The 2016 Cadillac CT6 is the first fruit of General Motors’ labors to perfect the idea of spot welding between aluminum and steel. The process eliminates the need for rivets between the different materials, cutting costs and added weight in the process.
But, GM won’t keep this technique in house. WardsAuto reports GM will happily license out the technology. The patented technology includes a GM engineered welding tip, which still fits to conventional welding tools. Therefore, new setups are not required, only the welding tip.
As for GM, it will begin to use the technology increasingly more in upcoming product. During the automaker’s lightweighting debrief, it announced the technology will soon be applied to seatback construction, followed by vehicle hoods.
GM also announced its intentions to offer carbon fiber wheels for future product, and teased the idea of magnesium inner door panels in the future, too.
Comments
I do not like this idea along with anything else that takes away GM’s competitive advantage over another automaker.
This patented process gives GM (Cadillac) a competitive advantage over it’s competition who by law can not copy the same process and have to spend their resources to develop their own process.
Using this process makes Cadillacs lighter and stronger than it’s competition. It’s an advantage which Cadillac can use to build the brand. Selling the rights to use the process to a competitor negates that advantage.
I feel the same way about the 10 speed automatic developed with Ford. It looks to be a very good transmission but GM should have done it themselves. There is enough volume throughout GM worldwide to justify it.
Unrelated but similar, I do not agree with GM buying Nissan’s NV200 and re-badging it as the Chevrolet City Express.
The auto industry in particular is about being better than the competition. There are many magazines dedicated just to comparing one against the other (Car and Driver, Road & Track, Motortrend, etc.).
Sales are won or lost by comparison shopping so to lose a competitive advantage so crucial as weight and cost savings is a mistake.
While I see the business benefits (they still have to pay for that license), I certainly see that other side as well. After all, imagine the competitive edge if only Cadillac and GMC were allowed to use magnetic ride control.
That is my point.
I do not have an issue with the technology being spread throughout the GM empire but not to other manufacturers.
Actually this is not really a bad thing.
It is much like the deal they made with BMW to make them a Transmission. BMW paid for all the development and GM got the Tranny paid for and to use at their will.
In this case they can sell this technology as a license and collect on it for years making a good income on it. They will not just sell it for a one time price but like a computer program they will sell it for the long term.
This will provide income as well as seed money for even more advance systems.
Think of this as a product that just keeps on giving. They will lease the technology or if they do sell it they will sell it a very high price and will use the money to make even better things that will replace this. Keep in mind when they sell off something often they already have even better in the wings to replace it.
Add to this they may be the only distributor of the new tips too.
I get that there are benefits to the practice but again it eliminates GM’s competitive advantage against a rival.
You missed my point that often when they sell off things like this they are already on to the next new thing that is over what the technology they are selling is.
Besides it is not like that they may not develop their own way to weld or bond the two materials on their own. There is more than one way to do this.
I did not miss your point. Likely you are correct that they have already moved onto developing the next ‘big’ innovation and other manufacturers undoubtedly will develop their own process but until that next big innovation or others catch up why not milk the exclusivity of being the only ones that are doing it for as long as possible.
Licensing the rights to others negates that advantage immediately.
Generally they do not give anything away till they do have something.
Also when you make money on your cars and now make money on the compititions cars that you keep out of their R&D budget and plow back into your own i would think it is a very tactical advantage.
Like I said you can sell it to them and make money or they just come up with their own anyways.
Keep in mind the advantage would hold about 5 years on the others as it would take them 5 years and a new platform to develop that can use these materials to build a car. Say Ford can not just go slap on unibodies with aluminum and steel on the present platform, Like the Omega makes use of it but the Alpha does not as it is not engineered for it yet.
Trust me GM is not giving away a thing here.
Regarding GM’s competitive advantage against their rivals – let me mention Cadillac with its newest CT6:
1. WIth all due respect to GM as of now (I’m myself driving GM vehicle right now, it’s 2010 Buick LaCrosse), GM greatly screwed up Cadillac’s brand image since 80’s with things in particular, but certainly not limited to, Cadillac Cimarron, so Cadillac’s brand perception among the luxury car buyers is not among the ranks of MB, BMW, Audi and Porsche.
2. Besides, the performance is generally not there too (excluding the V series). Consider CT6 – all those weight saving body improvements and achievements are awesome – but why there is no V8 option now in CT6? Or no CT6-V?
Wealthy lawyers or doctors or managers in North America, willing to show off their status, will still buy some big sedan from some of the German makes – simply because these have more fancy brand image and these have turbo V8s available and so more hp under the hood. After all, CT6, largest and overall most advanced American sedan (again, I’m not counting V series) in its top version has “only” 3.0 liter V6! Yes, twin turbo, yes, 400 hp, but still not enough performance and “bragging rights” for its intended audience. CT6 target group may not know about or truly appreciate CT6 advanced body technology, and so CT6 merits may not help to sell it that much, after all, because it’s target audience are generally not GM or Cadillac fans/geeks.
I think the CTS’s interior looks better than the CT6’s.
GM cheap the car way too much by not offering color-matched leather padded airbag cover on the steering wheel, no soft-closed doors and motorized rear door sunshades. I will hold judgement on the lower door and side console plastic panels and see if they really are cheap or have mid-grade plastics.
Although the CT6 is gorgeous, this car kinda reminds me of a very huge improved Deville/DTS, IMO.
Well you are correct there has been a lot of damage and it was more than just the Cimarron. The 8-6-4 v8 the Diesels the down sized FWD Cadillacs of the 80’s, the Catera, N star engines with blown head gaskets etc.
It will take time and continued investment and good product to earn that trust back. But the rub here is they are making money now and will continue to make money as it is easy in this segment.
As for performance Drive a CTS V sport TT V6 and tell me it is not a performance car. The CT6 has a TTV8 coming, GM just could not afford to do the car and all the engines at once so it will be here in a year or so. Also I suspect it has received some changes by the new management with the better budget.
The fact is the wealthy buy because of reputation mostly. It took BMW 10-15 years to really estabish itself here with the 3 series through the 70’s and 80’s. Audi started a turn around with the 5000 then had a major 60 minutes set back and has to relaunch that has taken another 15-20 years to get where they are today.
The key here is you do not have to be the biggest volume maker here to win. You just need to work to gain a rep and continue to grow sales and image with each model. As it is profits are here now and it lets you take the time to get it right and keep the return on the dollar coming in. This is not the high volume low profit segment.
The Thing you need to remember is the CT6 is not a product of this administration. It was started and built under another manager. Now with that said they still had to play this model as it already was done. They will make the best of it and continue on a CT8 that from last report is not canceled. This car will bring with it the new thinking.
For the CT6 it will do no harm here and continue to enhance Cadillac’s image. It is not a race car so do not expect a V version. This car will carry the load in China where the XTS was popular and this one should do even better.
As for HP the power is what it is now and the game is to lose weight. They all will move into a race to cut weight. As I have said weight loss is the new HP war.
Note with less weight sure you get better MPG but you also shorten stopping distance and increase handling potential. That is two things more HP will never add but you still increase acceleration with less weight.
The V12 engines and the like will fade away accept for the most low volume cars like RR and Bentley. Maybe a Maybach Benz at best and GM is not ready to take that on for a good while yet.
TiGr1982..you are kind of making my point which why would Cadillac want to share with it’s rivals?
To your points;
1) Brand image.. yes the Cimarron and also the Catera did nothing but harm Cadillac’s brand image but that is why when there is a innovative technology that is developed in house they should not share it. Cadillac should use it to bolster the image of their brand. With the patented aluminum to steel welding technology Cadillac can accurately say ‘we do this better that you’.
2) No V8 in the CT6;
There is an exclusive Cadillac only 4.2TT V8 motor on the horizon for the CT6 and others in the very near future. It is suggested that they engine will be a N.A. exclusive since there would be a very low take rate in China due to their displacement regulations.
That engine should up the performance in the CT6 and offer some bragging rights.
From what I have read there is unlikely to be a CT6-V but a V-Sport variant is very likely.
I agree with you that to play in the market where the affluent and wealthy reside that product has to not only be exceptional but also brag worthy because in the majority of cases it is about image.
How many people brag ” Oh I have aluminum welded to steel”?
Not exactly brag material at the country club is it?
Now DOHC TT V8 and load the car up on technology and comfort items you can actually show in a very compelling design then you have what people want to show off.
Things like this welding operation and cylinder deactivation are things few speak or even care about.
The owners are more into how does this car reflect on me as in image and to do that it takes tangible things you can see or show off.
Well they would brag that the CT6 is lighter, stiffer and handles better though.
TiGr1982 I’m glad you wrote that. Everywhere, even in the GMI forums, you have people who argue that FWD-based AWD and a TTV6 is all people need, and that luxury buyers can’t tell the difference between different fundamental mechanical setups, or that they’ll never reach the car’s full potential. They all seem to miss the point: bragging rights.
The cold, honest truth is that nobody is 100% indifferent to how other see them. A lot of our self worth is wrapped up in our possessions, and what we drive is one of the biggest ones next to our house. Automakers, journalists, and anyone with an opinion on cars needs to face the fact that enthusiast or not, people talk about their cars, people make comparisons between their driveway and their neighbor’s.
With that, I have one question for any Cadillac executive: When someone wakes up with your car in their driveway, will they have something to brag to their neighbor about?
/rant
So, gentlemen, so may agree here in understanding that FWD-biased AWD and a TT V6 – like in Cadillac XTS Vsport and new Lincoln Continental – may be actually “all the people need” – but this is just from the point of view of middle class car geeks – who can not exactly afford S63 4MATIC or especially S65 (nothing bad meant towards middle class at all, I’m also just a middle class myself).
However, as I said, in that luxury market segment, which we are mentioning here, it’s all about bragging rights – and self-esteem 🙂
So, S63, being RWD-biased 4 MATIC with TT V8 – or even S65, being just “plain” RWD, but with V12, “works better” in that upper luxury market 🙂
And so, it’s still odd to me, that Americans, being well-renowned for their muscle cars – back then and now – haven’t put any powerful V8 with enormous torque into CT6 as of yet – not necessarily that to-be-released new and advanced 4.2 TT V8, mentioned in this thread and here on this site few months before, but any other reasonable powerful V8 GM has now.
So, until they do, to me, they are missing a market for this kind of cars with CT6.
And Scott3’s argument that CT6 is not a sports car, so it does not need a V version, is true to me – but maybe not to that market, because AMG S63 4MATIC, S65 and 760i, Mulsanne or any RR sedan are no sports cars as well too. But they all do have these beasty V8 TT or even V12 engines with “locomotive” torque and tons of hp. So should CT6, being GM’s flagship sedan among all its makes and models, after all.
This is a major mistake as this type of technology allows General Motors to have a major advantage over it’s competitors especially when it allows a big sedan like the Cadillac CT6 to be just a 150 lbs heavier than a Toyota Camry.
Anyone to use it will need a new platform and it would be 5 years before they can use it. GM will be on to other things by then, No advantage lost.
Besides most major MFG will make their own technology and only the smaller companies that have little development money will move to this anyway.
When considering this you have to consider who can afford to do what and how long it will take them to implement this.
Trust me GM gave away nothing in advantage here. Just look now the Alpha does not use this technology as the platform needs to be engineered to use it.
I wonder how much longer Cadillac will carry on this dated A&S.
I agree withe the first posting from jamdown . Cadillac has a leading edge technology and gives other automakers license to use it !?! Did Ford share with others on how to use aluminum as body panels on trucks . When you have something that might beat your competition you don’t give out your secret . How dumb is that .
Just what did GM get out of this ?
Now that the CT6 is on dealerships lots and people have had a chance to check them out , sure it is a nice looking car and has most of the safety items people want , but what is missing ………… is a potent V-8 . The country club set will see you pull up in that nice shiny new Cadillac and it will turn heads , but when you park next too that K900 or Hyundai Equus , or Mecedes S-Class or BMW that your golf buddies are driving and they ask ” so what do you have under the hood ” , all of a sudden you feel second class when you have to tell them its a 6-cylinder . Kind of takes the polish of that shiny Cadillac . IMAGE …. Cadillacs first big car since the DTS deserves a V-8 .