What you’re looking at is the new Buick Encore II
and despite what you may be thinking, the vehicle pictured is expected to be
quite a bit different from the new Encore bound for the U.S. This Buick
Encore is specifically for the Chinese market.
Set to be sold by GM alongside the
recently-previewed Chevrolet Tracker, the new Buick Encore is a more up-market
version of the latter. Comparing the two cars in the available pictures, we see
that while they maintain the same proportions, the Buick gets different
sheetmetal.
China’s new Encore adopts a unique front with sleek
headlights that seamlessly flow into a chrome element stretching across the
front grille, the styling language of which is strongly reminiscent of Opel
products. It also has simpler round
arches rather than the squared-off housings of the Tracker. Viewed from the
rear, you’ll see smaller taillights and a tailgate similar in shape to the
Tracker’s.
Chinese customers of the new Encore will reportedly
only be offered a 1.0-liter turbocharged engine producing 114 hp and sipping
5.5-liters of fuel per 100 km (42 US mpg). Both the next Chevrolet Trax and
the new Buick Encore bound for North America have been spied testing on
multiple occasions in recent months and have different, more angular bodies
than their Chinese counterparts.
It also appears that the U.S. models may have a
slightly shorter wheelbase that forms part of GM’s new VSS-S platform. The two
North American market models will continue to be powered by small displacement
four-cylinder turbo engines, but we could see GM adding an electrified variant
as well.
