2020 Cadillac CT4-V Lands With A 320 HP 2.7L Turbo
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The 2020 Cadillac CT4-V has made its official debut during a special event at Detroit’s Eastern Market. It will go on sale later this year as an answer to other luxury compacts like the Mercedes-AMG A35 and CLA35, as well as the upcoming BMW M235i Grand Coupe and Audi S3.
Under the hood of this subcompact luxury sedan is General Motors’ turbo-charged 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine making 320 horsepower and 369 pound-feet torque. All that torque is on tap from just 1,500 RPM, guaranteeing plenty of low-end grunt. The engine comes with Active Fuel Management as well – just as it does in the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500.
Paired with the turbo four is the GM 10-speed automatic transmission and standard rear-wheel drive, while all-wheel drive is available as an option. RWD models will come with Magnetic Ride Control, while AWD Cadillac CT4-V’s will use ZF MVS passive dampers. A limited-slip rear differential and Brembo front brakes are present and accounted for.
The Cadillac CT4-V rides on the same Alpha 2 platform that underpins the Cadillac CT5 and CT5-V, which itself is an evolution of the first-gen Alpha platform that was introduced in the ATS and CTS. Cadillac says that the platform delivers near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution delivering exceptional feeling of balance and control.
The exterior features Cadillac’s new front fascia, dark exterior accents and V-Series mesh grilles. The small sedan rides on 18-inch alloy wheels wrapped in summer only tires on RWD cars and all-season tires on AWD models. Quad exhaust tips and a unique rear spoiler design that helps reduce rear lift while increasing grip for the rear tires are present and accounted for.
The cabin of the Cadillac CT4-V features an all-new interior, with horizontally-laid-out elements such as AC vents and trim. The latest iteration of Electronic Precision Shift and rotary controls for the Cadillac infotainment system are present and accounted for.
The CT4-V also features a “unique performance persona instrument cluster”, a new steering wheel with V-Mode steering wheel controls, and a Vehicle Control Mode with customizable V-Mode. GM’s Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system will be available.
The 2020 Cadillac CT4-V goes on sale early in the 2020 calendar year. Production will take place at the GM Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan for the North American markets. Units destined for China will be built at the Jinqiao Cadillac plant in Shanghai.
Cadillac says that “additional product information, as well as details on additional V-Series variants will be announced at a later date.”
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The day a Cadillac sedan uses a Chevrolet TRUCK engine is the day Cadillac died.
Now we know why Johan was flushed. There’s no way he would have agreed with this. Any pretence of being a luxury product is now over.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. What a joke GM has unfortunately turned Cadillac into.
Horrific Day today for us Cadillac fans. I am in favor of GM doing the right thing and selling Cadillac to a company that will treat it correctly and make them once again a True Tier One American Luxury Brand. They obviously have given up on what it will take to make Cadillac great. Man I mean Mercedes, Audi, and BMW must be laughing so hard right now they may pass out. Hell upstart Genesis might be laughing as well. This is comical.
Unbelievable today GM, just unbelievable.
I agree. Time to sell Cadillac to someone who can make it great again.
Audi has no problem using VW’s engine. Why is it a problem for Caddy to use Chevy’s engine so long as it delivers the performance?
Because VAG has been way ahead of the curve in modular platforms and powertrains in mind. In fact, VAG was the first to develop a modular architecture strategy IIRC.
VW engines are developed with Bentley, Porsche, and Audi in mind.
On the other hand, Cadillac engines (until very recently) and (CUV) platforms are developed with Chevy in mind.
I have to wonder how it is related to the Toyota 2.7l 16V, they make serious power..
Used in Toyota HiLux pickup and one of the MPVs..
Mark Ruess is such a head case that he’d rather sabotage Cadillac than to see someone other than him fix it. Poor JdN.
Yet idiots in here clamor for a 6.2 CT6 and now a CT5 anything, you know a “Chevy TRUCK” engine….
This one seems like it could be intriguing, but I’m disappointed in the ct5v. I’m gonna reserve further judgement until we learn the price.
Let this be a lesson however that cheaper doesn’t equal better in the luxury market
Change the names. Do not name it a V unless its a V dammit. Just call it CT4 Sport and do the same with the CT5. We do not want further confusion!! We already have alphabet names and to add insult to the injury we have V series pretenders. SMH
100% agree! Less power than the last ATS 6 cylinder does not make a V.
I didn’t expect this to be a day of mourning. What a crapfest of an announcement this turned out to be!!
The term “Sport” is now being used to mean smaller (eg. OutlanderSport; RogueSport)
The other luxury brands have prostituted there performance divisions far beyond Cadillac (eg. Mercedes CLA AMG; A class AMG; BMW M2) at Lexus “F” just means red stitching.
‘V’ stands for performance in the Cadillac brand. It doesn’t now stand for V-configuration reciprocating engine layout, or even an ICE power plants
‘V’ now stands for ‘Velocity’ and a lot of it no matter the propulsion means.
Welcome to the future.
A truck engine? Really? And the 4 cylinder one at that …
People are all trashing one of the most advanced 4 cylinder turbos ever mass produced without ever driving it.
Seems legit.
A big long-stroke 4 is never going to be as smooth and rev-happy as what the Germans will bring. I feel like we’re in la la land today.
I can put my finger on it, but I believe there’s a pretty famous sports car offering from Chevrolet that uses a “truck” engine…
This is a joke but what truck engine is that ?
You do know that the original pushrod V8 was a car engine right !
All the trucks used in line to get the torque.
Without all the gears GM needed the RPMs of a V engine to lengthen the torque curve.
I like the 2.7T GM, get it GM engine.
GM just needs to STOP calling a GM engine anything other then a GM engine, ITS GM !!!!
Are you seriously comparing the two?
An “economy Truck Engine” to an engine that was originally made for sedans to begin with?
This is an utter joke. The V Series was trying to gain footing in the RS, AMG, and M Segment and GM basically now is offering Sedan Ford Fusion Sport type power to compete with them?
Give me a break.
The same people saying the 2.7l Turbo 4 doesn’t belong in a truck say it doesn’t below in a sports sedan because it’s a truck engine.
Can’t make this crap up.
It’s a huge impovement over the 2.0T, so it’s got that going for it.
While I prefer the look and size of the CT4 vs. CT5, this announcement offers me no motivation to upgrade from my V6 ATS. The CT4-V will surely drive very well, and the performance numbers will be ‘OK’, but on the whole very, very disappointing, and inspires no loyalty to the Cadillac brand. It’s hard to say who the target audience is for this…the design and powertrain seem uninspired, so won’t cause many other brand loyalists to sit up and take notice.
Front end doesn’t look aggressive enough to be a V. I miss the days of the Coupe and Wagon
First and foremost WOW. Honestly, this is I can’t really back Cadillac up this time. Except to say, that 20 years ago a 4 cylinder
could have barely made 100 horses, and I think for where Cadillac wants this car to compete, it has enough horsepower and toque to be competitive with the new M1 and 2. But the CT5 ehhh. These are the least powerful V-Series cars to ever debut. What is Cadillac up too?
I really want to justify it as Cadillac wants to focus on more touring cars and cars that are less track focused but that’s a stretch. Especially since its suppose to replace both the ATS and CTS V series. I mean are CAFE standards that strict??
On a positive note verse all the negativity Cadillac is about to receive, I think both of these cars especially the CT4 are absolutely beautiful!!!
If we compare these power numbers to the new Toyota Supra/BMW 3.0I6 they are very similar. We will see if GM has underrated them like BMW has.
I hope so, I think the CTS-V was the expectation, and for Cadillac to not offer at least 500hp was the real kicker. Even when you compare the ATS-V where the CT5-V was suppose to be closer too you see less than 100hp. Not like power numbers are the only thing that get you around a track, I think most people are happy that they are still focused on handling. But where’s the 4.2L TT that’s the real question? People were expecting that and at least 500hp. I don’t think it’s a bad engine, and 400lb-ft is a lot of torque, but it isn’t competitive compared to the M3 or C63. CT4-V I don’t have a problem with, I think it makes enough power to be competitive with where Cadillac wants to place it. CT5-V is where I think the meat and potato of the problems are.
How does it have enough HP?
The Audi RS3 has 400HP and will be completely redesigned shortly
BMW M1 will be at least 400HP
Mercedes A Class AMG is like 450HP
It’s been noted in the press release and during the unveiling that more powerful versions are coming. These are just the mid level power offerings.
No manual transmission? I knew I should’ve bought an ATS-V when I had the chance.
So Cadillac threw a Chevy truck engine under the hood and tried to pass it off as a V series? Using a truck engine is insulting enough, but in the V series? What a joke.
I badly want Cadillac to make a comeback. But it’s getting harder and harder to root for them when they do sh*t like this. Unbelievable.
Now we can see why JDN bailed out. No wonder he couldn’t compromise with management.
Exactly.
Cadillac’s CT4-V will use Chevrolet’s 2.7-liter L3B turbocharged four-cylinder engine; so much for not wanting to share engines with Chevrolet and defeating the entire argument for why Cadillac needed to develop the Blackwing V8 when Cadillac already had access to the LT4 640 hp supercharged 6.2L OHV-2v V8 especially when Cadillac isn’t willing to use the Blackwing V8 in to many Cadillac vehicles.
Yuuuuuuup.
Johan lost and Mary Barra allowed the Beancounters to run wild with Cadillac.
GM picked the wrong truck engine to put in here. It should have been the 5.3 L V-8. I do like the styling though.
Looks nice, but I’m skeptical of the fact is has the L3B which judging by its seriously undersquare design is mainly a torque-rich truck engine.
That being said, the Mercedes A45 & CLA45 AMG with their M133 2.0L turbo engine also has a seriously undersquare design but that engine makes a TON of power. That said 320hp from 2.7L seems modest, more in line against the A35 AMG than than full blown A45 AMG. Still if the CT4-V is cheaper it still be a great purchase.
Seems like this engine is underrated. 310 hp in the Silverado with 1.5 bar 22 psi of boost. 320 horse power in the CT4V Cadillac 2.3 bar 33 psi. An extra 11 psi of boost and yet it only gains 10 hp. Well this engine required 93 octane or 91?
With 11 more pounds of boost, then we are talking at least 350 to 370 HP for the CT4V. This is based on other GM small 4 cylinder engines that used a factory higher boost for ( Brazil i think ), where over 70 HP was gained by a different turbo and larger exhaust. This could be the sleeper of the year. Remember that insurance companies are always looking at ways to charge you more money, so GM plays down the official HP number.
Oh God what a relief! I was worried the ATS-V replacement would feature a more refined, more powerful V6TT or even worse, a silky smooth V8. Even worse, Cadillac might have paired MRC with AWD, because as everyone knows the roads up here in the snowbelt are some of the finest in the nation, so MRC is totally superfluous.
Thankfully, sanity prevailed at Cadillac and we finally have a proper V model with a buzzy four banger. This really makes my day!
I hear you. I have never been able to understand why GM refused to offer MRC with the AWD option on the ATS. Made zero sense then and now. But your post is spot on. I fear Cadillac is turning into like an Acura and man how crazy would it be if Lincoln passes them.
GM is spiraling right now. I honestly have no idea what recent vehicle release I could say is close to being Class leading. Can anyone?
Yeah! They got the steering wheel hub right!
Bet it will only be on the V though, and in black only.
When this was approved, they were expecting much more stringent CAFE standards in the coming years.
I’ll bet this engine goes on a transaxle for the XT4 next.
Is exactly like an ATS with other interior ( BMW Style ) and other lights
Very cool!!
Wow. First and foremost, I need to say that I’m so glad this CT4 doesn’t look like the CT5. At least this looks more Cadillac to me and kind of an evolution of the current ATS/CTS. On the outside first look, I like it. Now I’ll wait to see what they offer for people like me who don’t want all the sport or firm ride or summer tires or black trim. Offer a nice luxury package at a fair price and I may be in.
Second, I’m reading a lot of (negative) comments above about using the 2.7L Turbo 4 cyl. The comments seem to be more a complaint about being a “Chevy” engine. Shouldn’t that be a “GM” engine? I thought GM stopped branding engines by certain brands in an effort to move more into a line of GM engines. On top of that, isn’t the V-8 engine used by Cadillac in several models now (V-series mostly) an engine mostly used by Chevrolet? So because this one is a 4 cyl it’s not ok? So far, I’m liking what this is.
I’d agree about the CT4, although for me, the powertrain choices may not be very compelling. It looks very much like an evolved ATS, which is maybe what it started out as before all the new marketing spin. It’s probably the same size as an ATS (& I suspect bigger), but saying that it competes with a smaller class of car lets them justify lowered pricing/expectations. Standing alone and without any precedent, the V package they announced today, at the price point they’re planning, just might make sense in today’s market.
However, they have 15 years of ‘badass’ V-series heritage under their belts, and the V badge carries certain expectations. They’re doing a terrible job of managing those expectations. If V is becoming a sub-brand like AMG, they should have started with that story, explained that new structure, and explicitly introduced today’s models as the entry-level stepping stones. Instead, in the lead-up to this presentation they let everyone believe that these were THE successors to ATS/CTS-V (just like they allowed everyone to believe the CT6 was cancelled), and now there is massive disappointment. The subtle wink-wink-there’s-a-more-potent-V-coming-wink-wink doesn’t go far enough to emphasize that they recognize today’s cars are effectively V-lite (at least the V-sport tag was honest). They presented today’s cars as legit V-series, which without any additional context, doesn’t instill great confidence that their idea of a ‘serious’ V car will meet or exceed expectations. I hope that whatever ace they have up their sleeve, it’s big enough to make everyone forget today’s mess. Some positive press/first test drive reviews would do wonders…
Let everyone remember that big burly unrefined big blocks was what made Cadillac back in the day. The amount of grunt that was incorperated to move to land barges is what they were known for. A truck engine in a caddy is no where the problem. The 2.7 really isn’t a truck engine though. The 1500’s with it are downrated on towing due to its lack of durability under heavy load. It’s a perfect engine for this application, save the 6.2 truck motor for larger caddy cars.
It’s mostly a smaller CT5.
What is the length and other specs?
It’s weird announcing the V version before the standard version.
Cadillac can’t keep + use consistent names. If they don’t want to sell an expensive low volume V with V
power, then don’t, but don’t call the V-Sport the V.
WTF! I’m keeping my ATS-V