Cadillac Chief Remarks On Platform Sharing Across General Motors
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When it comes to entering segments Cadillac must compete in, don’t expect a slew of bespoke platforms. That’s the word from Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen, as he revealed in his latest interview with Motor Trend.
Dedicated architectures simply price vehicles out of competition with a lack of economies of scale. That means Cadillac will continue tapping family platforms for more mainstream crossovers
“All carmakers want to position themselves in lower segments as a brand intercept and to build loyalty. The problem is, whether you are Audi, Cadillac, or BMW, it is very difficult to get economies of scale in emerging segments with a dedicated architecture. And if you cannot, then it’s impossible to achieve the required price point. So you have to go to commonality and share across mainstream entries to get the economies of scale,” de Nysschen stated.
Although, this opens up a unique factor for Cadillac sedans, per the Cadillac boss man.
“For Cadillac, we will follow the avenue where sedan architecture’s dynamic requirements play a larger role in the buying decision than those in the crossover space. Cadillac sedans will be unique architectures.”
Future Cadillac crossovers won’t simply be rebadges, apparent in the 2017 Cadillac XT5. de Nysschen went on to state suspension setups, powertrains and other exclusive technologies will be fitted to Cadillacs to create the aspirational appeal the brand hopes to achieve.
“We’re going to work on communizing and maintaining synergies but make sure positioning is very true.”
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Well what is forgotten here is that todays platforms are much more flexible with hard points that can be easily moves. Wheel bases, widths and platform lengths can vary much more.
Case in point while the Camaro shares the ATS they are vastly much different cars and while they share a platform they do not share much under the skin than some of the basic designs.
We will see Cadillac get their platforms first and then they will let the others have them and the other divisions will make what they will with them.
The days of a W body with only some styling changes and an odd engine offering that is different are over.
It will be interesting to see what Cadillac will come up with.
Even companies like Audi shares with VW and Porsche but yet they do well with each version. Audi even shares with Lambo on the sports car platform. Both are much different in their approach.
Computer aided engineering has opened the door for so much more flexibility.
The real question is how much will Cadillac be able to do with the engines. The key is they do need some of their own engines but even the ones they share need to be tailored to their products and versions that only they use. Even now the 2.0 should have 20-30 more HP over the Chevy version. It could easily be done now as the engine has so much more it can take.
All Cadillac needs is one good fully-modular platform that combines the best of both Alpha and Omega platforms.
“Future Cadillac crossovers won’t simply be rebadges, apparent in the 2017 Cadillac XT5. de Nysschen went on to state suspension setups, powertrains and other exclusive technologies will be fitted to Cadillacs to create the aspirational appeal the brand hopes to achieve.”
At the end of the day, Cadillac’s success or failure hinges on how they fulfill this duty!!! There’s no denying the need to consolidate development costs and utilize mainstream platforms on which to build and produce a good vehicle, and some manufacturers successfully do this. As scott pointed out, today’s platforms are much more flexible and can serve a number of different applications. I hope to see GM take a serious approach to how they engineer these upcoming models! A platform is simply a platform, it’s everything built around it that defines the vehicle! Especially the powertrain! Those exclusive Cadillac engines can’t come soon enough! In the long run, they’ll be here. But until then, I don’t expect many genuine luxury buyers to be wowed by any of the short-term Cadillac CUV’s/SUV’s to come in the next few years!
the CUVs are just fat stubby vehicles.
CUV = Profits and volume
Also by increasing profits Cadillac can justify projects that are not as profitable if it means improving the brand image.
Yep. So what? That makes them much more comfortable to drive and put stuff in. That is why those that can afford / use a CUV buy them in droves.
Having unique platforms is not as imperative on the crossover side as it would be on the sedan side so it is ok for Cadillac to share platforms with other divisions as long as the areas clients see, touch and experience has enough differentiation.
as long as Cadillac shares platforms…Cadillac will always be rebadged Chevys…..noting in Cadillacs lineup will blow me away.
Rye your last point is pretty telling; ‘noting in Cadillacs lineup will blow me away’
I think that you are already pre-desposed to bagging on anything Cadillac regardless of what it is or how positive it is.
Cadillac could introduce the best world class model in the industry without any negative attributes and you would find something bad to say about it.
Keep those Caddy R&D goodies coming to the Camaro GM! 😉
Don’t like platform shearing? But that is the only way to sell a Tahoe / Suburban for one hundred thousand dollars!
The sharing of platforms of yesteryear is what got Cadillac into trouble as why would anyone buy a Cadillac when you could get a Chevy that cost less; although it’s virtually impossible to know that Cadillac’s ATS and Chevrolet’s Camaro share some genetics.