General Motors’ Buick — perhaps the oldest existing name in U.S. car brands — is trying to re-introduce itself to younger American consumers who associate it with a stuffier generation. But Buick is a hit in China, with a number of models manufactured specifically for the local market. One of those cars — the Buick Envision — may end up being GM’s first China-made car to be imported to the U.S.

This is according to the Wall Street Journal’s shy-but-knowledgeable “people familiar with the plan,” who say that GM wants to start by importing around 30,000 to 40,000 midsize Envision SUVs to America.

GM has been making these cars in China to fill the increasing demand of a large country that is playing catch-up with much of the world in terms of motor vehicles.

With labor costs still low in China — and with GM having recently signed a new union contract in the U.S. — it apparently makes sense for the company to siphon off some of those China-made vehicles and ship them back to America.

If this happens, it would be GM’s first car imported from China to the U.S., and the first for a major American car company. Earlier this year, Volvo Car Corp. — which was sold by Ford to China’s Geely Holding Group in 2010 — announced its intention to bring the first China-made vehicles to U.S. consumers.

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