With North American production of the Cadillac CT6 ending back in February, the American brand, once famous for its ultra-luxurious four-doors, is currently without a sedan in its lineup.
As crossovers and SUVs continue to top sales charts, many automakers are turning their backs on big sedans. GM is among them, so it seems highly unlikely that a successor to the Cadillac CT6 will be arriving any time soon. Our sister site Cadillac Society wanted a clearer picture of the situation, though, so they asked company president Steve Carlisle directly.
Steve Carlisle
Carlisle told Cadillac Society that the demise of the CT6 was unfortunate yet necessary given the current circumstances in the industry and added that electrification may open the door to more possibilities going forward.
“CT6 was one of those unfortunate ones where, when you’re in an industry of transition, you have to make some tough choices,” Carlisle told Cadillac Society Executive Editor, Alex Luft, at the reveal event for the 2021 Cadillac Escalade in February.
“I think everything is up for grabs as we move to this next cycle of electrification, but I would emphasize that it’s more likely to be an electric car than anything else,” Carlisle added “It’s a whole new world.”
The arrival of the battery-electric Cadillac Celestiq sedan will once again give Cadillac the ultra-lux sedan it so badly needs, but the Celestiq won’t really be a successor to the CT6. Set to be hand-built in Detroit, the EV will be built in low quantities and will cost roughly $200,000. The CT6 was a much more mainstream product by comparison, so a true successor would be less exclusive and less expensive than the Celestiq will be.
So while it’s extremely unlikely a gasoline-powered successor to the Cadillac CT6 will arrive at any point, we just may see a similarly-sized, similarly-priced EV from the brand one day in the distant future. For now, though, the brand’s focus will be on the Celestiq and the closely related Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover, as well.
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This post was written in collaboration with our sister publication, Cadillac Society.
Comments
They just need a gas/electric big volume sedan.
“Without a sedan in its lineup”? What about the CT5 and the CT4?
What the hell are they using VSS-R for, then? Someone should have asked him that, is it even going to become a reality?
If they were smart, they would use it for the next-gen XT 4, 5, and 6 to have truly competitive vehicles vis-à-vis Benz and BMW.
Maybe they should change the name from Cadillac Division to Clueless Division because they sure do act the part. Seems like every interview leaves you wondering if they truly have a plan or are just throwing shit at the wall for example the XT6 to see if it sticks.
If there is a new Cadillac CT6, they should consider giving it a new name because the CT6 is identified with failure.
Cadillac should consider firing their President as the guy is a moron as every step he has made especially in regards to the Blackwing V8 engine has been a failure.
He is a puppet. Pure and simple.
Simply the very worst vehicles built period. Two NY State Lemons consecutively convinced me.
This interview is not reassuring. It’s frightening. As I see it, there’s is no hope for Cadillac within GM anymore.
Mary Barra with her black leather Kohl’s clothes sense-of-style has no business being in charge of a luxury brand. She wouldn’t know good taste and style if it hit her in the face. Carlisle is apparently just a ‘yes’ man that speaks in non-answer nonsense. I’ve never heard anything intelligent or insightful uttered by him.
These folks can’t even build and sell competitive ICE luxury cars where there is a large market. How do they expect to do any better within the very limited, unproven electric car market? I predict Cadillac’s sales volume will rapidly shrink again when the switch to an all-electric Cadillac lineup comes to fruition.
Then we’ve also got Ruess who sees the dire shape Cadillac is in -much credit to him for that – but thinks the answer is a $200,000. electric hatchback. Who else is doing that? Is there a market for such a thing? More importantly, that’s just a huge price gap from $35,000. parts bin FWD XT4s to a hand-built uber electric sedan costing five times as much. The brand just doesn’t have the cachet to support that price-point anymore. Everybody knows that except the clueless lifers ensconced in decaying Detroit running GM.
Mark and Mary are both second generation GM workers who are apparently woefully out-of-touch with just how much damage has been inflicted on Cadillac by the years of neglect and mismanagement by GM. In the “Pure Michigan” bubble, things might not look so dire. Up there every UAW lineman is plodding down the potholed Motown roads in a Cadillac so GM management must see Caddy’s on the road and think all is well. In all the affluent suburbs outside of the state of Michigan, nobody shops at Cadillac stores anymore. They’re a forgotten bargain brand. Can a bargain brand with sub-par dealers actually peddle a ultra-lux Bentley competitor? It’s doubtful.
They had a guy who understood all the steps it would take to get Cadillac back to that stratosphere including fixing the sub-par dealers. What happened? As we all know, Mary and the GM Board fired him and brought in a another lifer, a sales guy from Canada.
The only hope for Cadillac is if the GM Board will immediately put the brand up for sale and let someone else take over. And, that might actually work since Mary likes to sell-off GM assets. PSA turned Opel around very quickly; maybe they could do the same for Cadillac. BMW turned failing Rolls Royce into a jewel again which now once again is standing proud as the pinnacle of luxury cars. Perhaps they’d like to take a stab at Cadillac. Even Geely has improved Volvo and Tata revived JLR. Anybody out there would do better than the hapless bunch at GM. So, please GM Board, either fire your leadership team or sell Cadillac. Please!
I don’t expect anybody to like this post so go ahead and downvote it. I don’t even like it but sadly I think what I say is the truth.
I don’t like the comment at all…but you’re getting a thumbs up anyway, because I can’t sit here, as much as I want to, and tell you you’re wrong.
Cadillac has, for decades, been the hardest hit by the GM corporate bean-cutters. That’s because they’re the most costly to keep going, and thus, the most enticing spot to cut costs. What’s the most sad is that the beginning of the Art and Science era had such INCREDIBLE promise to deliver on the goods Cadillac had lacked for decades. Instead, the bean counters did their counting, and nothing was ever better than half-great, than average. Some care were excellent in some areas, but never all. Consider:
– The first-gen CTS. Wow, what a departure from the past, a real, honest-to-goodness sports sedan. And it drove like one two, damn well. But that interior was just atrocious, and would have looked bad in a Chevy Cavalier.
– Remember the SRX? The first gen was RWD, and though it wasn’t the best looking, it was exactly what Cadillac needed to fight the Germans – a RWD crossover with optional V8 power. But then Cadillac swapped in a FWD platform for the next generation, because that was “good enough.” Amazingly, we haven’t had a RWD crossover since.
– The new ATS and third-gen CTS had so much promise! Dynamically, they were the best-handling luxury sport sedans in the world, full stop. But in typical Cadillac/GM fashion, that was where the goodness had to end. It can never just ALL be good…and you got interiors where the cost-cutting was beyond obvious. CUE totally sucked, the ATS’ instrumentation cluster was an absolute JOKE, still too much hard plastic throughout…and now both are dead. Huh.
– And let’s not forget the “Cadillac flagship debacle.” Forget, for a moment, the fact that Cadillac had FWD sedans as their full-size flagships for two decades, from 1996 to 2016…I’m not here to trash the XTS, but that car should have never existed. If you want to see GM cost-cutting incarnate, look no further than that car. And the sad thing was, it wasn’t even a bad car, in fact it was pretty good, but the fact that we even had a FWD, Impala-based flagship to begin with (when Mercedes had the S-Class, BMW had the 7 Series, Audi had the A8, etc.) is and always will be a travesty. When the DTS died, the CT6 should have been ready to go. Instead, we get the XTS to bridge the gap for 3 years until the CT6 is finally ready; and then, the CT6 goes for FOUR model years without getting it’s V8 engine, which lasted exactly ONE model year before the CT6 itself got axed. And as good as the CT6 was, it too suffered from GM cost-cutting it’s entire life.
One could almost slip into a depression looking at the short, sad life, and all the wasted potential, of arguably Cadillac’s best sedan in decades. What a colossal waste. Damn.
I could go on, but what’s the point? The reality has always been, GM management has destroyed Cadillac. I’m talking Cimarron, all the way to the XT6. CUT, CUT, CUT, that’s all they ever do. The end result is basically an irrelevant gasoline-powered luxury brand.
And maybe the saddest thing of all is that morphing to electric COULD actually be the saving grace for this forsaken brand. If Cadillac were being led by whoever’s running Kia/Hyundai/Genesis right now, I’d bet you that electrification, when DONE RIGHT, would save the brand. That’s the kind of clean slate we’re talking here with EVs. But with GM management running the show, sadly, I just can’t see it happening. All this talk of “no compromises,” I’ve heard it all before. By all indications, GM will screw this up. They always do.
I’ll always root for Cadillac to succeed, including in this last push, the push for electrification. I just can’t bear thinking of Cadillac being owned by some Indian or Chinese corporation. While I really don’t have hope, I’ll always want them to win. But if this EV push doesn’t work out…for the love of God, just let shut off the lights, pull the plug, and let Cadillac go. End the suffering already. We, and it, deserve so much better.
I do remember the first SRX.
Sales of the first generation topped out at 23K. Thr FWD version from MY 2010 MORE THAN DOUBLED THAT FIGURE. The best year was 2015 at 68K. ” Good enough” ???
Whether you like it or not, tje market prefers a FWD based crossover.
Funny someone always bring up “Cimmaron” when Caddy is mentioned, Escalade was a rebadged Denali and it’s successful, no one brings up Versailles or Blackwood for Lincoln stories, 190 for Benz, 4000 for Audi, Isetta for BMW.
What “excellent” Cadillac over the past 40 years they need to make again? retirement G-body DeVilles?, The CT6 was on the right track, I hope a replacement is for that.
I look forward to the $200k custom Cadillac that should harken back to the “Standard of the World” days while sporty and volume models fill out the line-up.
The problem with Cadillac- and Lincoln for that matter- is that they moved away from “American Luxury.” Even though the chassis were not the most dynamic, I think that Cadillac had it right in the mid to late 1990s with the DeVille’s. Fleetwoods, Eldorados, and Sevilles. Cars that were unmistakably American- large, plush, powerful. Cadillac came close with the CT6 before they destroyed it. I think that Lincoln and Cadillac made mistakes when they forgot the American luxury car buyer and tried to go head-to-head with the Europeans. That is not to say that there is not a place for cars like the CT4 and CT5 in Cadillacs lineups. However, if you want to go head-to-head versus Benz, BMW and even Lexus, you have to commit to EXCEED their quality and features, not simply try and match them.
Most Caddys of the 90s should have been Buicks or better effort on quality and innovation instead of selling to a lesser standard be #1 in sales, once the 2-gen Escalade was being doveloped so went the Caddy car R&D budget. Believe it or not Cadillac had it right in the 80s marketing wise with the expensive Allante, Seville and Eldorado at top with DeVille, Fleetwood (and yes) Cimmaron for volumes .
Lincoln had it right in the 80s/90s with the T/C, Mark coupes and somewhat the Fox/Taurus based Continental, they got drunk with Town Car sales while the Mark rot. Than the Navigation came about and the rest of car-line died with the Town Car dying a slow death and Mazda Zephyr headlining the sedans, now Lincoln still thinks “everyone” wants an SUV. Focusing on SUVs only got both in trouble now.
All that “plush” talk, where’s “plush” in the market now?, No one wants a Continental, XTS that POS should had died day one when CT6 went on sale. As said before Cadillac have volume models now they need to get “excellent” again with a no non-sense, aspiring (and not affordable) vehicles again but hopefully a VSS sedan is coming between CT5 and Celestiq for volumes.
That was a long rants to say you don’t like Mary and electric cars. Like it or not, they are the future. With governments becoming increasingly hostile to emissions, anyone without a serious plan for electrification will see themselves on the outside looking in.
Hit the nail on the proverbial head. Management starts at the top. Mary Bara is inept. Add to that – even more importantly – her sense of style and design stink. This can be seen all over GM vehicles. Cadillac in particular – where they used to lead in style, now they are a joke.
Agreed, its time to drain the GM swamp. We need lexus type dependability and service.
After 3 Escalades and 2 sedans, I give up. I couldn’t persuade my wife to buy a CT6 . After watching me try to get them repaired. She said no, Im buying a Genesis G90. The final straw for me was 2016 Escalade transmission problems.
After all the TSBs, thru many visits, they won’t even look at it. They say NO CODES, NO PROBLEM. THAT WILL BE $100 PLEASE. Styling in only thing they do right. Fit, finish and reliability, not so much.
While luxury sedans like the Mercedes S-class, BMW 7-series, and Lexus LS compete sedulously to be top dog, Cadillac decides to regress by canceling its flagship after less than 4 years of being on sale….. slow clap*.
Here’s an idea: Offer the large sedan in ECE, Electric, diesel, and hybrid versions. It’s called giving the customer what they want. You think GM could develop a platform flexible enough to handle all these powertrains.
On a similar note, it will be interesting to see how the lower gas prices for the foreseeable future will effect GM’s “all electric future” fantasy. If they were smart, they would have made the upcoming Hummer body flexible enough to ride on a traditional truck ECE platform. I think a lot of people in light of the Coronavirus will think twice about ride-sharing as well.
Once the Coronavirus panic is over, and Saudi Arabia loses yet another attempt to destroy the Russian and American oil industry, the rebound will push oil prices higher than they were before all this happened. That, plus the fact that governments around the world are making legislation hostile to ICE cars, means GM has to go all in on electric, or be left behind. With the Japanese car makers making little effort in electrification, this is GM’s chance to become the dominant car maker again.
Dominant? Except for the US and China and a bit in South-America, their dealer base all over the world is gone. So only the US and China are relevant any more. And if we look at the US, with cheaper gas than anywhere else in the West: why would anyone buy electric as the distances are big and recharging takes hours? The SLR was a sales disaster, and no one wants electric unless they are forced to by governments. The game might change if they find a battery which charges in 2-3 minutes or can travel 600 REAL miles at 80% capacity – then the advantages of electric (power, low maintenance, quietness) might become prevalent.
Except that GM will screw it up!
Wow, nothing like “mailing it in”…IMHO.
Washing your hands of leading the Brand by saying everything is up for grabs and it’s a whole new world??
While electric vehicles are new and the next big thing, that doesn’t automatically equate to “differentiated luxury”. They’ll soon be ubiquitous and Cadillac will still be seen as a floundering adolescent by those expecting, and hoping / rooting for, much more.
I have owned Cadillac’s since a senior in high school (1956), other than Chevy’s Cad’s are my choice and I like very much my XTS, even though it is a V-6… it routinely scoots me down the highway at whatever speed I want with the comfort and safety I seek. With that said I am so disapointed at the GM/Cad management for their lack of foresight, common sense, poor decision making when it comes to MARKET. There will always be a market for a four door sedan, and in the case of Cadillac, a luxury four door sedan for those of us who either scrape their pennies together to afford, or whip out the checkbook and write a cash offer. Not everyone wants a cross-over/suv (but our Yukon is just fine when we need it), as one sees driving down any boulevard in America…. look at all those four door sedans in traffic. If Korea, Germany, Japan can market luxury four door sedans and sell them to a MARKET in USA that seeks a fine four door, then certainly Cadillac should be able to do. Sadly, the image I get is a bunch of folks in Detroit circle-jerking and screwing over their dealer network and most importaantly, those of us who go back many years loyally wanting America’s auto producer to be competitive… and successful.
PS…. And build a gasoline powered V-6 or V-8 that gets 25 to 30 mpg (like my Corvette)… America for the next 30 to 50 years will be a gas/diesel driven country with what we have from our productive oil industry. The electric folks can move in and through time my become competitive but let it just evolve.
So Caddy is giving up on what made them famous, a full size luxurious sedan. Guess they finally realized they could compete with MB, Audi, BMW, Lexus and now, even up and coming Genesis. Long live the luxocruiser.
That’s the real story. The quintessential BMW is the nimble, canyon carving 3-Seies. It’s the car that built their reputation. Over at Porsche, it’s the 911. For many carmakers, there is a singular product that epitomizes the company. For Cadillac, their reputation was built by big luxurious sedans that could effortlessly cruise all day in supreme comfort. The CT6 Super Cruise is the perfect reincarnation of Cadillac’s archetypal product. Yet it’s gone. Dead. Buried.
I just don’t see BMW eliminating the 3er, Porsche the 911, or Mazda the Miata but the beancounters at GM apparently could see no value in keeping the one car that epitomizes what Cadillac was all about when they ruled the American Road.
The moment is CLEAR to see, GM IS CLUELESS, DIRECTIONLESS and LOST. RIP Cadillac, you the once great icon, has been stripped to the bone, and left to die by a sad and mediocre group of disappointing losers, that had nothing in them from the start, and couldn’t even rise to the lowest expectations.
Cadillac will for what time it has left be nothing but a interior and exterior styling exercise produced on the least expensive most common platforms available.
We will here in the future how the EV’s will be postponed and the whole project will be drawn out by the vacant GM management till the entire project dies from directionless dithering.
Its over!
I wonder if BMW, MB, Audi, Lexus, Genesis Are aware of this???????? I just bet they are all hugely disappointed in themselves that they didn’t know this!!!!!
Any moment we should be hearing from them about the cancellation of there large cars, and many of there other sedan models…..
I know they will all soon be following (WITH GREAT GRATITUDE) GM’s lead on this!!!!!
QUOTE
told Cadillac Society that the demise of the CT6 was unfortunate yet necessary given the current circumstances in the industry and added that electrification may open the door to more possibilities going forward.
“CT6 was one of those unfortunate ones where, when you’re in an industry of transition, you have to make some tough choices,”
Sad I was hoping for a new Ct6 type sedan when my lease is up on my CT6
There are plenty of options available. GM/Cadillac doesn’t care about your business, so buy a car from a maker that does.
Talk about smoke and mirrors . . . GM leadership is an illusion.
Electrification isn’t the answer for increased sedan sales – it’s an excuse to delay having to build a full-size model, which won’t fare any better in the current CUV/SUV sales climate.
If anyone is looking for a CT6 -V,…….. Lindsay Cadillac, in Alexandria, Va. 703-998-6600… has a new 2020 CT6-V in Black,..msrp is $97,000+ on sale for for $94,000+…. if you call ask for Tom O’Neill
No, It’s not me, and I don’t work for Lindsay……just trying to hook up an interested customer with a CT6-V while there is one available………