It appears Cadillac had more in store for the 2019 North American International Auto Show than just the 2020 Cadillac XT6. General Motors’ luxury division shocked with its first electric car: a future Cadillac electric SUV with no official name, at least at this point in time.
The Cadillac EV was initially hinted by GM President Mark Reuss during last Friday’s Capital Markets Day, which briefed investors and financial analysts on GM’s near term future plans that also touched on the next-generation 2020 Cadillac Escalade, 2020 GMC Sierra HD, and the latest from Cruise Automation. GM stock surged shortly after.
The Sunday announcement was brief, but Steve Carlisle, Cadillac President, said, “Cadillac’s EV will hit the heart of the crossover market and meet the needs of customers around the world. It will represent the height of luxury and innovation while positioning Cadillac as the pinnacle of mobility.”
Cadillac will spearhead all of GM’s future electrification efforts, which seem to start with this future Cadillac EV SUV. Although this isn’t the edgy coupe we spotted in a patented design last year, the general design direction of the electric SUV echoes the design language of the Cadillac Escala Concept from 2016, as well as the 2020 Cadillac XT6 three-row crossover.
The electric SUV wears a brawny stance, and we see a little bit of Chevrolet crossover design coming through in the front fascia. Specifically, we can’t help but see resemblances to the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer. Official photos of the rear were not released. Ditto for the interior.
Yet, this is a clear evolution of Cadillac design. Like the XT6, the electric Cadillac SUV sports horizontal headlight, razor thin at that. Vertical accent lights are in place, which recalls numerous modern-day Cadillac vehicles. However, since there isn’t a traditional grille, designers clearly sculpted the front end to mimic the large shield grille treatment found on the CT6 sedan, XT4 crossover, and other recent vehicles from the luxury brand.
We also notice an updated Cadillac badge at the front without the division’s traditional colors. Instead, it appears this badge is an illuminated representation of the Cadillac shield.
The brand said today’s announcement is meant to highlight Cadillac’s slew of new vehicles coming, with a new vehicle launch coming every six months through 2021. The SUV’s name and other specifications will be released closer to its launch date, according to the company. Expect rear- and all-wheel-drive layouts, and over 300 miles of range from the electric powertrain. This Cadillac SUV will also be the first model to ride on GM’s BEV3 platform—a scalable electric-car architecture that will be used across GM’s brands in the future.
This is a breaking story and will be updated continuously.
Comments
EV version of the RWD based XT7 and there was a second one. XT8 I guess. Both rwd
Looking good..
Love the styling now can they put a interior worthy of the exterior in it?
I’ll play devil’s advocate:
I don’t like Cadillac’s styling direction as of the Escala concept. In particular, the move away from sharp angles to curves, and the return of primarily horizontal headlights.
This concept and the Escala headlamps look good in visual theory, but the XT6 shows that the production version results in a more bland, anonymous look as the vertical LEDs become glorified fog lights. The horizontal headlights force the grille to shrink
As for the shape, I can’t find a better time than now for Cadillac to double down on the sharper, more angular iterations of Art & Science. A “cutting edge” design language would’ve sent a strong message as a Cadillac EV.
Don’t believe me? Picture this EV as a production Elmiraj or Ciel. I can see someone paying 100k for a production Elmiraj EV. Not so for this.
This is a fantasy.
Reality -XT6 lol
looks 3x better than the bloated tesla model XX-L
Looks great, but I was hoping for something real, not an unnamed future concept…I guess I can put away the checkbook. Tesla can stop worrying about a US competitor. Let’s circle back in 2022 if it hits the showrooms and see how it fares…
Well at least Tesla has you actually drive! Cadillac touch your phone or PC screen.
Don’t get too excited anyway. If it doesn’t make the cash register ring enough, GM will pull the plug – pun intended – without a second thought.
Isn’t this the same as the new Buick Enspire?
@Eps
Well no – don’t you see the Cadillac badge 🙂
The last several days have confirmed the future direction for GM and Cadillac, and how all electric is in, and how hybrid is little talked about. I still think GM will move into more hybrids for pickups and heavier vehicles, with more of the investment being made by the electrical component suppliers rather than GM.
Now Cadillac is talking!!! This is the statement XT6 could only hope to make! I’m looking forward to seeing this hit the market!!!
Looks great.
But Cadillac will be about 5 years behind Tesla, about 2 years behind Audi and Jaguar, and about a year behind Porsche when this comes out in 2021. That’s not great, but GM *could* turn it to their advantage, as they better spend the next 2-3 years working hard to properly staff, train and incentivize Caddy dealers to properly sell & services these EVs. Not to mention the nationwide & local charging networks.
Or no matter how good the product, people won’t want to buy them.
For whatever reason, Cadillac have good volume of sales figures for the XT5, XT4 and Escalade that some of the competitors can’t seem to match regardless of segments they compete in. All three segments are near to the top of each class in terms of sales volume. So I am more than confident if the EV Crossover is done properly as a total package with proper marketing campaign, this vehicle will do well for Cadillac and will set the trend for the brand.
1) Do they have the guts to build it? And if so, As close as possible to the concept?
2) Did they actually show the car in the metal? If not, it feels like a damage control announcement.
I may be mistaken, but if you look very closely, you can see 3 vertical headlights next to the vertical LED strip. Similar location to where the new Blazer has them. I don’t think those razor thin horizontal ones up top are the headlights. I don’t believe that would be street legal.
I really hope this somehow comes to production looking exactly like that and isn’t watered down first. Because that thing looks absolutely beautiful. That badge is very nicely done. I’m pretty sure this is the first crossover that’s ever peeked my interest.
They are going to have to get the range about like a gas model, recharging as quick/easy as gassing up and
not have a $20,000 extra cost like ELR had over a CTS.
Range and quick charging will not be an issue for those who never need a EV for long drives.
Cadillac needs to put a real version of this into production ASAP. Everyone wants a Tesla, and no one has challenged them in any segment yet. If Cadillac starts building a crossover like this to compete with the hideous Model X before anyone else, it’ll put them on the map and it will get a lot of traffic into dealer showrooms. If any of the German manufacturers beat them to it though, the Cadillac electric crossover will probably fade into the background.
the Germans always beat them.
GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, I like it.
BUT I would have, and did write the same thing for the Escala. Where is that ?
I like it, I wonder what it would look like with the same XT6 grill front look.
Anyway its a DREAM. I hope to see one drive someday but will NOT hold my breath (if I did that I would have been dead years ago waiting on Cadillac)
OK back to reality, I am curious about what might have been said by Mark, about the Denali HD, I am still holding out for an upgraded interior (or at least dash) compared to the 2019 1500 or the 2020 Silverado but again I’m not holding my breath on that either.
It would be nice to know what the platform will be for this vehicle. Part of Tesla’s success is clearly that they’ve created vehicles from the ground up for an electric drivetrain. If Cadillac uses a platform designed for a convention internal combustion vehicle, the execution isn’t likely to live up to the exterior design.
Did u read the article? It says that it is a new dedicated EV platform.
This is gonna be great to look back on when it never gets produced like the Cien, Ciel, Elmiraj, Sixteen Concept, Chevrolet Code 130r/Tru 140 S, GMC Granite, and Buick Avista.
Thanks Bean Counters!
The GMC Granite should never have been built under the GMC name.
It looks kind of ugly.
Back in the day when Cadillac was a leader in luxury, the Japanese avidly used to copy our designs. Judging from the goofy look of the front end, we are now copying the japs. It looks rather like a Lexus, which to me always looks like some large industrial street vacuum with a wide mouth to suck up all the trash. Come to think of it, Lexus does such in all the trash and puts them in the drivers seat. I hate jap cars!
“Jap” is usually seen as an offensive term.
91fairladyz,
Why don’t you go Fu%? yourself with your political correctness!
Fairlady is correct and you, plus the OP, are crude simpletons. Having some understanding of other cultures and viewpoints is not a bad thing.
F*** You, GM! Corner cutting and lofty, unkept promises is gonna ruin a storied brand. Just do us all a favor and sell Cadillac to the Germans.
Looks like something that was spit out on a computer simulation and not real. No thanks!
Exactly. To make up for killing the CT6, CT6-V and for the rebadged XT6 crossover, we present you with some computer enhanced images to make you feel better. LOL
Elsewhere, in more interesting news, GM is walking back the CT6 demise https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/cadillac-ct6-isnt-dead-us
I’d rather see the CT6-V featured at Detroit — and see this EV when it is somewhere close to ready
So the CT6 is staying? Why is nobody talking about that? I think that’s huge. I mean Cadillac management is still all over the map and utterly devoid of any cohesive plan but still, killing the CT6 was, in my opinion a gigantic error. The news that its death was apparently ‘greatly exaggerated’ to coin Mark Twain is a really positive sign. Obviously this contradicts what was reported and confirmed by Cadillac in November.
https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/cadillac-ct6-isnt-dead-us
Your looking at the destruction of tesla! Cadillac will have more models then tesla within the first few years of the electric vehicle role out!
LOL
It’s a concept rendering.
Am i supposed to drive around in a concept rendering?
And not available outside china and the us, since gm can’t compete.
Steve Carlisle, Cadillac President, said, “Cadillac’s EV will hit the heart of the crossover market and meet the needs of customers around the world.
There are more countries in the world than the US and China. General Motors needs to open new markets, GM already has a good product line that can boost sales. Marketing needs to improve. The EV and XT6 looks good.
gm and cadillac(k) were forced out of europe by the big boys who have much better products and much wider range.
They have zero chance of any kind of sales in europe, and they will never return again.
gm can only sell their korean based chevy’s and chevy based chevylacs in the us to some mindless patriots and to the chinese who love anything plastic fantastic.