchise back?
If they are smart, and willing to change with the times, they will seek out a franchise for a make that is not covered in their area, or not covered well. If the car company involved has a good offer to make them, they can take it, and continue to march. Plenty of Hudson and Studebaker dealers moved on after both closed up.
Way back in the olden days of the mid 1960s., a family member was involved in a store that sold Isuzu-Bellel, Rootes Group, Simca, and a crazy brand no one heard of called BMW. A rep from Toyota walked in, and did his best to talk them into taking a Toyota franchise. Toyota at that time build a handful of cars for US sales, and they fell apart at anything over about 55 mph, and had the seat comfort of a park bench. The dealer said, “no”. Two years later, the Corona was introduced, and the dealership owner up the road that DID sign on ended up a billionaire, with one of the biggest dealerships in California.
Opportunities may be out there, and so the dealer you ask about just may be in a position to take on the next line of cars no one knows about, and build it into a good seller.
I knew of Studebaker dealers who moved on to Datsun before it was Nissan.
The Hudson agency in Hollywood became Hollywood Sportscars. Mom used to get her ‘51 Hornet serviced there.
Gm really needs to re think the whole dealership structure. I cannot imagine a dealership surviving on just selling Buick’s. I can see stand alone Cadillac and perhaps Corvette, but otherwise I am thinking they need to get rid of all the little guy’s and just let the rest sell the entire lineup.
Most Buick dealers sell GMC. Before that it was often Pontiac-Buick-GMC.
I still remember Speight Buick in Hollywood. Buick only, and one of the finest looking sales and service facilities imaginable. I think they were on Sunset Boulevard.
Big enough cities had standalone Pontiac, Olds, Buick, and Cadillac dealerships. I remember those. Sometimes Cadillac doubled up with Pontiac or Oldsmobile if the market demanded it.
Were I work it’s a Cadillac Buick GMC dealership so pretty soon it will be a all in one dealership and or all corporate owned which I think that is the plan going forward
GM is making a big mistake going all electric vehicles. For many folks living in rural areas an EV is not practical. GM should produce maybe 40% EV and 60% ICE by 2030.
Why would BEV’s not work in so called Rural areas in your opinion?
It is the Charging Infrastructure in your mind or the vehicles themselves?
I am actually very curious. The Infrastructure will come obviously but like I have always said here…..EV’s are NOT yet for everyone due to the Infrastructure and current Price point that vehicles are currently available but I believe both issues will be fixed within five years or so.
Yes, just like once upon a time there weren’t enough gas stations. No one alive can remember that era, and in fact, repurposing excess filling station buildings became something of an art form in this country.
Dealerships should just be showrooms and maintenance facilities. You go their to see available models and test drive, then either purchase a model from onsite GM stock of place your order online directly with GM for set advertised prices, same at all dealers. Vehicles would be delivered to the dealers by GM who would pay the dealers for handling the transaction. Or better yet, GM should own and operate all of the dealerships, that would eliminate the poor reputation of dealers and car salesmen. The salesmen could handle the trade ins and used car sales but let GM handle all aspects of the sales of their new vehicles.
You are basically describing Tesla stores ; )
Yes it is going that way, salespeople are useless 90% of the time no product knowledge selling shoes on Monday selling cars on Tuesday always a high turnovers rate for sales. I leased a Kia K5 and did all negotiations on the phone physically seen the car on a Sunday no sales people involved and no road test and picked it up on Thursday signed papers and left so all you need is a sales kiosk and a delivery person and your good to go.
The more knowledgeable sales people tend to sell used cars. And that requires much more product knowledge than used cars.
I’m still lost with the all or nothing approach.
If EV is the future, let the market decide.
No one “banned” Betamax, Super 8 or HD-DVD.
Really losing the grasp of this whole capitalism thing.
I see that as very positive for all OEMs, by the way.
If a GMC & BUICK dealer wants to sell the business, you can buy it and open your own independent workshop. This is better than planning, building and operating a completely new workshop somewhere and ICE vehicles live a very long time!
As far as is known, BUICK & GMC dealers can always be found on busy streets.
So there is in every message – who wants, can or could if who wanted.
Conclusion:
I think GM is doing the right thing and downsizing the dealers, because in the future the EV vehicles will only be leased and GM uses 100% internet for this.
Incidentally, all vehicle manufacturers (OEM) worldwide plan to do so because the sales costs and marketing are 30% of the purchase price for a vehicle.
” or in markets where eco-friendly vehicles are simply unpopular.” Across their life electric cars are no more eco friendly than current cars. It will be many years before they exist without coal, nuclear and natural gas. And the eco disaster coming from battery production and disposal will be significant.
What do you think it takes to make a engine block? Pistons? crank shaft? connecting rods? Cylinder heads? Not counting the transmission with a few hundred moving parts? Lots! no eco disaster from mining and the batteries are recycled at the end of its life. What about all the oil filters in land fills the coolant, air filters ? And transmission and engine oil? the gas engine is not eco friendly by any means