Skip to main content

Gearing up to sell electric vehicles costs dealerships a lot of money. They must retrain technicians, educate salespeople, and install chargers. Ford dealerships sued Ford Motor Company over the cost of factory EV trainings and Ford chargers. More than 4,000 dealerships for multiple automakers signed an open letter urging Biden to slow down the EV transition. And now it appears that 1,000 Buick dealers (out of just 2,000 total) didn’t want to transition to EV sales so GM bought out all of their franchises and shut them down.

Of course, General Motors is putting as positive a spin as it can on closing down half of its Buick dealerships. Brand President Duncan Alrded said, “What this is enabling us to do that is triple the throughput of the remaining dealers…I think it’s fair to say that I’m really pleased that we achieved it.” (CNBC).

Neon Buick logo in the window of an electric crossover EV dealership run by GM in China
Buick EV dealership, China | Robert Way via iStockPhoto

But the writing on the wall is that General Motors announced the price of retraining technicians and installing chargers, and many of these franchise owners got sticker shock. GM has not disclosed how much of the bill it is asking dealerships to foot. But for comparison’s sake, Ford’s initial retraining and charger installation fees would have cost the average dealership $2 million. This is before they sued Ford and the automaker reduced the cost.

General Motors has, so far, shelled out $1 billion to buy these franchises. And there is a silver lining for the automaker: the 1,000 dealerships closing down only represent 20% of the brand’s annual sales.

Some of these Buick dealerships may belong to franchise owners who have multiple showrooms at the same facility. There is a chance there are GM dealers selling their Buick franchise to pay for the costs of retraining their techs and selling EVs from GMC and Chevrolet.

Here’s the kicker: Buick doesn’t even sell any EVs yet. Its entire North American lineup is internal combustion crossovers. The brand is also popular in China, and Buick offers hybrids there. GM offers multiple EV crossovers from Chevrolet and Cadillac, so it’s only a matter of time until we get a Buick-badged variant.

Best in News
Avatar photo
Staff Writer

Henry Cesari

Henry Cesari joined MotorBiscuit in 2021 and brings his deep interest in vintage cars, trucks, and motorcycles to the site. Having restored his first classic car at just 16 years old, Henry has wrenched on everything from overland campers to Japanese motorcycles and even pre-war Bugattis. Henry is also an avid attendee at local car shows and genuinely enjoys connecting with fellow auto enthusiasts.

Henry earned a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and English from the University of Vermont. He has since incorporated his love of the written word with his admiration of classic cars. While Henry is interested in vintage cars, he believes the golden age of cars is yet to come. He is confident journalists will play an important role in this revolution by exposing the industry as it is now and envisioning its possible future.