General Motors may be preparing to export the Cadillac Escalade full-size luxury SUV to Australia, if information coming from that country is to be believed.
Australian publication whichcar recently quoted unnamed “informed sources” as saying that the 2021 Cadillac Escalade is a “contender” for the local market, due partly to its “gangsta rapper” appeal. The immediate problem with this is that Australia is a right-hand-drive country, while the Escalade is built only in left-hand-drive form.
This has not prevented Cadillac from opening pre-orders for the vehicle in Japan, another right-hand-drive market. In Japan, however, Cadillac will sell the Escalade as a left-hand-drive vehicle, which will likely not be the case for Australia.
The solution could lie in GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), the successor company to GM’s former Australian arm, Holden, which is already planning to import several of The General’s products. One of these is the Chevy Corvette C8, which will be available in right-hand-drive form direct from the factory for export markets. The others include the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, which will not. In those cases, GMSV will convert the vehicles to RHD itself before sending them to dealers.
Since the Cadillac Escalade is built on the same GM T1 platform as the Tahoe and Suburban, it should be straightforward enough to perform the same work on the Escalade too, though the curved, LHD-focused OLED display which incorporates the gauge cluster and center screen might present an obstacle.
Although whichcar does not mention this, it’s reasonable to imagine that an RHD Cadillac Escalade might also find its way across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. New Zealand’s population is only one-fifth that of Australia, but increasing the size of the potential market by 20 percent couldn’t hurt.
This speculation about the Escalade potentially coming to Australia follows on from news that the SUV will officially be sold by GM/Cadillac in the Middle East as well as the U.S., Canada and Japan, and that Australia may receive an adapted right-hand-drive version of the all-electric GMC Hummer EV pickup.
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This post was created in collaboration with our sister publication, Cadillac Society.
Comments
When a total redesign of a vehicle is being done, why dont they design it with the anticipation that it could be built with RHD from the factory? They clearly thought ahead with the new Corvette.
I’m looking forward to the future sales read outs. In the double digits per quarter. Lol
I have an idea to solve the right hand drive worries of GM. As far as i understand GM don’t make RHD cars because you have to relocate the whole slew of parts and this is a pain in the neck in terms of design and serial production cost and since GM do not think they will sell enough number of RHD vehicles to compensate their investment they don’t invest at all.
Afaic difficulty stemming from the mechanical parts; steering shaft, axle and brake and acceleration connections etc. So how about making a completely electronic steering wheel, beyond power steering, without a direct mechanical connection to axle at all and augmenting brake and acceleration inputs by driver. Today’s day and age we’ve reached a point that electronic components have enough accuracy and reliability to reproduce mechanical inputs, if it not better ,and this actually made EVs viable.
So if you make steering wheel electronic that just sending signals to a motor through a control unit that will be responsible to direct axle then you don’t have to change places of any mechanical parts same goes for pedal controls. You can do it for just adding a electronic control unit and mini electric motor. This will make creating RHD versions of any car much much more cost efficient.
never underestimate the Chevy name in Australia. Im an Ex Test Driver for Holden, and I know the feeling for GM products are high here