Buick is offering only this teaser image - for now - of its new small car, the Verano.
General Motors plans to spend $145 million to re-tool an assembly plant outside Detroit to build a new compact car, dubbed the Verano, that will help nudge forward the apparent revival of its long moribund Buick brand,
The $145 million dollars spent on re-tooling the Orion plant is part of a $500 million investment to produce a compact Buick that could be sold in both the U.S. and China. The Chinese version of the compact
Buick – which is based on the same architecture as the Chevrolet Cruze — will be built in China, GM President Mark Reuss said.
“Verano will bring premium styling, performance and content to Buick buyers wanting a smaller car than Regal” said Reuss.
“The investment in Orion Assembly also extends GM’s local small car footprint, again increasing the number of U.S.-made small vehicles available in showrooms,” Reuss added. The Orion plant is also being prepared to build the new Chevrolet Aveo, starting in August 2011.
While the Verano will share a platform with the Cruze, it will be a completely different vehicle with unique sheet metal, a totally different interior and more content than the Cruze, Reuss noted, reflecting Buick’s more upscale positioning.
Reuss added the car will be slotted into the Buick line beneath the current Regal. It will be the first time in more than two decades that Buick will have a chance to offer a unique small car.
And it reflects a reversal of the direction that GM had taken with the Buick brand. Over the last decade, as the marque had steadily lost sales and shares, it also saw a steady decline in its line-up as GM diverted increasingly scarce resources to healthier brands.
Indeed, it was a surprise to some that Buick even emerged as one of the brands to survive from the General Motors bankruptcy, last year. But its strength in China convinced the maker to carry Buick ahead at home, and recent offerings, such as the LaCrosse, have begun to build sales momentum, encouraging GM to expand the Buick line-up.
Reuss said GM has worked closely with the United Auto Workers to create new and innovative contractual language, allowing the plant to be “flexible and lean. The flexibility is essential in the highly
competitive, small car market segment,” Reuss said.
The investment to retool the facility will retain 1,550 hourly and salaried jobs at Orion, along with 120 jobs at Pontiac Metal Center. In June 2009, GM announced that Orion would build the next-generation of
Chevrolet’s new small car.