2021 Buick Encore Preferred on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Is this GM's next electric crossover?

GM made headlines this week when CEO Mary Barra presented the company's electrification and automation plans at the Barclays Global Automotive Conference in New York. "We are committed to a future electric vehicle portfolio that will be profitable," Barra said, which could be taken as a jab at Tesla. In the presentation ( PDF here), though, we see a new vehicle in a slide titled "Leveraging existing BEV platform to expand in near term." The vehicle, seen above, accompanied the captions "New CUV entries" and "two entries by 2020." Is this a sneak preview of an upcoming electric crossover from GM? The image seems too realistic and intentional to be a random placeholder. If this is, indeed, an upcoming battery-electric CUV based on the Bolt, the question remains: Will it be a Chevy or a Buick? It has no visible badging, but it shares DNA from both brands. As Inside EVs points out, though, it does bear a resemblance to the Chevrolet FNR-X concept unveiled in Shanghai earlier this year. With two CUVs on the way, it's not unthinkable that there could be a version for each brand. In addition to this slide, the presentation includes plans for an "All new multi-brand, multi-segment platform" launching in 2021. The all-new modular battery system will cost less than $100 per kWh, providing higher energy density and faster charging. The platform will host at least nine different vehicles, including a compact crossover, seven-seat luxury SUV and a large commercial van. GM has said it will launch 20 new EVs by 2023, and that it targets 1 million EV sales per year by 2026. Many of those sales will be in China. Related Video:

Safety group pans GM’s new Marketplace in-dash shopping

When it comes to our cars, is the Internet of Things a godsend? Or a hidden menace that will create more problems than it will solve? On the same day General Motors announced it will equip newer-model cars with its in-dash Marketplace e-commerce app, a prominent safety group was shooting it down. National Safety Council President Deborah Hersman tells Bloomberg the technology will only contribute to distracted driving and hurt efforts to stem the tide of rising auto fatalities, which grew 5.6 percent to more than 37,000 in the U.S. in 2016. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted driving was responsible for 3,477 fatalities and 391,000 injuries in 2015, the most recent year for which it has data. "There's nothing about this that's safe," Hersman told Bloomberg. "If this is why they want WiFi in the car, we're going to see fatality numbers go up even higher than they are now." Marketplace, developed with IBM, will allow drivers — or more often, one hopes, their passengers — to order coffee or food, find gas stations and reserve hotel rooms from their dashboard screens. The technology is set to be uploaded automatically to nearly 1.9 million GM vehicles model-year 2017 and later that are equipped with WiFi hotspots and compatible systems. By the end of 2018, about 4 million Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles will be equipped with Marketplace. The app will debut with a limited number of participating retailers, including TGI Fridays, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Starbucks, with more likely to join later. Online retail giant Amazon is also partnering with automakers such as Ford to bring e-commerce capabilities inside the car through its Alexa personal assistant. While convenience is nice, one other thing is becoming clear as the IoT wedges its way into our cars: It's taking aim at some decidedly first-world problems.Related Video: Image Credit: GM Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GM GMC Technology Infotainment in-car entertainment marketplace e-commerce

Buick announces Ultium-based EV for the Chinese market

Buick will expand its presence in the EV segment by launching a five-seater crossover on the Chinese market before the end of 2022. The model will use the Ultium technology developed by parent company General Motors, and it will be closely followed by another electric car. Official details about the model remain few and far between; we don't even know what it will be called yet. The company published an image that shows an electric platform topped by the outline of a crossover, and it clarified power will come from a battery pack with cells "tailored for China." The battery-powered Buick will also be available with the Super Cruise technology found in other General Motors models. The outline shares more than a passing resemblance with the heavily-camouflaged test mule that our spies spotted testing earlier in 2022, but it's difficult to tell whether we're looking at the same car. Trademark filings suggest Buick has several electric cars in the pipeline. While the crossover won't be the first electric Buick — the Velite 6 MAV went on sale in China in 2019 — executives have high hopes for it. To that end, the company will open up to 58 Buick EV City showrooms and over 600 Buick NEV Zones across China. It's also working with "mainstream third-party charging operators" to make over 400,000 charging points available throughout China by the end of 2023. Buick will release additional details about its upcoming electric model before the end of 2022, and deliveries are scheduled to start in the first half of 2023 on the Chinese market. As of writing, it's too early to tell whether the EV will join the Envista on its trip across the Pacific or stay in China. Looking ahead, the brand announced plans to release a second electric car built around Ultium technology before the end of 2023.