Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen recently sat down with Motor Trend to talk about why sedans aren’t selling nearly as well in the United States these days. In the process, he broke it down to buyer demographics (youngsters don’t want sedans) and infrastructure (poor road conditions mean SUVs and CUVs are supreme).
Jalopnik called de Nysschen’s bluff on how younger buyers don’t necessarily care about cars and driving dynamics, so the executive sat down with the publication for a report published Thursday to follow up his comments with added clarification.
Foremost, he said, “I wasn’t advocating the idea that the world is black and white, that if you’re a young buyer, a millennial or a teenager that you don’t enjoy driving.”
With that in mind, he said Cadillac must wage a growth far on two fronts: China and the United States. Chinese buyers want luxurious vehicles to carry them, which means the brand has focused on future core products in its portfolio, such as crossovers. But, that focus won’t kill the Cadillac performance sedan, or the sedan in general.
While noting the Cadillac XT5 is the third-best-selling luxury nameplate in the U.S., behind the Lexus RX and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, de Nysschen said, “the irony is not lost on me that the C-Class is a sedan.”
Thus, Cadillac will balance its sedans with performance variants and an expanded line of V-Sport and V-series cars. In no way will the brand walk away from the V badge, which means we can safely bet a CT5-V will replace the CTS-V eventually. Cadillac’s sub-ATS-sized model will also perform better around the Nürburgring than its German competitors, de Nysschen boasted.
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Johan de Nysschen is probably hearing whispers that he hasn’t done enough at Cadillac and how it might be de Nysschen as to the reason Cadillac sales in the United States has flounder, why leave a guy who appears to be clueless about performance when you can install someone like Chevrolet Camaro Chief Engineer Al Oppenheiser as he would have installed the 640hp LT4 in the Cadillac ATS-V and used the LF4 for the ATS-Vsport or developed a XT5-V and Vsport with the LF4 and LF3.
Maybe he has heard the blithering speculation of people who have no clue and feels it is time to give them enough to shut them up.
Some of these blithering speculators tend to miss that Cadillac is not only running one but two racing teams based on V series model. They also tend to miss that the V series while low volume makes money like Denali.
With clear clues like this it is obvious that they will continue to apply the V when appropriate.
The core products are what provide the volume to permit the V.
Same at GMC. No SLT or SLE there is no Denali.
Same old Johan. He wants the sub-ATS sedan to outperform the German brands on the Nurburgring, in other words “out German the Germans” in an area few Americans even care about, and even fewer American luxury car buyers care about. Pretty soon the name “Cadillac” will have lost all meaning, other than BMW-wannabe.
That’s not the Cadillac that was the #1 luxury car in the US for 50+ years straight, not the Cadillac that has been named in so many songs and movies. I know that people like _vorg claim that I don’t like Johan because he’s not American. That’s silly and untrue. I simply don’t think Johan is the right guy to head Cadillac because he does not understand American culture and doesn’t understand what Cadillac means to Americans.
Johan can’t even stay on one consistent path. At one moment he says that American roads are not conducive to performance vehicles and performance tires, and that younger buyers aren’t interested in those cars anyway. The next moment he says he’s going to make a sub-ATS which will outperform the German cars on their famous twisting track. Who is the sub-ATS for, if not for younger buyers? Sounds like a bad idea with bad execution as well. When does Barra get the hook for this guy? Or when does the GM board get the hook for Barra?
I think it comes down to having a complete portfolio frrom small sedans to large sedans, same for cuvs, suvs.
At some point Cadillac will need every type of car to complete the luxury offering!
As if Americans who previously managed and ran the brand into the ground can do it better?
To date, the only valid gripe one can hold again Johan is the changeup in the brand’s nomenclature; I was initially very cold towards but am now lukewarm.
It can be said that he’s running on the coattails of models (XT5 & Escalade) that are doing well in the marketplace even though they technically were not developed under his tenure. The rubber hits the pavement for him when the XT4 and subsequent models in the pipeline hit the showrooms.
Can anyone tell me why you can’t get heated rear seats in a 2018 Buick Lacrosse Avenir??
Because it is not a Cadillac.
Will we see 800 hp in a few of the high end cars? I hope so
There is a reason why Cadillac has V series models and V sport models.
Johan has quite the fan following here. :flamesuit on:
JDN sucks
I like his vision of Cadillac
segment, birds gone from nest, 2 seats ok MUST BE COUPE SPARE M & S TIRES ON WHEELS. RACE PROVEN CTS=WITHOUT IS NUTS. I AM TALKING PRODUCT LINE. DO i HAVE TO BUY USED. YOU CUT ME OUT- DO NOT MAKE ME MAD. SEEN ONE 2017 COUPE DRIVERS POSITION PERFECTED. SLICK LIKE NOONE ELSE ON EARTH. BECAUSE I AM , THAT IS THE ONLY WAY FOR ME.. WONDER WHAT central office purchase order would do since I HAVENT been able to come up with complete LIT.