Roughly half of Buick dealers take buyouts rather than transition to EVs

General Motors bought out about 1,000 Buick dealerships that did not want to invest at least $300,000 in selling and servicing electric vehicles. The deals cut the Buick network down by 47 percent since the beginning of 2023. Dealers who cashed out of Buick may still sell other GM brands such as Chevy. GM ran a similar program with Cadillac dealerships in 2020 and bought out about 20 percent of dealers who would not invest in electric vehicles.

Why is accommodating electric vehicles so important? Buick has a brand goal of selling only electric vehicles by 2030, which requires investment in installing chargers and training staff. Parent company GM also aims to sell only electric cars by 2035 and run as “carbon-neutral,” offsetting its carbon emissions, by 2040. Buick dealers still have the option to “exit voluntarily in a respectful and structured way,” GM spokesman Sean Poppitt said in a statement. 

Dig deeper: Read Todd Vician’s report in WORLD Magazine on party politics surrounding electric vehicles.