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Buick LaCrosse Hybrid to Debut at Shanghai Motor Show

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Buick LaCrosse Hybrid Electric Vehicle

SAIC-GM announced on Thursday that it will unveil the Buick LaCrosse Hybrid Electric Vehicle at the Shanghai Motor Show on April 18th. With the next-generation LaCrosse having just launched last month, the addition of an HEV variant portends just a part of SAIC-GM’s “Drive to Green” strategy, which it will outline in more detail during the unveiling.

Details about the LaCrosse Hybrid are sparse, but the fate of this particular vehicle may or may not determine the likelihood of it becoming available in the United States. General Motors will ultimately sell a plug-in hybrid version of its Cadillac CT6 sedan in the United States, but because it will almost certainly be a bigger volume seller in China, it is being manufactured there and exported to the United States. The CT6 PHEV made its world debut not in America, but at Shanghai last year, for whatever that’s worth.

With Buick already importing its Envision crossover from China, it seems plausible that a LaCrosse HEV would also wind up being a Chinese import, particular given GM President Dan Ammann’s words to Bloomberg Business earlier this year: “[China] will be the largest market for electrified vehicles.” With demand for a LaCrosse Hybrid reasonably higher in China, it would only stand to reason that they would be produced there.

At the reveal of the LaCrosse HEV, Buick will also bring along the Avista Concept for its Chinese debut. Last month, Buick Executive Vice President of Marketing Tony DiSalle called the Avista “purely a concept…meant to generate some buzz,” but one can only hope that attention pulled in at Shanghai could renew discussions about production possibilities.