GM's Super Bowl commercial showed off a large fleet of future Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Hummer EVs to get excited about. While plenty of Dr. Evil's villainous colleagues made an appearance, the ad was strangely and noticeably devoid of any Buick EVs. To remedy that, the brand has teased a sneak peek at its own Buick EV SUV concept coming this summer.
Buick's Twitter account posted an image with the caption: "We're fans of all [GM] EVs, but this summer we will show you our dreams of a groovy electric future. We're sure a mastermind who makes his own quasi-futuristic clothes will be impressed." The '60s-esque caption references the Austin Powers theme of the Big Game ad.The image provided only shows a slice of the future vehicle's blue paint and headlight with an illuminated DRL, against a backdrop of a setting sun.
The shape of the headlight resembles those of the Buick Avista concept car. It's difficult to make out whether the concept will be closer in shape to a car or SUV. Considering it's only a concept, and Buick has swung big with dramatic concept cars that never made it to production before, we could get anything. That being said, the quality and finishing of the teased vehicle does appear to be near-production ready.
It could be a closer-to-production concept inspired by the Buick Electra concept vehicle seen in Shanghai in 2020, pictured above. A trio of new SUVs has already been announced for Buick, all built on GM's Ultium platform system and expected by 2025, so whatever it previews, it's most likely one of those. We'd wager this is the smallest, lowest of the three.
Two of Buick's new EV SUVs will share a new 30-inch OLED infotainment screen inside, and sit on the same wheelbase but target different markets. One will be sportier and sit lower, and the other will ride higher and focus on more cargo room, targeting family buyers. Both will be just slightly smaller than counterparts from Cadillac and Chevy.
All three of Buick's new EV SUVs will utilize GM's new Ultium battery technology, packed with cells assembled in GM's Lordstown, Ohio plant. Production is expected to reach up to a quarter-billion battery cells per year, once GM ramps up total production capacity to one million EVs annually.
The Ultium cells are smaller than the older units in the Chevy Bolt, and GM says they hold 60 percent more juice, which should make for some decent-range Buicks. We'll find out more when this concept is revealed this summer.
