Cadillac’s chief marketing officer, Deborah Wahl, spoke about the brand’s future as it moves to become General Motors’ lead electric-car division, but she said the brand will need to “play in both worlds” at the moment.
She made her remarks at the J.D. Power Automotive Summit, Wards Auto reported Saturday, and said GM’s new electric-car architecture will be the “canvas” for a profitable and exciting EV program. Profitable is a key word as GM hasn’t profited on the Volt or Bolt EV models in the past. GM CEO Mary Barra has promised the automaker will sell profitable electric cars when its flexible electric-car architecture debuts.
At least one of the platforms is called BEV3, we learned this month. Its flexibility means it can grow and shrink to accommodate various vehicle segments and send power to the front wheels, rear wheels or provide all-wheel drive. The platform will also offer at least 300 miles of range.
It’s unclear what the platform will underpin first, but Cadillac teased an electric SUV model that will ride on the BEV3 platform. The SUV will likely arrive in 2021 and be Cadillac’s first electric car.
Wahl added the transition from the internal-combustion engine to electric powertrains will likely take many years after an attendee noted Cadillac’s shift to EVs comes as the brand launches the new 4.2-liter twin-turbo Blackwing V8 engine. She said “torque doesn’t care what the source is,” and it’s still important to develop engines that cater to buyers not ready to jump into the electric segment.
She said Cadillac can’t have one without the other as traditional auto sales continue to finance electric-car programs and self-driving technology.
The rest of her time on stage was spent touting Cadillac’s fuller lineup with crossovers and Wahl expects double-digit sales growth in 2019. In 2018, Cadillac sales contracted by 1.1 percent, though the brand’s sales were up 8 percent globally, largely thanks to China.
Comments
I think this is the first time we’ve heard from her since she was hired by JdN in March of last year …
Do we know for sure that Bolt EV and Volt weren’t profitable? GM still puts incentives on the hood of them like most of their vehicles…The one downside is if you take a Silverado, it starts at about $25K, but you can option it up to over $70K…Both the Volt and Bolt EV have two trims and very limited options…
You have voiced what was in my mind. How does GM define “profitable”? Is it the ability to inflate the MSRP with high margin extras? Is it to inflate the base MSRP with 25%-50% margin? I don’t buy into the Volt and Bolt not returning a profit, although it might not be of the size that GM considers “profitable”.
Hopefully she means the ICE vehicles will become class leading across the board. They need to be just to survive not to mention grow. Cadillac can’t afford to overpromise and under deliver like they have in the past. To use the old saying it’s time to put up or shut up.
Perhaps if she had actually marketed and advertised the Volt it could have become profitable? I am a very happy Volt owner, but in my somewhat large circle of friends and relatives I have yet to find anyone who really understood the many advantages the Volt had in today’s real existing infrastructure and thus real market. Most think it is simply an expensive Prius!
I hear you on that. Hardly anyone I spoke with knew how the Volt worked. In many cases they never even heard of the Volt. To spend the money to develope a drive system that could have and should have been spread across many different of Vehicles and scrap it is a waste of money.
Wrong. Get rid of her before she does too much damage.
I agree, I think. though your comment in not very specific. However GM probably needs to start with Mary and work down from there. These people will end up destroying GM again before they are done. Think of GE’s “building shareholder value” scam and look where GE is today…
I like what the head of toyota said the other day,We will concentrate on electric and self driving, bringing to market, when you can make a profit on them,instead GM is bringing electric to market even if there is no demand in the U.S
Of course the alternative to Toyota’s position is to REALLY market a superior product while working to bring the manufacturing cost down, assisted by the growing sales volume created by the successful marketing program creating demand and thus enjoying hefty profits skimming the cream of the customer base as your competition struggles to catch up.
I would think they would teach this in Marketing 101. Maybe Deborah skipped that class?
The automotive community are acting like lemmings going for a cliff with EV, Toyota is very forward thinking and level headed with the comments that have come out as of late regarding this topic. They’ll be better positioned in the long term for it. It’s a big $$$$ bet. Will Toyota really suffer by waiting to see how it pans out? Nope
I agree as far as EV and autonomous vehicles are concerned, but I am beginning to sound like a broken record with: There exists a substantial market TODAY for an advanced long electric range PHEV type electric car such as the Volt or perhaps the late Cadillac ELR. (Since GM never marketed the ELR, I don’t know if it was equal to or even superior to the Volt.) When and if Toyota and others ever do decide to market advanced EV/PHEV vehicles I’m sure we will all know what they are and what they can do. I assume by now that Toyota knows that it has pushed the phony virtue-signaling marketing plan with the pathetic Prius as far as it can go.
What kind of crazy world does this woman live in. GM/Cadillac does not market, and has not marketed the product it currently has for sale. When is the last time you saw any kind of advertisement for an ATS, CTS, or CT6. These are all unique, and beautiful automobiles, but they do NOT sell. Why? I have several GM vehicles including my newest, a 2018 CT6 Platinum. I cannot tell how many times people come up to me and ask me ……..What car is that?…Who makes it?……..What Cadillac is that?……Is that something new from Cadillac? If the buying public doesn’t know your product, how the hell are they going to buy it?
How does it help Cadillac to sell product today if all they do now is brag about what’s coming next year, two years from now, 3 years from now……I was at my local Cadillac dealer today. The same cars that were in the showroom two weeks ago, are still there. Why? Cadillac doesn’t advertise, the dealer doesn’t advertise, GM doesn’t advertise.
I see 20 ads a day on TV for Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo,…etc. Foreign cars own several of the baseball, football (where is the Super Bowl being held…Mercedes-Benz stadium), hockey, and other stadiums in this country. Sponsor several sports events, charitable events, and health events. Where is Cadillac, at some designer show….Good God.
Cadillac needs someone very aggressive who believes in the product. Who eats, breathes, and knows Cadillac in the Marketing position….not some candy ass beauty queen who couldn’t even pass a Cadillac history test I threw together. I have over 50 books on Cadillac in my automotive library, what does she know about the CTS V, the CT6, Super Cruise, the TT V8, the Omega chassis. If you don’t know your product, how can you sell it?
Cadillac had the 1st PHEV in the luxury segment. The ELR. Where is it now? Why did it die? It was a beautiful automobile. Was it supported and markted by Cadillac? Did they explain to the buying public why it cost $80,000? Did Cadillac/ GM make any improvements/enhancements in the ELR in it’s two year run?
This Cadillac EV SUV will not land for at least a year. The BEV 3 architecture is at least a year away. What does Cadillac do tomorrow? In six months when the ATS, CTS, and XTS are gone?
Cadillac needs to get over this……”We don’t discuss future product” now! They have two entirely new automobiles coming, the CT4, and CT5. What does Cadillac say about them….nothing! You need to get the public into a fever pitch about upcoming product. If Cadillac doesn’t begin now to market this product, in two years they will follow the ATS, and CTS…
Wonderful.
Obtuse or myopic?
I am an ATS owner and Caddy fan, but I think it’s a mistake to use Cadillac as The EV brand. It adds a layer of expectation of luxury over and above the technological expectations, increasing the risk of failure.
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