By Benjamin Hunting
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February 12, 2012
The 2013 Buick Regal is the latest General Motors sedan to gain the automaker's eAssist mild hybrid system as its entry-level drivetrain. The Buick Regal joins the Buick LaCrosse and the Chevrolet Malibu on the eAssist roster, help it become one of the most fuel efficient entry-level mid-size premium sedans on the market.
The 2012 Buick Regal already offered the eAssist system as a $2,000 option over and above the vehicle's 2.4-liter, 182 horsepower four-cylinder motor. The Regal eAssist makes use of the same 2.4-liter power plant and pairs it with a small battery-powered electric motor - one that doesn't add any extra grunt but which does take over part of the load when driving at low speeds or accelerating up a hill. This enables the eAssist drivetrain to deliver fuel economy figures of 25 miles per gallon in city driving and 36 miles per gallon on the highway, which is an improvement of six and five miles per gallon for each respective measure when compared against the gas-only engine. Each version of the Regal is shifted via the same six-speed automatic transmission.
Pricing for the 2013 Buick Regal eAssist has yet to be released. When the decision was made to offer eAssist as standard equipment in the Buick LaCrosse the vehicle's MSRP matched that of the V-6 sedan, which indicates that there should not be a significant jump in the overall cost of the Regal. The eAssist feature has been a runaway success for Buick, with eAssist LaCrosse sales outstripping competitors from Lexus and Lincoln by a wide margin. Initial fears that buyers would be turned off by the perceived additional maintenance costs of long-term hybrid ownership appear to have been unfounded as there has been no backlash against the luxury brand for adopting a mild hybrid base model strategy.
The Buick Regal lineup will be seeing one other change for the 2013 model year as the Regal GS sport sedan gains an automatic transmission option alongside the six-speed manual that was offered for 2012. The new six-speed will provide manual control over gear changes and it also comes with a more aggressive auto-shift feature that is linked to the vehicle's Interactive Drive Control System. The performance-oriented program comes to life when the system is put into GS mode, allowing the self-shifting version of the sedan to match the manual model's 6.7 second sprint to 60-mph.
