As The Cadillac CT6 Departs, Genesis Updates The G90
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There are a few similarities between Genesis and Cadillac. While Cadillac certainly has significantly more heritage, lending to a more familiar brand, both marques are the luxury divisions of their respective parent companies, and both are fighting an uphill battle as they continue to try and steal market share away from the ever-dominant German luxury brands (as well as Lexus).
But when a fork appeared in the luxury car roadmap, Cadillac decided to go left and Genesis decided to go right.
The Korean luxury brand, which is owned by Hyundai Motor Company, recently rolled out the heavily-updated 2020 G90 during a special event in Seoul. The arrival of the revised full-size sedan came right on the heels of news that General Motors is going to end production of the Cadillac CT6, which is a direct rival to the G90. GM sees American luxury car buyers as trending away from sedans, but Hyundai wanted to continue onward with the G90, which serves as the flagship for its fledgling Genesis brand.
“G90 is not just the flagship of Genesis, but the premium automotive flagship of Korea, and it will continue to spearhead our global brand identity,” said Genesis vice president Manfred Fitzgerald following the debut of the new G90.
The 2020 G90 has received revised styling that includes a large new mesh grille flanked by dual-segment LED headlights, dual-segment taillights and new wheel options. The interior was also mildly updated with a redesigned dash, 12.3-inch widescreen display and new trim options. Genesis has yet to go over the powertrains, but the outgoing G90 had 3.3-liter V6 and 5.0-liter V8 engines, both of which are paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission.
While it probably does make more sense for Cadillac to focus its efforts on an answer to products like the 2020 Lincoln Aviator – which is coming in the form of the 2020 Cadillac XT6, we were surprised to see CT6 get killed after what will be just three full years of production. The Cadillac CT6 outsold the Genesis G90 by over 6,000 units in the US last year, but the G90 is also sold in Hyundai’s home market of Korea, where it moved over 12,000 copies of the big four-door sedan. Meanwhile, Cadillac sold 11,917 units of the CT6 in China, where it will remain in production. By comparison, the G90’s Hyundai equivalent is a very slow seller in China.
Sales Numbers - CT6 & G90 - Q3 2018 - USA
| MODEL | Q3 18 / Q3 17 | Q3 18 | Q3 17 | YTD 18 / YTD 17 | YTD 18 | YTD 17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G90 | -62.94% | 368 | 993 | -38.88% | 1,984 | 3,246 |
| CT6 | -13.00% | 2,376 | 2,731 | -10.56% | 7,270 | 8,128 |
| TOTAL | -26.32% | 2,744 | 3,724 | -18.64% | 9,254 | 11,374 |
Sales Numbers - CT6 & G90 - Q3 2018 - South Korea
| MODEL | Q3 18 / Q3 17 | Q3 18 | Q3 17 | YTD 18 / YTD 17 | YTD 18 | YTD 17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G90 | -21.12% | 829 | 1,051 | -34.77% | 6,379 | 9,779 |
| CT6 | +366.07% | 261 | 56 | * | 580 | 0 |
| TOTAL | -1.54% | 1,090 | 1,107 | -28.84% | 6,959 | 9,779 |
- Note G90 is sold as the Hyundai EQ900 in Korea
Cadillac will eventually roll out two new sedans in the U.S. to replace the current ATS and CTS. The two new sedans will be the CT5 to take on the D segment (3 Series, C-Class), followed by the CT4 for the C segment (A3, A-Class, 1/2 Series).
GM is scheduled to shut the lights off at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in June 2019, putting the CT6 out of production. The 2019 Genesis G90 will go on sale in the US in the first half of 2019.
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So weird how the CT6 can outsell the G90, 7-series, XF, XJ, Q50, GS350, LS550, A6 and A8…..but the CT6 is considered a failure that must be canceled and those cars aren’t.
shame on GM for this move, this is a truly bad move.
Bad Management hires mediocre designers and engineers who are told to cut corners in the belief that American consumers will settle on GM’s good enough products. Those other luxury models are sold around the globe in other markets because they are competitive vehicles. Cheap GM luxury means 4 cylinder turbos instead of V8’s, fake wood, plastic instead of metal parts, the worst dependability, and at Mercedes Prices! Now, even the Canadians and Americans are waking up to what the rest of the world has figured out. GM is a dead and dying brand.
I’d like to see GM offload the Cadillac brand and perhaps sell it to Hyundai. Hyundai is already building better products. The only thing superior that Cadillac has is a name that still has a little cachet whereas the name Genesis has none.
Mary Barra sold off Opel/Vauxhall and the new owners are quickly turning things around. I’m sure Hyundai could do the same for Cadillac. I think GM is on the way out anyway so eventually they’ll have to sell the Cadillac name but they’ll get more for it now than when there’s a fire sale scenario.
I wish GM would sell it to Geely. Like they did with Volvo, Cadillac could once again be the standard of the world.
Insanity!!! Especially considering the simple reality that WE REALLY DON’T KNOW if the move by GM towards electrification is a negative move. GM, of all companies will not at this point do anything that is foreseen as deathly unprofitable.
Your sales fig are flawed. You didnt inc the mid level of BMW. But you did for lex, jag and audi) ATS, CTS, XTS, CT6 Combined cannot outsell the 5 or E. I understand your point but be fair. The CT6 is tweener I guess. And, for the LS and XJ those cars are very old. new LS for 2018. And considering almost every car on there is 6 is or older is not fair- Audi, Jag, Infiniti, Lex
2017 / 2018
CT6 10,542 / 7270 CTS 10344 / 8777
G90 (I couldnt get sales data) G80 16214 / 7141
7 9276 / 7288
5 40658 / 39181
XF 4541 / 2055 XJ 2721 / 1455 (The car is 7 years old)
Q50 The Q50 that is Ats, 3, C competitor. you mean the q70? 5772/ 4150
GS 14878 (16) 7773 / 6017
LS 4094 / 8408 (a ten year old design until 2018) not really fair
A6 16304 / 7503
A8 3127 / 1219
Every single you mentoined in that list does not look better than the CT6 (2019 only) but they all possess an interior that built greater than the CT6.
Audi, BMW Dynamnic – Cadillac? YES
Lexus, Audi, BMW interior build quality – Cadillac? NO
Lexus RELIABLE – Cadillac hit and miss. It has went down lately.
Heritage names 5,7, LS, GS, Audi As, XJ – people know those names Cadillac? NO
Come next year anyone who buys a Cadillac outside of an Escalade will have explain their all new Cadillac model with no history that is supposed to battle? I dont if Cadillac is going with 3, A4, IS, Q50, C, TLX, s60, Stinger or what? Smaller sedan? A, CLA, 2, A3 what? or A6, 5, E, GS, S90, G80, RLX, XF, Q70??
What will Cadillac/Chevallac/Chevyllac/Chevrollac show us next month at the Detriot Auto Show? Some people have said XT6 or XT7.
Is that All Chevallac has to show us . One car every 6 months. Hell its been 18 months.
XT4, XT5 XT?
CT?, CT?
Escalade.
hmmm lots of choice at Chevrollac/Chevallac/Chevyllac
Are they’re more models than this coming?
Super nice interior! Much nicer than my CT6 Platinum and for less money!
I’ve driven a few Genesis products and really enjoyed them. The new Kia K900 is great too, I hear.
If cadillac wants to be a world class brand it must outclass cars like this or lincoln. Cadillac is in the position when it must be even better than the German brands. But now they are not only behind the Germans, but also they are behind the Korean genesis and Lincoln.
What a shame for the Ct6 to be outclassed by this. Which is a b class brand. And cadillac can’t even beat this. Just compare their interiors.
yep such a shame
Ure absolutely right. That’s why I don’t regret about their decision to kill the CT6. Yeah, they have improved the front/rear with an MCE, but anyway thats not ebough. CT6’s interior is just horrible. Look at the door panels, seat controls… The wood on the doors lol it just looks so cheap and horrible.
U know when the Hyundai has a better interior, probably ure making smth wrong.
So I really hope that they have killed it to bring smth new.
You’re so right. They refuse to do so over again. Remember the art and science of Cadillac?
Since I was a kid in the late 1990s Cadillac has said they would make world class cars..
Deville, Seville, CTS, Escalade, SRX
XLR, DTS, CTS, STS, SRX, Escalade
XTS, ATS, CTS, ELR, SRX-XT5, Escalade
CTss??? XT4,5,6 or 7, Escalade NAME one world class car from those listed from engine, good time less design to interior.
Lincoln’s flagship sedan is a Taurus.
Outside of the Navigator, Lincoln is more of an Acura or Buick competitor.
Dont mind me, im just here to read the comments about how gm is failing blah blah blah. I usually get a good laugh.
And also, i wouldnt be surprised if all these negative comments are coming from the same person using different names.
I’d be in the negative corner too but from this website the CT5 and CT8 replaces CT6. With that statement the new G90 looks nice but the current barely competed with CT6 even with a V8 advantage. Let’s see what’s in GM sleeves with the CT5 and CT8.
Guest you give me hope.
The regulars have gone on and the Automotive IQ has dropped here.
You have hit the nail on the head. The CT 5 is nearly the same size of the CT6 and the new Flagship will be larger. As it is the CT6 was too close to the CTS .
The CT6 was a model !ark Ruess had to jump in and do because they were between leaders at Cadillac. He had to fight to get what he wanted. He fell short as the car never was all he wanted. JDN came in and his plans were to replace the CT6/at some point when the new cars arrived. The time line has changed but it was still on its. Way out
As for the engine for a year or so that is not unusual. GM often has one year engines like the 84 Vette and 83-84 Body.
Who would have ever thought that in 30 years, cheap garbage can Hyundai’s would evolve into desirable high quality cars surpassing most of GM’s offerings. Those first offerings from Hyundai years ago were complete and total junk, but they started building better cars at reasonable prices, put there money where their mouth was with the best warranty, listened to the consumers and reviewers, and now thrive with decent offerings.
As Hyundai continues to add, update and grow their sedan and CUV markets, GM decides to devolve with just good enough CUV’s and eliminates sedans almost entirely.
When GM goes mostly EV, how do they expect to get customers to come back to them? I’m sure they’ll just be EV’s with the same lackluster designs and passable interiors. Meanwhile everyone else is gearing up to go electric as well and will have reputations surpassing GM as far as quality and designs go. Most likely will be producing their cars in the USA for American consumption rather than GM using China, Mexico, Korea and other parts of the world other than their corporate home.
These last few weeks of GM news have just made me sad.
I consider myself a GM’er. It all started with the Corvette as a child and it went from there. I wanted a Camaro. Got that done. I also eventually wanted to have enough money to buy a Cadillac one day. Sort of a “I made it” moment. But it’s never come. Not because I can’t afford it but Cadillac hasn’t shown me anything I want. The Escalade is their S-class and it’s a great flagship and has plenty of street cred, but it’s out of my budget and it’s also too big. Great exterior. Interior is very good, not great.
Everything else in the last 20 years or so has been shortcuts and excuses. Their current lineup has striking exterior design but it falls apart in the interior, including fit and finish. There’s too much parts bin sharing for my tastes. These are supposed to be luxury vehicles. The interior doesn’t look the part in my eyes. Look at Lincoln. The Navigator and Aviator are gorgeous inside and out and the platform is a luxury platform first and trickles down to Ford. In GM, the platform is Chevy and GM trickles up from there. Big difference. I prefer Lincoln’s approach.
And whoever said they use fake materials in Cadillac is incorrect, at least at the top trim level. The CT6 Platinum and PHEV use real leather, real wood, real metal. That’s not the problem. You expect all luxury brands worth their salt to use real materials. It’s not the ingredients but how you weave the ingredients. It’s the design language that’s the problem. I’m not a baker. Give me top-notch quality and expensive ingredients to bake a cake and do the same for someone who knows what they’re doing and I can say with 100 percent certainty my cake will be vastly, vastly inferior.
I sat in the highest trim CT6 and I just shook my head. What’s the theme, bland and boring? The center console is a mess. The seats look terrible. I hate them. I walk over to Volvo. I walk over to Land Rover. The new Lincoln design language, too. Ahh. Now, that’s an interior. That looks rich and expensive. Luckily for GM, I don’t buy German, but I’ll look at other cars from Europe and look I did and I bought a luxury European car. I also looked at Genesis and, while materials and fit and finish were great, the styling wasn’t my cup of tea. Even still, I can recognize the Genesis brand has a more premium interior feel and look than the Cadillac. It shouldn’t be like that. I really liked the new XT4 and then my heart sank when I saw the interior. I mean, my goodness. Walk over to Lincoln and buy a clue.
I want to buy Cadillac in the future but they need to show they are the Standard of the World, instead of just saying it as if it’s true. Convince me your interiors are as good as Land Rover, Volvo, the new Lincolns cause theyre not. The new Range Rover Evoque interior looks like it costs six figures. The XT4 interior looks like it costs about the base price but not more. No way that interior is worth $55k in upper trim. Doesn’t look the part.
They have the handling down. They have a nice exterior design language. But they gotta fix the interiors. They gotta fix the luxury aspect of the brand. Instead of trying to be American BMW, try to be American Lexus. Or Lincoln.
Sad to say,but we won’t get what ure talking about. CT5s interior is basically the xt4s interior. From what ive heard xt6 will get the same.
to the electrification. s it a hate of all things associated with EV or U just have a strong love of the ICE? It is the future one has to believe. If one can build a vehicle that is more efficient in all way plus gives better performance right out the box.. why would anyone oppose the technological advancements? The price hike? While the Tesla models are not ones to call to answer the possibility of recouping purchase premiums via fuel savings alone.. a Bolt for instance could easily save an owner more money in fuel costs and maintenance versus a similar sized vehicle costing $4-5K less. Again I tout 4 V8s, 2 S/Ced, one V6 with over 305HP and a 4cyl Turbo. Let them say the Escala is coming, and there is an EV only version with with 400 range, 0-60 in 3.5 or below and a price tag of $100-110K.. My desire to have a CT6-V DIES immediately.
Who’s great-great grandfather back in 1902 said.. ” I don’t want no damn motorized vehicle… I’ll give up my horse when they pry it from between my cold dead thighs”
“Cadillac will eventually roll out two new sedans in the U.S. to replace the current ATS and CTS”
In light of them killing the CT6, I’m not sure about that anymore. I can see them scrapping the CTs (they are already behind on that mythical product assault) & phasing out the ATS triplets, but letting the CTS soldier on untouched as Cadillac’s sole sedan like the Chrysler 300.
As for the G90, I don’t like the diamond shaped grille, but other than it looks like a solid alternative to the LS500 & CT6. Imo, even before the facelift, the G90 had a superior interior compared to the CT6.
I own a 2018 CT6 with most of the options. Many of the options do not work or do not work properly. I have had the car to the Cadillac dealership on several occasions and they do not seem to be able to correct the problems. Very disappointed. Time to try Mercedes.
Wait and see what they have up their sleeve????????
Hate to be a cynic but always big build up for Cadillac new products and ultimately product arrives half-baked! ATS, CTS, CT6, XT5, XT4, but wait it will improve.
Cadillac is doing nothing more than alienating a group of buyers that will never return! But wait, Cadillac recently didn’t care because they were going to cultivate droves of conquest buyers—ha ha. What a recipe for failure! I’m holding my breath in anticipation of the new Chevillac Low Country!
You waiting for a new DTS?
“G90 is not just the flagship of Genesis, but the premium automotive flagship of Korea, and it will continue to spearhead our global brand identity.”
That’s what I want Cadillac to use to define American Luxury. The Standard features list in you get in Hyundai/Kia and especially Genesis products show to me the ‘best or nothing’ mantra. Cadillac the road map has been laid, follow it and be better at it.
The entire Mindset of Cadillac & GM right now is ridiculously uncomprehensible. The CT6 should stay in production and the CT8 (Escala) should also be brought into production. You don’t see the foreign car manufacturers killing off their huge sedans. Can you imagine if MERCEDES-BENZ decided to kill off the S-Class or Maybach? BMW to kill off the 7-Series? Audi to kill off the A8/S8? The Genesis G80/90 is a great example of how Contemporary Luxury should be done & executed without costing a mint. Cadillac needs to find itself again because it is selling out it’s American Heritage. It should continue with what it has started with the CT6, create a CT8 and CT7 as well as an XT7/XT8. Now the Alpha Numeric Nomenclatures really don’t make much sense or any real system/pattern. What are they thinking?!? Detroit . . . we have a problem!
GM4Life,
Ain’t happening. CT6 is dead; no amount of wishing or trying to understand it will change that fact. GM is a high-volume carmaker, they don’t do niche products. CT6 was unable to sell at the volumes needed for GM’s financial group to be happy. The infamous bean counters do not care about image, allure, cachet, halo-effect, or any of those other non-quantifiable characteristics that might keep a product in the lineup of other carmakers. GM cares about none of that. Given that CT6 failed, I think it is also highly unlikely that Cadillac will ever launch an even more expensive product once dubbed CT8. That product was talked about by the brand’s previous management and was discussed as the next level and as a true flagship. I’d say it’s as dead now as CT6 as is the Omega platform.
The flagship is the Tahoe-based Escalade.
Being outdone by Hyundai : It’s a proud day day at G.M.
For the life of me I don’t understand GM’s method of doing busness. Spend tons of money developing a state of the art platform and topping it with an inferior product as compared to the competition.
Then a couples of years later spend another ton of money to upgrade that product to make it more competitive and appealing. Even some non believers were excite to see the new and improved CT6. Then they up and cancell said product in its home country.
I have heard no reason at least not from GM for this action but supposedly it an effort to save money because the vehicles were not selling enough to make huge profits( which seems to be GM’s big thing now). I have heard of you have to spend money to make money but you have to spend money to save money,that’s a new one.
In my opinion the best way to gain new customers and instill confidence in your products is to design, engineer and build the best in class products. The idea tha cancelling products without giving them a fighting chance is a disservice to your Company and especially your customers. Not only will you not get new customers but there is a very good chance you will lose your existing customers.
Then where will this money you are so obsessed with come from? That’s my two cents worth.
Dysfunctional Mary at her very best. Maybe she should re-name Cadillac to Cataract. That would be far more appropriate for the blurry vision they have going forward. Yes we spent millions developing our new full size RWD sedan, spent some more on an MCE, spent even more on needlessly replacing the base engine and spent yet more on a new V8 and are now pulling the plug in a tantrum because our car is only selling 3 times as well as this new Hyundai! Even Lincoln is making better business decisions lately!