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Buick has best sales year ever, delivers over 1M cars globally

If there are any lingering doubts why General Motors held onto Buick while killing Pontiac, Hummer and Saturn, one only has to look at the sales numbers from 2013 for the real answer. Thanks largely to strong sales in China, Buick set a global sales record last year by selling more than one million vehicles.
The lion's share of Buick sales came from China, which sold more than 809,000 units - about four times more Buicks than were sold in North America as a whole. In the US, the Buick Encore accounted for almost half of all US sales with 97,311 units as Buick spent the summer trying to keep up with demand of the subcompact crossover. Likewise, China-only models like the GL8 minivan and Excelle sedan (same as the US-spec Verano) were strong sellers in that market.
For good measure, Buick more than doubled its sales in Mexico with 2,319 units. Scroll down for the full press release.

GM China President says automaker could export vehicles from China to US

At a press conference on Saturday at the Shanghai Motor Show, General Motors announced plans to further expand its presence in the Chinese market. Among those commitments are plans to build four new plants by the end of 2015, giving the automaker the capacity to produce around five million vehicles a year in the country.
In order to make the most of that expansion, GM is adding 400 dealerships in China this year alone (for a total of 4,200 sales points), and it's eyeing 5,100 dealers by 2015. Yet not all of that production will stay in China - GM is planning to increase exports as well. Officials estimate the company will export somewhere between 100,000 and 130,000 Chinese-built vehicles this year - a record. And it's gunning for more.
Autoblog asked GM China president Bob Socia (above) if that means the company might eventually export new vehicles built in China to the United States, and he responded:

Chevy Bolt-based prototype may be a Buick EV for China

Late last spring, we got a look at a GM prototype that was clearly based on the Chevy Bolt EV, but with updated styling. It seemed like it could be a more crossover-styled Bolt, given the recently trademarked name of EUV. Now we get another look at the prototype, but the bodywork seems less suggestive of a Chevy, and more of a Buick. This vehicle definitely still appears to be based on the Bolt, rather than on another small GM platform. In the photos of it next to the current model, the size, wheelbase and profile are extremely similar. There are differences, though. The nose isn't as sloped or as rounded, and the rear window kicks up a little earlier. The biggest changes are in the front and rear fascias, and it's here that we see hints of Buick. There are prominent air inlets on each side of the front bumper that give the car a more aggressive look. The headlights still have a fairly rounded, organic look, but with little extensions like fangs underneath. The styled running-light section, rounded shape and the smoked lenses seem very Buick-like. The grille features a large badge that doesn't fit the shape of a bow-tie, and is more that of a round logo like Buick's. Around at the back, the full-width taillights stand out, and in the middle there is obviously a round badge, again like a Buick. The wide taillights would also be a natural evolution of Buick's current light design language that uses somewhat wide and thin lights. The rear bumper has been redesigned with new lower taillights. Now that we've established that this seems very much like a Buick, we don't think we'll see this particular version offered here with the badge. This is more likely a Buick version of the Bolt for the Chinese market, where the brand is associated with luxury and has been the spearhead for GM's electric and hybrid models. In fact, the Chevy Volt hybrid was sold there as the Buick Velite 5, which was part of a family of a electrified Velite models. This would probably also carry a Velite badge as well. While we might not see this specific Buick variant, we probably will see it offered as a Chevy in some form. With its more aggressive, crossover shape, it could be the rumored EUV model. Or it could be just a refresh of the current Bolt, since the model has been largely unchanged since its introduction for the 2017 model year. And extrapolating from this prototype, we can see how the headlights could be tweaked to tie into those air scoops as on the Suburban and Silverado.