WARREN, MICHIGAN —” General Motors Buick has redesigned Buick's flagship Enclave SUV as the latest testament to the automaker's ongoing reinvention of the nearly 125-year-old brand.
The updates to the 2025 Enclave — from new technology to exterior redesign to interior styling — complement Buick's refresh of its current four-vehicle lineup. In 2022, Buick unveiled an aggressive concept car called the Wildcat, beginning a new design direction for the brand.
While the Enclave is the latest of Buick's current vehicles to receive the Wildcat treatment, it may not be the last. GM is expected to expand Buick's lineup with a new all-electric vehicle as soon as this year, and is conducting several “design studies” to determine what's next for the once-dominant American brand.
“I'm really excited about what the brand has become again,” GM President Mark Reuss said during a media event at the company's Design and Technology Campus in suburban Detroit. “[It’s a] A really talented team, really talented execution, world-class.”
The design team, led by Bob Boniface, did a great job of “bringing the Buick design to life,” said Royce, who began his career with Buick as a transmission calibrator.
The 2025 Enclave is longer, wider and taller than the current model. It also features more aggressive exterior styling, including a larger grille and new headlights bearing Buick's signature reverse check mark.
“[It’s] “The flagship of the Buick brand,” Boniface said during a media event. “We've talked a lot about visual DNA and here you see it, and how it translates into our largest vehicle in the collection… It's a masterful use of superficial language.”
The rear looks more truck-like, with plenty of angles and wide taillights across the SUV.
Inside is a new, redesigned interior that features a “floating” center console that is not attached to the car's front dashboard. It also includes a standard 30-inch curved infotainment screen.
Super Cruise, GM's hands-free highway driving system, will be offered on each of the three Enclave models: Preferred, ST and Avenir. Heated front seats, wireless charging and other safety and convenience features are also standard.
GM is ditching the current V6 model of the Enclave due to fuel economy in exchange for a standard 2.5-liter turbocharged engine with 328 hp and 326 lb-ft of torque.
The automaker said pricing for the 2025 Enclave will be announced closer to the car entering production at a plant in central Michigan. Current starting prices range from about $43,300 to more than $60,000.
Buick conversion
Buick's current lineup includes the Encore GX, Envista, Envision and Enclave crossovers/SUVs. It previously said that its new electric cars, starting in 2024, will all use the Electra name, a name the brand has used since 1959.
Company executives and spokespersons declined to reconfirm the timing of the new electric car, saying it could be launched in 2025. The brand's website still says the expected availability of the car is 2024.
Duncan Aldred, Buick's global vice president, described the brand's progress as “an absolutely miraculous transformation.” He declined to comment on any additional nameplates for Buick's U.S. lineup in the coming years.
Buick Wildcat concept
Buick
“As you can see, there's a lot of energy, enthusiasm and passion; people keep doing things, and that speaks for the future,” said Aldred, who also heads GM's GMC brand. “You'll have to watch this space to see what comes next.”
GM as a whole is evaluating its product portfolios amid slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles and changes to federal fuel emissions to better integrate hybrids and PHEVs alongside electric vehicles.
In 2022, Buick announced plans to offer fully electric vehicles exclusively by 2030. (GM as a whole previously announced a goal of offering exclusively electric vehicles to consumers by 2035.) Aldred, echoing earlier comments from GM CEO Mary Barra, said, The future of the brand when it comes to electric vehicles will depend on customer demand.
Buick's U.S. sales rose 16.4% during the first quarter, building on a 61.4% increase in total sales last year compared to modest results in 2022.
Although sales grew last year to 167,030 units, results were still about 40,000 units lower than in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic caused supply chain and production problems that lasted for years.
Much of Buick's growth came from incremental sales gains from its new Envista crossover, which was the brand's third best-selling vehicle during the first quarter of this year at about 10,000 units.
Buick is also evolving its lineup and increasing average transaction prices for high-end “Avenir” models across its lineup. Avenir models represented about 25% of Buick's sales during the first quarter of this year.
Aldred said he believes Buick can continue to increase U.S. sales with its new lineup, especially with increased Invista production and the 2025 Enclave arriving at dealerships this summer.
Duncan Aldred, vice president of Buick-GMC sales for General Motors, speaks next to a GMC Sierra Denali HD truck on display during an event in Chula Vista, California, U.S., on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
Sandy Huffaker | Bloomberg via Getty Images
“When that is announced, we believe we will have the most modern portfolio in the industry at that point,” Aldred said. “Every car performs very strongly.”
This is not the same situation in China, where Buick and other non-local brands have been struggling. Buick's sales in China fell by approximately 40% to about 517,000 units from 2019 to 2023. This coincided with a 32% decline in General Motors sales during that period in China, where local car manufacturers are increasingly prominent.
“The market has changed rapidly…just in terms of the number of brands on sale,” Aldred said. “It spreads across the market, it just does, but Buick remains healthy and successful there.”
