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Buick Electra E5 2024.

Buick Electra E5 2024: Chinese brother of the Chevrolet Equinox EV is shown in the first photos.

The SAIC-GM joint venture has unveiled the first electric Buick model of the new wave — the five-seat Electra E5 crossover based on the Ultium modular platform.

It will go on sale in the first half of 2023.

Chinese Buick has been rich in new products lately, with the brand trying to get back to the happy pre-Soviet days, when it managed to sell more than a million cars a year in the Middle Kingdom (Buick has not even been close to such figures in the U.S. this century).

From January to October of this year, Buick sales in China, according to CarSalesBase, totaled 538,428 vehicles, down 18% from the same period in 2021.

Buick already has two electric cars in Chinese range — the compact Velite 6 station wagon and subcompact Velite 7 crossover, but they are outdated; soon they will be replaced by a new electric lineup, combined with the Electra name from Buick’s American archive (until 1990 inclusively it was used for large and well-equipped passenger cars).

The firstborn of the new lineup will be a crossover Electra E5, its photos have surfaced in the database of the Chinese Ministry of Industry back in November, and today the press service of SAIC-GM published the first official pictures.

Overall length of Buick Electra E5 is 4892 mm, width — 1905 mm, height — 1655 mm, wheelbase — 2954 mm.

According to European and Chinese standards, a crossover with these dimensions is considered a medium-sized, and in the U.S. — already a compact.

In any case, exactly as a compact SUV in September in the U.S. introduced Chevrolet Equinox EV, which has exactly the same as the Buick Electra E5, wheelbase and similar proportions.

Both crossovers are based on GM’s Ultium modular platform, but the Equinox EV was developed in America, while the Electra E5 — in China, taking into account the tastes and preferences of the Chinese audience, which, however, does not exclude the possibility of supplying the Chinese Electra E5 to the American market.

The design of the Electra E5 is made in the spirit of other recent Chinese novelties Buick — for example, a gasoline-powered compact coupe crossover Envista.

The sides of the Electra E5 has visual notches on the sills and frames of the trunk windows, the top of the luggage door frames a massive frame spoiler, topped with a stop light in the form of a renewed emblem Buick.

Wheels are 18- or 20-inch. A charging port, like the Chevrolet Equinox EV, is located on the left front fender. No pictures of the interior have been taken yet.

Official technical specifications of Buick Electra E5 are also not available yet, and the base of Chinese Ministry of Industry lists only one electric motor with a capacity of 180 kW (245 hp).

For comparison, American Chevrolet Equinox EV has two power plants to choose from: single-engined front-wheel drive produces 213 hp and 328 Nm, two-engined all-wheel drive — 294 hp and 469 Nm. The Electra E5 will be equipped with Super Cruise level 2 autopilot.

The Buick Electra E5 will have its full premiere in the coming months.