Buick is going all-electric by 2030 and as such, it’s requiring that dealers who wish to stay in the fold make a big new investment. Estimated to cost somewhere around $300k to $400k on average, the money will go towards EV infrastructure and training at each dealership. Those who don’t wish to participate can elect to take a buyout from Buick.
As automakers make the transition towards all-electric cars, dealers need new equipment and training to go along with them. In Buick’s case, its Electra EV lineup will require dealers to have specific tooling in addition to new training. Only then will the dealers be able to sell and service the cars properly.
“The minimum investment to become an EV-ready Buick dealer will vary by dealer but is estimated to be $300-400K, on average. Acceptance of an offer is voluntary, but all Buick dealers who remain must be adequately prepared to sell and service Buick EVs,” says Sean Poppit, a Buick spokesperson.
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This new requirement sounds a lot like the one that Ford dealers could opt into recently. The big difference is that while Ford plans to continue building internal combustion cars, Buick does not. That means that in the fairly near future, Buick dealers without EV infrastructure and training in place would be out of business by default.
Those who opt for the buyout can depart on an “elective basis”, as Poppit put it. AutoNews says that at the start of the year, there were 1,963 Buick dealers across the nation. For now, Buick isn’t saying how many have taken the buyout option but we do know that roughly a third of Cadillac dealers did exactly that when given the option.
Interestingly, AutoNews says that those Cadillac dealers would’ve only been required to invest, on average, $200,000 to prepare and sell and service EVs. Considering how much less popular Buick seems to be in the USA, we can only imagine that fewer dealers will be willing to pony up the cash to keep selling EV models.
