I recently reported a new electric Buick sedan launched in China called the Electra L7. It has me wondering why our North American Buick lineup doesn’t look this good. The L7 is part of a new Chinese sub-brand of electric vehicles (EVs) at Buick. It looks absolutely fantastic. It’s powered by smart and innovative lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, and it even comes with a range extender, resulting in a total combined range figure of 870 miles. Damn.
Look, I get that we no longer buy sedans here, but when you compare our Buick lineup to China’s, you quickly wonder what went wrong. All of Buick’s vehicles are rebadged versions of a Chevrolet. They’re also all SUVs and crossovers now. This is an American automaker, yet, the best stuff Buick sells isn’t sold to Americans at all. And, now, Buick’s Electra division in China just showcased another forbidden fruit. It’s a concept car called the Orbit and, gosh. It is gorgeous.
The Buick Electra Orbit Is A Design Exercise… For Now
Penned by the GM China Advanced Design Center, the Electra Orbit is, for the time being, nothing more than a design exercise. But, GM says it’s based on its recently developed platform with Chinese partner SAIC. The architecture has the ability to be flexible, allowing Buick to build both EVs and vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs), as well as integrating hybrid and plug-in hybrid options. The goal here is simply to explore new ideas in design, all while harnessing some of the automaker’s past. But, man. We need this.
There are so many neat design cues here that need to go in Buick’s production cars, starting with the Orbit’s front-end that reminds me of a futuristic Oldsmobile Aurora. Don’t ask me why I find that cool. But it is. From Buick’s Stuart Norris, Vice President of Design for GM China and GM International and Chief of Design at SAIC-GM:
Electra Orbit is a bold exploration of what Buick can be when we blend heritage inspiration with visionary innovation. 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.
The design obviously draws its inspiration from spacecraft, aerospace, and, more importantly, the cool concept cars Buick released during the 1950s. This is obvious through the car’s long and dominant boat tail design that conveniently wraps around the rear through a large LED light bar taillight setup. The car is not only incredibly streamlined, which makes sense for EVs, but also gives the Orbit such a dominating and contemporary look. It also allowed the designers to play around with the car’s proportions and stance, giving it bulging wheel arches with massive wheels that were stretched all the way to the car’s extremities.
Retro-Futurism Design At Its Best
Similar to what Cadillac did with the Celestiq flagship sedan, the Buick Electra Orbit concept is a perfect example of retro-futurism done right. It looks and feels like something from the past, but when you look closer, it really is a car from the future, one that also incorporates the sort of technology we’ll expect in cars by the end of this decade. The interior is like a large lounge, with room for four people. There’s a lot of passenger space, it’s very airy in there, and the entire design theme centers around minimalism.
Most of the switchgear is either hidden or digital, because the Orbit can switch from being driven to driving itself in an instant. It’s loaded with artificial intelligence features to interact with you, learn, and even suggest. And it’s been fitted with things like a “Digital Illusion Carpet”, which, apparently, evokes the pulse of celestial elements. Buick’s words, not mine. Anyway, this thing is super cool.
Why Buick Needs Some Of This In America
Although Buick has recently tried to spice up its lineup through more brand-specific design themes, it’s not what I would qualify as the most exciting lineup in the industry. Only the Envista somehow manages to set itself apart, further proving my point that Buick needs to be a design-driven brand, and not one controlled by GM’s bean counters. Although the Envista is nothing more than a semi-luxed-up Chevrolet Trax, it looks and feels like something totally distinguished.
What I’m all about is that Buick needs to harness its past and incorporate some of this concept’s design cues into some of its vehicles. Fine, keep using Chevrolet platforms and powerplants. Who cares? What people want is a Buick that doesn’t feel like a badge engineering job, but rather a great American car company again.
And why not give it a shot with a new, all-electric sedan based on GM’s EV tech? The world has changed, and with newcomers in that space like the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2, Mercedes-Benz CLA, and BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse line of electric sedans, I can see a world where a Buick takes them all on with a sexy, retro-inspired, all-American electric sedan. Besides, why does China get all the cool stuff?
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