Last week, there were rumblings Cadillac was planning to position itself as a challenger to Tesla, or something to that effect. A few days later, after the luxury brand announced the Cadillac XT6 crossover, the company teased an electric SUV alongside news Cadillac would spearhead General Motors’ future electrification efforts. In an interview with CNBC, Cadillac President Steve Carlisle said Cadillac is “obsessively” benchmarking itself against Tesla.
“I think they have done a lot to popularize electric vehicles and to get into the minds of consumers,” Carlisle says in the video above. “I think that has been very valuable. They’ve pushed the envelope in terms of that process, and that made everybody a little sharper and on their game.”
Benchmarking Cadillac against Tesla makes sense. Tesla is a leader in the electric vehicle market, even with the troubles the company has had. Namely, the Model 3 sedan coming to market with spotty quality. And even though the prices of Tesla products would assume luxury, interior refinement lags behind traditional marquees. If Cadillac can deliver on range and performance, a luxurious interior and more dramatic designs than Tesla should speak for themselves.
Right now, Tesla has cachet with consumers and the public even with its growing pains. Even though the company is criticized ofter, many of those critics praise what Tesla has created and brought to market, spurring change contributing as to how the public and legacy automakers view electric cars and the EV market.
However, Carlisle and company are cautious with the push into electric vehicles. One problem Tesla has faced is scaling up production, which is where much of Tesla’s has stemmed over the last several months. Building an electric vehicle that ticks every box a consumer wants while still being affordable and reliable is difficult, and Cadillac seems to understand that there are challenges.
That said, if Cadillac can’t find growth in this aggressive electrification push, it could be curtains for the storied brand.
“I think we have to wait a while to rate the whole story because we don’t know what happens when EVs really start to scale from a distribution and customer experience perspective and from a profitability perspective,” Carlisle added.
“I think we have to wait a little while before we rate the whole story.”
Comments
Hopefully their benchmarks include practical things like access to fast charging infrastructure, performance, and safety, as well as the “snob appeal” of driving around a $100K EV, and the convenience of at-home pickups for repairs.
GM better not benchmark, they better Leapfrog.
Only Shot Cadillac and GM will have.
I suspect GM is bench marking all the new entries from AUDI, Mercedes, Jaguar and especially Tesla. The whole point of this is to see where they stand and where they are going and to do better than that weighing the pro’s and con’s of each.
The XT6 is not proof of benchmarking as its a pathetic miss. The 3 year old Volvo XC90 has a better interior, perhaps they benchmarked the previous model? The XT6 should have the most gorgeous interior available if its supposed to be a luxury vehicle. The outgoing Mercedes GLE has a nicer interior as well…
THIS EV Concept is what the XT6 SHOULD have looked like…
Like I said before:
An equal vehicle in EVERY way and cheaper.
Or a vehicle priced the same with more.
When is the last time Cadillac has done that ?
First step for GM is to understand the meaning of a CUSTOMER in this day and age.
They just need to fit the product best to the market
Tesla is 50% car and 50% hype.
They need to give it good performance and range for what peopke need. Skip the ludicrous mode as what is the point? 350 mile range means more with 5 second 0-60 times.
Focus on a better interior. Tesla has no soul in interior styling. Also while it looks like better quality material is not of great quality.
While the media of bench marking Tesla may grab headlines I would look more to beat Jaguar and Porsche who will be the real future competition.
Adding more chargers nationwide is something that GM is working on with two other businesses but until there are more cars it is hard to get others to invest.
Before you flap your gums in the wind, go drive one. There really is nothing like a Tesla and their sales reflect exactly that with total domination of the EV market.
I speak from experience having driven 6 EVs for up to several days at a time.
Tesla done it. A smaller SUV, Roadster, and Pick up truck.
MB – is now (EQC) and whole line up will be opt elec by 2022
Jaguar – is now ( iPace) and more to come
Audi – is now (etron and etron GT) and more to come
GM/Cadillac – a computer generated electric SUV
GM were are going to do it. lol.
GM can’t compete with gas powered cars. So they jump ship and compete with EV.
IF GM did have its trucks it would have tanked long ago. Wait it did. “we saved them.”
When you put together all of the market variables that can have an impact on potential sales, manufacturers are still tying to determine near term/ long term demand for EVs. In China, Government support makes the move toward EVs much clearer.
Selling luxury EVs does allow for more potential profit margin, as auto companies make firm commitments for more EV production.
Cost of fuel for combustion engines still does matter. Low cost fuel is still a competitive pressure for EVs.
Europe still has the best chance for mass EVs, due to very high fuel taxes, but if fuel taxes dwindle, then the EU will have to tax EVs to replace the lost fuel taxes.
As long as gas is cheap, alternatives will be alternatives…. If GM cant sell the Volt and dumped it after 2 gen, and the Bolt is not doing particularly well how do they stake the future of Cadillac on EV?
That will only be the case for the US which will become an ICE island by itself.
China and Europe will be EV sales only by 2030.
By 2030 most cities there will also ban excisting ICE cars, so ICE sales will drop to zero well before 2030 because ICE cars will become useless.
Since GM and Cadillac were forced out of Europe by the much stronger competition, they won’t lose any sales in Europe by being 10 years behind, because zero sales remain zero sales.
But if they want to sell anything in China they have to copy once again to try to keep up.
Same goes for Lincoln.
If i HAVE to buy an electric SUV (forced upon me by left wing politicians) in the coming years, Lincoln, GMC and Cadillac won’t be able to deliver.
And that’s coming from me owning a (2018)Tahoe, (2018)Yukon, (2018)Escalade and (2020)Navigator.
GM and Cadillac, always following far behind the leaders.