Buick has adjusted its plan as a new model, codenamed NDLB, nears production, deciding to add EREV options to its original BEV-only offerings, according to local media.
General Motors' (NYSE: GM) Buick brand is reportedly going to launch a new model with extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) options in China to cater to local consumer preferences, a rare case among foreign automakers in the country.
Buick is developing an all-new model codenamed NDLB, which was originally scheduled to begin production this quarter, but as development neared completion, its management decided to change the product plan, according to a report in local media outlet AutoPix today.
The model was originally planned to be available only in battery electric vehicle (BEV) variants, but now Buick's management has decided to add additional EREV variants to it, according to the report.
With this restructuring of the plan, the NDLB model will need to switch vehicle architecture to account for both pure electric and EREV powertrains, the report noted.
In the new development direction, the NDLB model would swap out GM's VIP (Vehicle Intelligence Platform) in favor of SAIC-GM's own CLEA (China Local Electronic Architecture), AutoPix said.
SAIC-GM, GM's joint venture in China, is moving forward with a five-year electrification transition strategy starting in 2021, almost at the same pace as GM in North America.
But by this year, SAIC-GM stopped following GM's electric transition pace closely and began revising some of its products to adopt a flexible strategy for the Chinese market, according to AutoPix.
The NDLB is modeled after the Electra-L, the Buick brand's all-electric concept car, which was first shown by SAIC-GM at this year's Beijing auto show in April, according to the report.
The NDLB is a mid-size flagship sedan and the Buick brand's highest-end all-electric model to date, AutoPix said, adding that at the original pace, the car would have gone on sale in the first half of 2025.
The NDLB has been in development for nearly three years, and switching the architecture close to production means that most of the project needed to be redone, so production has been pushed back more than a year, from the end of this year to early 2026, according to AutoPix.
In addition to adding EREV options, another goal of the Buick brand's restructuring program on the NDLB model is to replace the VIP architecture with the lower-cost CLEA architecture, according to the report.
The shedding of GM solution for the flagship NDLB reflects part of SAIC's adjusted product strategy.
SAIC-GM's peak years were 2017 and 2018, when annual sales were around 2 million units each.
Subsequently, SAIC-GM's sales declined for six consecutive years, falling to the size of 1 million units in 2023. In the first nine months of this year, SAIC-GM sold fewer than 280,000 units, down nearly 62 percent year-on-year, AutoPix's report noted.
While sales are less than a quarter of what they were at their peak, SAIC-GM is still pretty much following the same transformation strategy that GM laid out years ago. At the time, GM hoped to use the electrification transition to unify its main lineups in both the US and China.
The rigid execution has led to a disconnect between SAIC-GM's product strategy and marketing, the report said.
The EV models launched by SAIC-GM are high-end vehicles, but these models need to rely on significant price cuts to sell after they go on sale, and the company on the other hand has to rely on older models to boost sales, according to the report.
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