Twice new, once electric
Buick takes an old model name out of mothballs and turns it into an EV label. Under the Electra umbrella, Buick will have an extensive range of electric models in the coming years, the first of which we can show you today. This is the Buick Electra E5.
The name ‘Electra’ was used by Buick from the late 1950s to the 1990s for a range of high-profile models. In 2022, Buick does not use the name for luxurious models with six or even eight cylinders, but for fully electric models. In 2020, Buick already looked ahead to an electric Electra future with the Electra Concept and in the middle of this year the brand did that again by introducing the Electra-X. From the database of the Chinese Ministry of Transport and Information Technology, we fished the first photos of the first electric Buick of the Electra label: the Electra E5. The Electra label is likely to replace the Velite name that Buick is currently using for a bunch of EVs in China.
The design of the Electra E5 is inspired by that of the Electra-X Concept.
The Buick Electra E5 doesn’t look nearly as exciting as the Electra-X that inspired the design of the car. We see a relatively interchangeable EV carriage of which only the front is reminiscent of that of its conceptual predecessor. The Electra E5 has flat LED daytime running lights high in the nose, the actual headlights are lower in the bumper in a place where you might expect a cooling opening on sporty models. At the rear we see flat taillights that are connected by a continuous strip and at the top of the rear window is a spoiler with a three-part third brake light.
According to the data, the Electra E5 is 4.89 meters long, 1.91 meters wide and 1.86 meters high. The wheelbase is 2.95 meters. The Electra E5 is therefore a size smaller than Buick’s largest SUV: the Enclave. Its length is closer to that of the Envision Plus, the longer seven-seater version of the regular Envision. The registration data shows that the Buick Electra E5 has a 245 hp electric motor, but unfortunately we cannot tell you anything about the battery pack yet.
The new Buick Encore Plus, a longer version of the Encore GX, but with a new Buick front.
Buick EncorePlus
The second new Buick we can show you is the Encore Plus. This fairly compact SUV measures 4.46 meters in length and has a wheelbase of 2.64 meters. It seems to be a new, longer version of the Encore GX that Buick also sells in China in addition to the United States. That Encore GX, not to be confused with the simply called Encore SUV that Buick also supplies in China, looks very similar from the side to this new Encore Plus. It is striking that Buick has given the car a front in the style of the Electra E5 that we discussed above. The brand new Buick Envision – yet another SUV that Buick sells in China – also has a similar snout.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl