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Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

  • All four GM brands posted declines, with Buick falling the hardest.
  • Chevy’s EV lineup had a brutal quarter, with one model dropping 83%.
  • GMC was the only brand that came through largely unscathed.

Buick was on a roll as the affordable Envista was bringing new customers into showrooms, while the redesigned Enclave proved popular. Then, seemingly overnight, the brand decided to roll over and play dead.

The automaker hasn’t issued a proper press release in nearly two years and many people associated with their marketing efforts fled for greener pastures at Stellantis. If that wasn’t bad enough, GM basically abandoned Buick’s electrification plans in the United States.

More: Buick Delays Plan To Launch First EV In America

Thanks to these and other issues, sales are tanking – hard. In the first quarter, deliveries plunged 32.6% to a mere 41,654 units. The big loser was the Chinese-built Envision, which received a $3,000 price hike for 2026 as the model is getting hammered by tariffs.

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

The decline doesn’t appear to be an availability issue as dealers have more than 9,000 Envisions in stock. That’s roughly six months of supply, suggesting demand is lacking.

If losers love company, Buick had a lot to celebrate as the Encore GX was off by 36%, while the Envista was down 9.7%. Even the Enclave struggled as sales dropped 3.3%.

Cadillac’s Big Bet On EVs Is Having Mixed Results

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

When the electric vehicle tax credit was eliminated last year, sales plummeted. That continues and has put Cadillac in a tough spot as they have an EV-laden lineup.

Lyriq sales fell 21.6%, while the Escalade IQ dropped 26.8%. However, the Optiq soared 65.9% thanks to significant powertrain updates as well as the addition of the Optiq-V. The three-row Vistiq also seems to be doing okay as the company moved 1,902 units in the first quarter.

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On the gas side of the equation, the outgoing CT4 saw sales surge 27.4%, but that only equates to an additional 333 vehicles. Elsewhere in the lineup, the CT5 was down 13.3% while the Escalade was off 28.5%. The XT4, XT5, and XT6 are all dead or almost dead, so we’ll skip them like buyers did.

Given all of this, it’s hardly surprising that overall Cadillac sales dropped 25.5%.

Chevrolet Had A Rough Quarter

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

Over in bowtie land, it’s an EV bloodbath. The Blazer EV plummeted 82.6% to a mere 1,077 units. The Equinox EV was off 7.2%, while the Silverado EV fell 41%.

Even the resurrected Bolt seems like a failure as the company only moved 791 units. That’s less than 270 per month and it seems like the model’s death and rebirth was a giant waste of time, effort, and resources.

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

The only bright spot was the deceased Brightdrop vans, which saw sales soar 81%. However, this was likely driven by a fire sale with six figure discounts.

Putting EVs aside, overall sales fell 8.1% as numerous models struggled including the Blazer (-26.3%), Colorado (-16.5%), Corvette (-8.2%), Equinox (-13.5%), Trailblazer (-6.3%), Tahoe (-10.0%), and Suburban (-14.0%). Traverse sales climbed 33.6% and the Silverado 1500 was up 7.9%, but they couldn’t offset the overall decline.

GMC Did Okay

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

GMC had the best performance as sales were only down 0.2%. The Acadia tied last year’s result as the company once again sold 13,257 crossovers. The Colorado was up 21.2%, while the Terrain soared 35.2%. Even the Sierra EV saw a slight 3.1% improvement, but that only equates to an additional 39 pickups as sales were terrible to begin with.

Speaking of EVs, the Hummer lineup plunged 52.5% despite a handful of updates for the 2026 model year. Sierra 1500, 2500, and 3500 sales also fell as did those for the Yukon.

A Bad Quarter Overall

 Buick Rolled Over And Played Dead, So Did Sales

Zooming out even further, GM’s total sales fell 9.7% to 626,429 units. The automaker tried to put a positive spin on things as they said “momentum in March helped results partially recover from a slower January and February, when winter storms impacted the market.” GM added they’re leading in U.S. sales and gained an additional 50,000 Super Cruise subscribers.

2026 GM Q1 Sales
ModelQ1 26Q1 25% Chg
Enclave10,69911,067-3.3
Encore GX13,05220,408-36.0
Envision4,48515,485-71.0
Envista13,41814,862-9.7
Buick Total41,65461,822-32.6
CT41,5471,21427.4
CTS3,4513,981-13.3
Escalade9,06312,683-28.5
ESCALADE IQ1,4321,956-26.8
LYRIQ3,3704,300-21.6
OPTIQ2,8471,71665.9
VISTIQ1,9021190100.0
XT41274,775-97.3
XT55,3436,353-15.9
XT62,0164,778-57.8
Cadillac Total31,09841,757-25.5
Blazer10,70014,510-26.3
Blazer EV1,0776,187-82.6
Bolt791135984.6
BrightDrop 400 / 600 49627481.0
Colorado21,59625,856-16.5
Corvette6,2356,794-8.2
Equinox61,39871,002-13.5
Equinox EV9,58910,329-7.2
Express12,48812,3710.9
LCF857991-13.5
Malibu1375,369-97.4
Silverado HD41,73847,099-11.4
Silverado LD84,40178,1997.9
Silverado MD1,2732,033-37.4
Silverado EV1,4062,383-41.0
TOTAL Silverado128,818129,714-0.7
Suburban11,69613,594-14.0
Tahoe26,83629,827-10.0
Trailblazer27,47529,323-6.3
Traverse37,84928,33133.6
Trax49,70659,021-15.8
Chevrolet Total407,747443,564-8.1
Acadia13,25713,2570.0
Canyon11,0279,09621.2
HUMMER EV (Pickup and SUV)1,6533,479-52.5
Savana2,2332,575-13.3
Sierra HD22,46224,401-7.9
Sierra LD51,85752,891-2.0
Sierra EV1,2881,2493.1
TOTAL Sierra75,60778,541-3.7
Terrain21,56715,94835.2
Yukon20,58623,324-11.7
GMC Total145,930146,220-0.2
GM Total626,429693,363-9.7
SWIPE

GM Pauses Production Of Two Hyped-Up EVs, Sending 1,300 Workers Home

  • GM’s Factory Zero will be idled from March 16 to April 13.
  • Shutdown affects 1,300 workers, who face temporary layoff.
  • Hummer EV sales dropped nearly 50 percent in Q4 2025.

Demand for GM’s electric vehicles in the US is so poor that the carmaker has revealed Factory Zero in Detroit, its all-electric vehicle hub, will be idled until April 13. Production at the site has already been paused since March 16, so it’ll be offline for almost an entire month.

Due to the production pause, roughly 1,300 workers will be temporarily laid off by the car manufacturer. This news is just the latest blow for those who work at the site, as output at Factory Zero was already cut by almost 50 percent in January when it moved to a single-shift operation. This prompted GM to put 1,200 workers on indefinite layoff.

Read: GM Is Boosting Production Of Its Biggest Gas Guzzlers, Fuel Prices Be Damned

The plant handles production of models including the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Hummer EV, but sales have slowed since the US government axed the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

In the last quarter of 2025, Chevy sold 1,896 Silverado EVs, down 12.9 percent from the 2,176 in 2024. Interestingly, total 2025 sales reached 11,275, which was 51.8 percent higher than 2024.

GMC Hummer EV Collapse

 GM Pauses Production Of Two Hyped-Up EVs, Sending 1,300 Workers Home

The GMC Hummer EV is starting to feel the effects of shifting government policy. Sales dropped 49.8 percent in the final quarter of 2025, falling from 5,091 units to 2,555. That slide carried straight into 2026, with just 1,653 units moved in Q1, down 52.5 percent from the 3,479 sold a year earlier.

The GMC Sierra EV, meanwhile, managed to buck the trend. It posted 1,288 deliveries in Q1 2026, narrowly beating the 1,249 units from the same period in 2025. In a tough stretch for Factory Zero, that modest gain stands out as one of the few positives.

Like some of the competition, GM is pulling back from its EV commitments, confirming it will take $7.6 billion in charges for scaling back its EV spending. While GM boss Mary Barra still refers to EVs as the company’s “end game,” The General is making changes in the meantime. This includes working on several plug-in hybrid models, details of which still remain thin on the ground.

GM also recently announced it’s boosting production of some of its biggest gas guzzlers, namely the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500, in addition to the GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500.

 GM Pauses Production Of Two Hyped-Up EVs, Sending 1,300 Workers Home
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