The Buick Envision crossover made its official debut at the Auto Shanghai 2011 and here’s the first official details and images of this PHEV plug-in hybrid car.
The Envision features a daring new design which is major departure from Buick’s usual design. Of course you can’t expect to see all these features in the upcoming production models, specially those scissor doors which frankly look stupid even on the concept car!
It does have a couple of special features which might have a chance for future use, such as the two-layer traditional Buick waterfall grille, which regulates air intake to meet the demand of the power system and achieve optimized aerodynamic performance, or the porcelain-like daytime LED lamps house five “Chinese pillar-like” LED bulbs. The same sort of design is repeated at the back. The concept also features 22-inch doubled-layered aluminum alloy wheels with silicon sports tires.
This being a family crossover the car is pretty spacious inside and some unique features that to be honest are too fancy to have a chance for production. For example traditional rearview mirrors have been replaced by three micro-cameras to catch and relay images of the road to the dashboard. When the car is moving, speed, fuel consumption and navigation details are projected onto the windshield in 3-D so that the driver does not have to take his or her eyes off the road. has some more convenient features too, such as Bluetooth DUN Intelligent Internet system allows users to connect to the Web with their cell phones.
As for the technicalities, it’s powered by a 2.0-liter SIDI intelligent direct injection turbocharged engine coupled with two electric motors, linked to a dual automatic/manual eight-speed transmission with AWD. One cool feature of it is solar energy roof to provide additional charge for the battery pack.
The Envision’s compact, lightweight chassis is composed of carbon fiber, magnesium and aluminum. Mounted on an MRC electromagnetic suspension with the energy-recycle function, it offers one of the fastest magnetic ride control systems in the world. Damping can be actively regulated according to road conditions to optimize handling. With the Envision’s intelligent all-wheel-drive system, the torque output of each wheel can be adjusted at any time for all-weather driving pleasure.