Almost 1,000 Buick dealerships across the United States have accepted buyouts from General Motors over the past 12 months as opposed to making the necessary investments to sell the brand’s upcoming battery-electric vehicles.
Buick had some 1,958 franchises across the country at the start of the year but recently confirmed it will end 2023 with approximately 1,000 dealers, representing a 47% decrease from 12 months ago. Those dealerships who have not accepted the buyouts will each need to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in training, equipment, and tooling for the sales and servicing of EVs.
Read: Buick Proxima Concept Is An EV Flagship Sedan With Gullwing Doors Designed In China
Speaking with Auto News, the vice president of global Buick-BMC, Duncan Aldred, said the buyouts were offered voluntarily and in consultation with dealers. He added that the buyout program remains open and confirmed that the remaining Buick dealerships have previously represented about 20% of the company’s U.S. sales.
“I’m really pleased with where we are,” Aldred said. “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.”
Despite Buick now having fewer dealers in the U.S., roughly 89% of the nation’s popular remain within 25 miles of a Buick dealership. General Motors will transition Buick to an all-electric brand by 2030.
The chairman of the Buick-GMC National Dealer Council, Bo Mandal, notes that some dealers chose to give up their Buick franchise and will focus on other GM brands that they have in their business, like GMC.
This year has proven to be quite a fruitful one for the carmaker. In fact, its U.S. sales have jumped 58% year over year through November thanks primarily to surging demand for the Encore GX and the Envision crossover. The new Envista is also selling well with more than 10,500 units sold since it landed in dealerships in August as the brand’s last new combustion-powered offering.
