Buick Exelle hatch to get 2.0Turbo, thats 220BHP to you and me.

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Buick are throwing their hat into the Chinese hot hatch segment, and plan on giving the Chinese built Golf GTI a good thrashing with its latest offering, a Buick Excelle hatch with a 2.0T engine. If you’re shocked, elated or reaching for the defibrillator in a blind panic like we were, then you know exactly what this means. The Golf GTI does have quite the bit of legacy behind it, but it looks like Buick are trying to give it a good run for its money with some competition from its own stable. The 2.0T will be borrowed from the Buick Regal 2.0T which is already fantastically fast, but when you put it into a car that weighs 200kg less, it will no doubt fly like a Concorde.

The Chinese built Golf GTI is good for 200BHP, which it derives from its 2.0TSI engine, the Buick Excelle hatch with a 2.0T block will get 220bhp. So the difference on the BHP scale is 20, so lets take a look at the particulars, but in this case we will take the stats from the Buick Regal 2.0T which will be donating its block the Excelle.

Golf GTI
Weight:1460kg
BHP: 200
Kw: 147
Torque (Nm):280
0-100kph: 7.1

Regal 2.0T
Weight: 1650kg
BHP: 220
Torque (Nm): 350
0-100kph: 7.7

So the Regal is a much bigger car, the Excelle on the other hand is a feather weight weighing in at 1475kg, plus the Regal takes 93# gasoline rather than the more expensive 97# gasoline.

The Buick Regal 2.0T is going to launch in the USA later this year, which got American car fans in a tizzy when they learned that it would be in manual form as well. It’s likely that the Excelle range of sedan and hatch are likely to make it Stateside sometime in the next year now that GM USA are actually wearing their small car hat and are actively listening to a younger audience of car buyers.

When the Excelle 2.0T launches in China later this year, it will be priced at around 220,000rmb making it comparable to the Golf GTI’s 224,000rmb. The hot hatch war is about to get very hot, who will be next to launch a new model? The Mazda3 MPS has been rumoured to be considering a Chinese launch, but that has yet to be seen.