Buick isn’t exactly seen as an exciting brand here in the United States. While their current lineup of SUVs is rather handsome, the brand has struggled to truly compete for hearts and minds in the near-luxury segment. The same can’t be said for the brand in China, where it has historically performed much better than here. Seem odd? Well, maybe it won't once you take a look at GM Advanced Design Shanghai’s stunning new concept car, known as the Buick Electra Orbit.
The Buick Electra Orbit takes the idea of an electric Buick flagship back to the high era of the Motor City. Visually, the car is quite large, with expansive surfaces driven by aerodynamics. The large front splitter adds a bit of muscle to the otherwise soft form, and works well in conjunction with the LED-driven fascia. Air is driven down the side of the car and cleaned up by some pretty skirts, before arriving at the boat-tail party piece of a rear end. There’s almost a bit of C2-gen Corvette to the rear haunch, which is more apparent without the pseudo racing bits in their upright positions.
Other cool features include a set of built-in luggage, as well as a truly space age interior layout. Overall, it's a rather impressive looking machine, and sad as it sounds, not one we’d expect to see come out of Buick here in the States.
“Electra Orbit is a bold exploration of what Buick can be when we blend heritage inspiration with visionary innovation,” said Stuart Norris, vice president of design for GM China and GM International and chief of design at SAIC-GM. “By reinterpreting space-age motifs and pushing electric-architecture freedoms, we wanted to create a concept that feels both familiar in its Buick DNA and thrillingly new.”
This isn’t the only Electra concept to arrive in China as of late, either. The brand unveiled the Electra GS concept at the recent Auto Shanghai, with the Electra-L sedan and Electra-LT wagon concepts arriving last year. All of those models look a bit closer to production intent than the Orbit, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see some of these specific styling themes find their way to series production models... at least, for China.
While that would be cool to see, we can’t help but be a bit frustrated at Buick here in the States. A concept like this is exactly the sort of thing that could help shift brand perception, especially if GM went ahead and actually build something like this, even as a show car. We're still waiting for something to be done with the wonderful Wildcat Concept from 2022; but considering the electric Electra SUV for the States is currently on hold, we're not getting our hopes up quite yet.
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