American brand looks to the 1950s with wild, jet-inspired concept
That has now changed with the Buick Electra Orbit – however, as GM notes, this is simply a concept.
Conceived and developed by the GM China Advanced Design Center, the Electra Orbit is a "design exploration that marries the romance of the 1950s with futuristic technology and pure-electric architecture".
CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal.
Designers drew inspiration from "space-age spacecraft, jets, and iconic Buick concepts of the 1950s", with a rakish roofline, prominent shoulders, and a tapered, almost missile-like rea- end that gives the concept its most distinctive angle.
It's a big 'un, too – GM says it measures nearly 6m long and over 2m wide. For reference, the longest production Buick was the 1975 Electra sedan at over 5.9m long.
While the concept has a long rear overhang, its front overhang is quite short, and it has a smooth, grille-less front fascia.
The Electra Orbit rides on big 24-inch wheels – once a wild concept car touch, now standard fit on a GMC Yukon Denali – and features scissor doors and "deployable aerodynamic devices" to optimise drag and downforce.
Open those scissor doors and there's a 2+2-seat layout, with the rear seats separated by an unusual console.
Dramatically arched ambient lighting strips grace the cabin, while the seats are finished in "opulent fabrics" with a brocade pattern – another very 1950s touch, if in a different way to the Space Age exterior – in colours inspired by rich red clay.
Up front, there's a curved pillar-to-pillar display which GM calls the "Ring". Vehicle functions can be adjusted via a crystal ball-like controller on the centre console.
While the Electra Orbit concept likely won't reach production, Buick has dusted off its Electra nameplate which debuted in 1959 and was seen on a flagship model until 1990.
First used on the Electra E5 and now-defunct Electra E4 electric SUVs introduced in 2023, it's being expanded to the upcoming Electra L7 sedan.
GM confirmed in April it would make Electra a bona-fide sub-brand of Buick, offering electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) and plug-in hybrids on a new locally developed architecture called Xiao Yao.
Above: 2025 Electra E5, 2025 Electra GS concept
The American giant is doubling down on the Buick brand in China. It has long been its most popular brand there, and Buick's sales in China long ago overtook those in the US, with a raft of models developed exclusively for the brand's Chinese lineup with joint venture partner SAIC Motor.
The SAIC-GM joint venture agreement is up for renewal in 2027.
GM took a loss of more than US$5 billion on its Chinese operations late last year, but while it racked up losses in 2024, this year has been much sunnier for the American giant.
In both the first and second quarters of this year, GM and its Chinese joint ventures posted year-on-year sales growth. Its second-quarter deliveries were up by 20 per cent, marking the highest annual gain for a single quarter in four years, while overall in the first half of 2025 its sales were up by 9.4 per cent to 890,000 units.
Above: 2024 Electra-LT concept, 2025 Electra L7
Click an image to view the full gallery.
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
There have been beautiful Buicks in the past, but rarely has the General Motors brand produced anything that could be called "wild".
That has now changed with the Buick Electra Orbit – however, as GM notes, this is simply a concept.
Conceived and developed by the GM China Advanced Design Center, the Electra Orbit is a "design exploration that marries the romance of the 1950s with futuristic technology and pure-electric architecture".
CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal.
Designers drew inspiration from "space-age spacecraft, jets, and iconic Buick concepts of the 1950s", with a rakish roofline, prominent shoulders, and a tapered, almost missile-like rea- end that gives the concept its most distinctive angle.
It's a big 'un, too – GM says it measures nearly 6m long and over 2m wide. For reference, the longest production Buick was the 1975 Electra sedan at over 5.9m long.
While the concept has a long rear overhang, its front overhang is quite short, and it has a smooth, grille-less front fascia.
The Electra Orbit rides on big 24-inch wheels – once a wild concept car touch, now standard fit on a GMC Yukon Denali – and features scissor doors and "deployable aerodynamic devices" to optimise drag and downforce.
Open those scissor doors and there's a 2+2-seat layout, with the rear seats separated by an unusual console.
Dramatically arched ambient lighting strips grace the cabin, while the seats are finished in "opulent fabrics" with a brocade pattern – another very 1950s touch, if in a different way to the Space Age exterior – in colours inspired by rich red clay.
Up front, there's a curved pillar-to-pillar display which GM calls the "Ring". Vehicle functions can be adjusted via a crystal ball-like controller on the centre console.
While the Electra Orbit concept likely won't reach production, Buick has dusted off its Electra nameplate which debuted in 1959 and was seen on a flagship model until 1990.
First used on the Electra E5 and now-defunct Electra E4 electric SUVs introduced in 2023, it's being expanded to the upcoming Electra L7 sedan.
GM confirmed in April it would make Electra a bona-fide sub-brand of Buick, offering electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) and plug-in hybrids on a new locally developed architecture called Xiao Yao.
Above: 2025 Electra E5, 2025 Electra GS concept
The American giant is doubling down on the Buick brand in China. It has long been its most popular brand there, and Buick's sales in China long ago overtook those in the US, with a raft of models developed exclusively for the brand's Chinese lineup with joint venture partner SAIC Motor.
The SAIC-GM joint venture agreement is up for renewal in 2027.
GM took a loss of more than US$5 billion on its Chinese operations late last year, but while it racked up losses in 2024, this year has been much sunnier for the American giant.
In both the first and second quarters of this year, GM and its Chinese joint ventures posted year-on-year sales growth. Its second-quarter deliveries were up by 20 per cent, marking the highest annual gain for a single quarter in four years, while overall in the first half of 2025 its sales were up by 9.4 per cent to 890,000 units.
Above: 2024 Electra-LT concept, 2025 Electra L7
Click an image to view the full gallery.
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
There have been beautiful Buicks in the past, but rarely has the General Motors brand produced anything that could be called "wild".
That has now changed with the Buick Electra Orbit – however, as GM notes, this is simply a concept.
Conceived and developed by the GM China Advanced Design Center, the Electra Orbit is a "design exploration that marries the romance of the 1950s with futuristic technology and pure-electric architecture".
CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal.
Designers drew inspiration from "space-age spacecraft, jets, and iconic Buick concepts of the 1950s", with a rakish roofline, prominent shoulders, and a tapered, almost missile-like rea- end that gives the concept its most distinctive angle.
It's a big 'un, too – GM says it measures nearly 6m long and over 2m wide. For reference, the longest production Buick was the 1975 Electra sedan at over 5.9m long.
While the concept has a long rear overhang, its front overhang is quite short, and it has a smooth, grille-less front fascia.
The Electra Orbit rides on big 24-inch wheels – once a wild concept car touch, now standard fit on a GMC Yukon Denali – and features scissor doors and "deployable aerodynamic devices" to optimise drag and downforce.
Open those scissor doors and there's a 2+2-seat layout, with the rear seats separated by an unusual console.
Dramatically arched ambient lighting strips grace the cabin, while the seats are finished in "opulent fabrics" with a brocade pattern – another very 1950s touch, if in a different way to the Space Age exterior – in colours inspired by rich red clay.
Up front, there's a curved pillar-to-pillar display which GM calls the "Ring". Vehicle functions can be adjusted via a crystal ball-like controller on the centre console.
While the Electra Orbit concept likely won't reach production, Buick has dusted off its Electra nameplate which debuted in 1959 and was seen on a flagship model until 1990.
First used on the Electra E5 and now-defunct Electra E4 electric SUVs introduced in 2023, it's being expanded to the upcoming Electra L7 sedan.
GM confirmed in April it would make Electra a bona-fide sub-brand of Buick, offering electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) and plug-in hybrids on a new locally developed architecture called Xiao Yao.
Above: 2025 Electra E5, 2025 Electra GS concept
The American giant is doubling down on the Buick brand in China. It has long been its most popular brand there, and Buick's sales in China long ago overtook those in the US, with a raft of models developed exclusively for the brand's Chinese lineup with joint venture partner SAIC Motor.
The SAIC-GM joint venture agreement is up for renewal in 2027.
GM took a loss of more than US$5 billion on its Chinese operations late last year, but while it racked up losses in 2024, this year has been much sunnier for the American giant.
In both the first and second quarters of this year, GM and its Chinese joint ventures posted year-on-year sales growth. Its second-quarter deliveries were up by 20 per cent, marking the highest annual gain for a single quarter in four years, while overall in the first half of 2025 its sales were up by 9.4 per cent to 890,000 units.
Above: 2024 Electra-LT concept, 2025 Electra L7
Click an image to view the full gallery.
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
There have been beautiful Buicks in the past, but rarely has the General Motors brand produced anything that could be called "wild".
That has now changed with the Buick Electra Orbit – however, as GM notes, this is simply a concept.
Conceived and developed by the GM China Advanced Design Center, the Electra Orbit is a "design exploration that marries the romance of the 1950s with futuristic technology and pure-electric architecture".
CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal.
Designers drew inspiration from "space-age spacecraft, jets, and iconic Buick concepts of the 1950s", with a rakish roofline, prominent shoulders, and a tapered, almost missile-like rea- end that gives the concept its most distinctive angle.
It's a big 'un, too – GM says it measures nearly 6m long and over 2m wide. For reference, the longest production Buick was the 1975 Electra sedan at over 5.9m long.
While the concept has a long rear overhang, its front overhang is quite short, and it has a smooth, grille-less front fascia.
The Electra Orbit rides on big 24-inch wheels – once a wild concept car touch, now standard fit on a GMC Yukon Denali – and features scissor doors and "deployable aerodynamic devices" to optimise drag and downforce.
Open those scissor doors and there's a 2+2-seat layout, with the rear seats separated by an unusual console.
Dramatically arched ambient lighting strips grace the cabin, while the seats are finished in "opulent fabrics" with a brocade pattern – another very 1950s touch, if in a different way to the Space Age exterior – in colours inspired by rich red clay.
Up front, there's a curved pillar-to-pillar display which GM calls the "Ring". Vehicle functions can be adjusted via a crystal ball-like controller on the centre console.
While the Electra Orbit concept likely won't reach production, Buick has dusted off its Electra nameplate which debuted in 1959 and was seen on a flagship model until 1990.
First used on the Electra E5 and now-defunct Electra E4 electric SUVs introduced in 2023, it's being expanded to the upcoming Electra L7 sedan.
GM confirmed in April it would make Electra a bona-fide sub-brand of Buick, offering electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) and plug-in hybrids on a new locally developed architecture called Xiao Yao.
Above: 2025 Electra E5, 2025 Electra GS concept
The American giant is doubling down on the Buick brand in China. It has long been its most popular brand there, and Buick's sales in China long ago overtook those in the US, with a raft of models developed exclusively for the brand's Chinese lineup with joint venture partner SAIC Motor.
The SAIC-GM joint venture agreement is up for renewal in 2027.
GM took a loss of more than US$5 billion on its Chinese operations late last year, but while it racked up losses in 2024, this year has been much sunnier for the American giant.
In both the first and second quarters of this year, GM and its Chinese joint ventures posted year-on-year sales growth. Its second-quarter deliveries were up by 20 per cent, marking the highest annual gain for a single quarter in four years, while overall in the first half of 2025 its sales were up by 9.4 per cent to 890,000 units.
Above: 2024 Electra-LT concept, 2025 Electra L7
Click an image to view the full gallery.
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
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Acura began mining its nameplate history in 2022 when it released the Integra liftback, basically a lightly restyled Honda Civic equipped with its most powerful engines. Sold for just one generation from 2002, the original RSX (above) was a rebranded fourth-generation Integra. Unlike the Integra, which was available in both three- and five-door liftback guises, the RSX only ever came with three doors. When it departed the scene in 2006, it became the last-ever non-NSX coupe from the brand, and ended the brand's opening era where it deliberately courted young enthusiasts. The shift from Integra to RSX came at the tail end of the marque's dumping of its original model names: Legend for RL, Vigor for TL, and Integra for RSX. The shift to letters was reportedly due to a desire to focus owners' affections on the overall marque rather than individual models. MORE: Everything Honda Content originally sourced from: The Acura RSX is the latest sporty nameplate from yesteryear that's been revived, and reimagined for the modern automotive landscape. Instead of being a sporting-ish three-door coupe, the new RSX is a high-riding five-door SUV with an "expressive coupe-like silhouette". Scheduled to make its in-the-flesh debut at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this weekend, the RSX Prototype is in true Honda fashion a very thinly disguised version of the production vehicle, with the wing mirror design likely the only change. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. It will be the first production model based on Honda's new in-house EV platform, and will be manufactured in the company's Ohio factory. Sales of the new RSX will begin in the second half of 2026. According to Acura, the production RSX will have a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, double wishbone front suspension, and Brembo brakes as standard. No word yet on outputs, performance figures, battery capacities, or range. It will also feature the company's new Asimo OS that controls not only the infotainment system, but also driver assistance, autonomous driving, and basic hardware functions. Likened to a smartphone operating system — not to mention OSes in other brands, such as Tesla and Rivian — Asimo OS supports over-the-air updates, high levels of driver customisation, connected services, and machine learning to adapt to the driver's entertainment and driving preferences. The RSX is the second model name Acura has brought back from the dead for an electric SUV; the ZDX holds the honour of being the first. While the second-generation ZDX stayed true to the coupe SUV silhouette of the original, it and the closely related Honda Prologue are actually Honda designs on top of GM's BEV3 platform. Both not only use GM's EV technology, but are built by the General. Acura began mining its nameplate history in 2022 when it released the Integra liftback, basically a lightly restyled Honda Civic equipped with its most powerful engines. Sold for just one generation from 2002, the original RSX (above) was a rebranded fourth-generation Integra. Unlike the Integra, which was available in both three- and five-door liftback guises, the RSX only ever came with three doors. When it departed the scene in 2006, it became the last-ever non-NSX coupe from the brand, and ended the brand's opening era where it deliberately courted young enthusiasts. The shift from Integra to RSX came at the tail end of the marque's dumping of its original model names: Legend for RL, Vigor for TL, and Integra for RSX. The shift to letters was reportedly due to a desire to focus owners' affections on the overall marque rather than individual models. MORE: Everything Honda Content originally sourced from: The Acura RSX is the latest sporty nameplate from yesteryear that's been revived, and reimagined for the modern automotive landscape. Instead of being a sporting-ish three-door coupe, the new RSX is a high-riding five-door SUV with an "expressive coupe-like silhouette". Scheduled to make its in-the-flesh debut at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this weekend, the RSX Prototype is in true Honda fashion a very thinly disguised version of the production vehicle, with the wing mirror design likely the only change. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. It will be the first production model based on Honda's new in-house EV platform, and will be manufactured in the company's Ohio factory. Sales of the new RSX will begin in the second half of 2026. According to Acura, the production RSX will have a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, double wishbone front suspension, and Brembo brakes as standard. No word yet on outputs, performance figures, battery capacities, or range. It will also feature the company's new Asimo OS that controls not only the infotainment system, but also driver assistance, autonomous driving, and basic hardware functions. Likened to a smartphone operating system — not to mention OSes in other brands, such as Tesla and Rivian — Asimo OS supports over-the-air updates, high levels of driver customisation, connected services, and machine learning to adapt to the driver's entertainment and driving preferences. The RSX is the second model name Acura has brought back from the dead for an electric SUV; the ZDX holds the honour of being the first. While the second-generation ZDX stayed true to the coupe SUV silhouette of the original, it and the closely related Honda Prologue are actually Honda designs on top of GM's BEV3 platform. Both not only use GM's EV technology, but are built by the General. Acura began mining its nameplate history in 2022 when it released the Integra liftback, basically a lightly restyled Honda Civic equipped with its most powerful engines. Sold for just one generation from 2002, the original RSX (above) was a rebranded fourth-generation Integra. Unlike the Integra, which was available in both three- and five-door liftback guises, the RSX only ever came with three doors. When it departed the scene in 2006, it became the last-ever non-NSX coupe from the brand, and ended the brand's opening era where it deliberately courted young enthusiasts. The shift from Integra to RSX came at the tail end of the marque's dumping of its original model names: Legend for RL, Vigor for TL, and Integra for RSX. The shift to letters was reportedly due to a desire to focus owners' affections on the overall marque rather than individual models. MORE: Everything Honda Content originally sourced from:
7NEWS
11 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Honda revives sporty name from the past for first model on new EV platform
The Acura RSX is the latest sporty nameplate from yesteryear that's been revived, and reimagined for the modern automotive landscape. Instead of being a sporting-ish three-door coupe, the new RSX is a high-riding five-door SUV with an 'expressive coupe-like silhouette'. Scheduled to make its in-the-flesh debut at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this weekend, the RSX Prototype is in true Honda fashion a very thinly disguised version of the production vehicle, with the wing mirror design likely the only change. It will be the first production model based on Honda's new in-house EV platform, and will be manufactured in the company's Ohio factory. Sales of the new RSX will begin in the second half of 2026. According to Acura, the production RSX will have a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, double wishbone front suspension, and Brembo brakes as standard. No word yet on outputs, performance figures, battery capacities, or range. It will also feature the company's new Asimo OS that controls not only the infotainment system, but also driver assistance, autonomous driving, and basic hardware functions. Likened to a smartphone operating system — not to mention OSes in other brands, such as Tesla and Rivian — Asimo OS supports over-the-air updates, high levels of driver customisation, connected services, and machine learning to adapt to the driver's entertainment and driving preferences. The RSX is the second model name Acura has brought back from the dead for an electric SUV; the ZDX holds the honour of being the first. While the second-generation ZDX stayed true to the coupe SUV silhouette of the original, it and the closely related Honda Prologue are actually Honda designs on top of GM's BEV3 platform. Both not only use GM's EV technology, but are built by the General. Acura began mining its nameplate history in 2022 when it released the Integra liftback, basically a lightly restyled Honda Civic equipped with its most powerful engines. Sold for just one generation from 2002, the original RSX (above) was a rebranded fourth-generation Integra. Unlike the Integra, which was available in both three- and five-door liftback guises, the RSX only ever came with three doors. When it departed the scene in 2006, it became the last-ever non-NSX coupe from the brand, and ended the brand's opening era where it deliberately courted young enthusiasts. The shift from Integra to RSX came at the tail end of the marque's dumping of its original model names: Legend for RL, Vigor for TL, and Integra for RSX. The shift to letters was reportedly due to a desire to focus owners' affections on the overall marque rather than individual models.
