Through its transition to an all-electric future, General Motors has offered a buyout program to Buick dealerships who don’t want to make the required investments, which include things like chargers and other EV-related service items. Now, it appears as though a large number of dealers choose to take the buyout option as opposed to committing to selling electric vehicles.
According to a report from Automotive News, nearly half of Buick dealerships in the United States choose to accept the buyout, meaning that The General will end the 2023 calendar year with roughly 1,000 dealerships, down 47 percent from the start of the year. For reference, there were 1,958 U.S. Buick franchises in the beginning of 2023.
It’s worth noting that the almost 1,000 dealerships that left the franchise this year accounted for roughly 20 percent of Buick U.S. sales, indicating that the remaining dealers generally post stronger sales figures for the Tri-Shield brand.
“I’m really pleased with where we are,” Global Buick / GMC Vice President Duncan Aldred stated. “The network, where we are now, is a good size. It’s with dealers who are focused on the business, who’ve shown that they can recover the volume that the dealers who transitioned away were doing.”
This is an interesting piece to note, especially considering that Buick U.S. sales rose 58 percent from November 2022 to November 2023. In addition, 89 percent of the U.S. population remain within 25 miles of a Tri-Shield dealer.
“I’ve had zero negative feedback, if that tells you anything,” Buick / GMC National Dealer Council Chairman Bo Mandal claimed in a prepared statement. “What I love about this whole scenario is its true entrepreneurship. You can make and decide your own fate and what you want to do with your own business.”
Notably, General Motors also offered a buyout program for Cadillac.
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Comments
Not a big deal. This is probably long overdue. For reference:
BMW dealers in the US = 366
Mercedes dealers in the US = 385
Lincoln dealers in the US = 600
Lexus dealers in the US = 244
Infiniti dealers in the US = 201
Acura dealers in the US = 1,576
Mazda dealers in the US = 542
Subaru dealers in the US = 640
Volvo dealers in the US = 284
Buick would still have a sizeable dealer network at 1,000.
Yeah, none of those brands have a dealer within 90 miles of me. EVs are a joke out here anyway.
No dealer will see a return on their EV investment. I don’t see any possibility. Just another Kool Aid party.
There’s a Buick dealer within 25 miles of me? Couldn’t tell you where. If it closes its doors I won’t even notice.
Anybody can “sell” you a car.
It’s the “warranty / service experience” that creates, builds and nurtures real customer loyalty.
IMHO, convenience is key…if a local Chevy dealer can do warranty service on your Buick, go there.
Oddly enough, GM allows Chevy, GMC, and Buick customers to take their cars to any dealership for warranty service EXCEPT Cadillac dealers. Cadillac dealers are only permitted to do warranty work on Cadillac vehicles.
Oddly enough, GM is taking the bike lane approach with electrics, build them and demand will surely follow. I am afraid that this may end up like bike lanes – they built them and no one is using them.
“All-dread” better be careful. They may right size him right out of a job.
Why buy them out? Why not Unallocate them like Mary Barra did to it’s employees at Lordstown, Warren and Baltimore plants. She could have a lot more gold coins in her filthy hands by screwing those dealers like she screwed here employees.
After all that’s why she is there.
They have rules that they have to follow. The dealerships aren’t working class people. They are some of the richest people in the country, and if you want to take away their franchise, you’d better pay.
Not sure if you are being sarcastic but it is illegal to simply remove a dealer’s franchise. Dealers purchased a franchise from GM – they own that franchise and GM is contractually obligated to follow the terms of the franchise agreement. If GM wants to downsize dealers they have to buy back the franchise.
The only way around that it through bankruptcy. GM could have killed off the Buick brand back in 2009 without spending billions to buy out dealers. That is what they did with Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer. However, they didn’t so not they are stuck buying out dealers.
Just wrong. Nobody wants EVs. Taking GM down the wrong path. Just like the Metric System the USA was to adopt.
Doesn’t work here. Demis of GM!
I’m not so sure about the “Nobody wants EV’s” statement. I just heard the other day that Tesla’s recall on the self-driving problem has them recalling 2 million vehicles. That seems like a lot of cars to me for a company that hasn’t been around that long. Add in Lucid, Rivian, Mach-E and whatever the German companies offer plus the recent Big 3 offerings and it seems to me that people do want them and are buying them. Tesla also has 1.9 million deposits for Cybertruck orders. I have no interest in owning an EV of course unless they can triple the range compared to what it is now. Anyway, my point is that there’s already several million EV’s on the road so apparently there is somebody that wants EV’s.
Looking at EV sales in the USA:
* Sales are up 49,8% in the first 3 quarters of 2023 vs 2022
* 872,000 EVs have been sold this year Jan – Sep.
* 3Q2023 sales were 313K (up from last year and 2Q2023)
2023 will be the first year that more than 1 million EVs are sold in the USA
EVs make up 7.9% of total US vehicle sales but that doesn’t really tell the real story. EV sales are binary.
On the West Coast people are buying a lot of EVs. EVs as a percentage of new car sales:
Colorado 13%, Nevada 13%, Hawaii, 15%, Oregon 17%, Washington 18%, California 25%.
In the middle of the country – not so much. Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wyoming, Louisiana, South Dakota, West Virginia, North Dakota – EVs are less than 1% of new vehicle sales.
In other words, overall, EV sales in America are dismal at best.
In my state, there are only 34,100 registered EVs (as of December 31, 2022) compared to 8,868,300 registered ICE vehicles. I also noticed that North Dakota has only 600 EVs registered compared to 614,300 registered ICE vehicles…
Wasn’t Buick always at the bottom of the Average Sales per Dealer count?
Our Local Dealer quit selling Buicks. I am disappointed, currently drive a Enclave. I have ordered a 2024 Traverse from my local dealer.
Wonder if; a GM dealer in the US is multiband (Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Buick) and choses to sell EV’s from all his brands, does he have to obtain complete separate tool sets and technician training for each brand of EV?
Usually not. He will receive the bulk through one division, and the pieces that are different through the other divisions. For both tools and training.
I am driving my 5th Enclave and now the nearest dealership is 175 miles away. I am planning to go and purchase a 2025 GMC Acadia when they become available.
I won’t miss Buick (or Lincoln in that matter) when they both become China-only in 2030.