Reports suggest Alfa Romeo, Fiat-Chrysler’s sport-luxury brand, has a new coupe in the works, and it will likely target the Cadillac ATS.
According to an Autocar report last Thursday, a Giulia-based coupe could arrive by the year’s end, and it may pack hybrid power, too. Meanwhile, Cadillac’s most-direct challenger, the ATS coupe, will likely soldier on unchanged.
The latest news surrounding the ATS suggested the sedan will go away for the 2019 model year to make room for a similarly priced Cadillac CT5. It would leave the ATS coupe as the only ATS model ahead of its replacement, the CT4 or CT3, which will likely be smaller.
Where Alfa’s coupe gets interesting is the possibility of an F1-style hybrid system: an energy recovery system (ERS). Such a system will likely come in some form from Ferrari, which used similar technology in its LaFerrari hypercar. The system could boost the Giulia coupe’s output to 650 horsepower in Quadrifoglio trimmings. The lesser trims could still see power reach 350 hp with the system paired with the regular Giulia’s 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
Both figures soar past the Cadillac ATS coupe. Without any changes, the 2019 model will see the same 2.0L turbo four-cylinder LTG making 272 hp, 3.6L V6 LGX making 335 hp and 3.6L Twin-Turbo V6 LF4 making 464 hp in V guise.
Cadillac has remained quiet on whether its CTS and ATS replacements will bring new coupes with them, but we’ll likely know more as we approach the CT5’s debut next year.
Comments
I wonder if Cadillac could position CT5 as a family of vehicles similar to the Audi A5. The CT5 looks to be taking a more sportback direction, making it a good competitor to the A5 Sportback, but probably slighly larger. Add a coupe version and even a convertible down the line and the CT5 could be a nice family of offerings at the heart of the passenger car market. It would gap the area between 3 Series/A4 and 5 Series/A6.
Cadillac’s new 550 horsepower LTA twin-turbo 4.2L DOHC-4v V8 would clearly push the ATS-V into a completely different performance level from the Alfa Romeo and most of Europe; but the real question is whether Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen has the will to build a ATS-V with the LTA despite saying how performance would play a greater role in future Cadillac vehicles.
The problem with the Euro sport luxury coupes is that they’re more sport than luxe. That results in a compromise within your model range and ultimately the target market.
While I would love a sport-lux coupe with a real sporting pedigree, at the end of the day I spend most of my driving time commuting to/from work and the luxe part of the vehicle is what I need practically on a day to day basis. Therefore a luxe-(sometime/faux)-sport coupe makes more sense in practical terms.
Every time a manufacturer makes a luxury car more “sporty”, they finesse the car in such a way they lose some of the customer base who predominantly want the luxe part, because the sport component comes at a cost (eg. higher hp engine, expensive adjustable suspensions & electronics to run them, flappy paddle gearboxes, dual clutches, harder bucket seats and so on).
Fleetman, you’ve identified the problem with JdN’s approach to the entire Cadillac line-up, not just the coupes. Luxury and performance are not entirely compatible, there’s a trade-off (at least for cars under $100k), and when you come down on the side of “performance” you are giving up some “luxury” in terms of daily driver comfort. That all tends to be celebrated among the “enthusiasts” (who dominate the professional auto press, the auto blogs, and the websites) but it’s not something the the general public consumer of luxury cars favors, and sales decline as a result.
Cadillac was extremely successful when it was oriented toward luxury, not “performance”. It’s been in decline ever since it changed the equation to go for more peformance, while letting the luxury side decline as a result. The answer for GM has been to double down on the performance side and neglect luxury even more, by hiring JdN and letting him run Cadillac as if it has no brand history, as if it’s his personal brand to do whatever he wants. And JdN’s idea for Cadillac is to make it like BMW, since that was the brand he liked when he grew up in South Africa – Cadillac didn’t even have a market there, so he doesn’t realize what he’s killing off in the USA.
Instead of Cadillac leading and ruling the luxury market as the once did, they are now a follower of BMW, one (or more) car generations behind. There already is a BMW, so people who want a “performance” car as their daily driver already have that option. Those who want a real Cadillac luxury car will soon have no place to go, as JdN fully converts Cadillac into a BMW imitator, and US Cadillac sales continue to plummet as a result.
@Drew: when dit this decline of the Cacillac begin which you diagnose?