Employees work on a Buick Envision SUV at General Motors’ Dongyue Assembly Plant (officially known as SAIC-GM Dongyue Automobile Co., Ltd.) in Yantai, Shandong Province, China, on November 17, 2022.
Tang Ke | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Detroit — general motors The company confirmed Thursday that it plans to move production of Buick small SUVs from China to the United States for domestic sales.
GM says the next-generation vehicle will be produced at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, starting in 2028. Buick’s compact SUV produced in the United States will be sold domestically, meaning the vehicle will continue to be produced in China and may be sold in other countries as well.
The move comes amid increasingly tense relations between the U.S. and China, with President Donald Trump pressuring companies to build onshore production and auto tariffs.
The Detroit automaker has been producing the Buick Envision compact SUV for the U.S. market in China since 2017. However, the company did not reveal the name of the next-generation vehicle that will be transferred to the United States.
“General Motors will begin land-based production of the next-generation Buick compact SUV at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City starting in 2028. This decision builds on $5.5 billion in new investments announced across our U.S. manufacturing footprint last year, further strengthening GM’s domestic manufacturing footprint and supporting U.S. jobs,” GM said in an emailed statement.
The compact Buick is expected to join production of the gas-powered Chevrolet Equinox at the Kansas plant, following limited production of the all-electric Chevrolet Volt. According to GM, production of the Equinox is scheduled to begin in 2027.
Envision sales in the U.S. have exceeded 40,000 units over the past three years, accounting for about a quarter of Buick sales over the same period.
Reuters first reported GM’s decision to produce the Buick small SUV in the United States.
