An all-new, second-generation Cadillac XT5 was unveiled at Cadillac House in Shanghai, China last month. It’s a gorgeous new take on Cadillac’s midsize 2-row crossover with thoroughly modernized styling in line with the rest of the Cadillac brand and a fresh interior full of new tech. However, it’s not coming to Cadillac’s home market of North America. Why not? That’s the topic we get into in episode 12 of the Cadillac Society Podcast.
We talk about all things XT5 in this episode, but skip to the 23:21 timestamp if you want the whole story on why North America isn’t getting the second-gen model.
For starters, let’s go over the highlights of the second-generation Cadillac XT5. Cadillac calls it an all-new generation, but it still rides on the C1 platform that underpins the first-gen XT5 that came out in 2017, albeit the updated C1-2 version. One of the big differences is that the new one uses GM’s Global B electronic platform. It’s also bigger in every dimension, giving the new XT5 a more aggressive stance than the crossover it’s replacing.
The interior is quite similar to the cabin of the Cadillac Lyriq. The seats, infotainment system, center console layout, and steering wheel all share a close family resemblance. It’s clear that Cadillac is trying to create brand continuity across its interiors.
So, the new, second-generation Cadillac XT5 is bigger, better, and more modern than the original. It might seem like a no-brainer to simultaneously release it in North America, but it’s not happening because of two related reasons: EVs and manufacturing capacity.
For just about every market other than China (including the U.S. and Canada), the first-gen Cadillac XT5 is built at the Spring Hill plant in Tennessee, while the Chinese XT5 is built in China. However, the Spring Hill plant is going through some changes. The GMC Acadia used to be built there, but the new, third-generation model is built alongside the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave at the Lansing Township plant in Michigan. The other cars assembled at the Spring Hill plant are the Cadillac XT6, Cadillac Lyriq, and, soon, the Cadillac Vistiq 3-row EV. Spring Hill will also build right-hand-drive versions of the Lyriq for international markets.
Do you see where this is going? The Spring Hill plant is gradually building more EVs and fewer ICE models as GM continues its major shift toward EVs, with Cadillac leading the charge. The two ICE models that the Spring Hill plant still builds are getting old; the original XT5 came out in 2017, and the XT6 came out in 2020 and has an uncertain future. In the coming years, the Spring Hill facility will continue building fewer ICE vehicles and more EVs until it’s eventually just an EV plant. As production of the Lyriq ramps up for global markets and the Vistiq is introduced, Spring Hill won’t have the capacity to continue building the XT5.
In other words, the XT5 is exiting its home market because GM has nowhere to build it. The capacity is there, but the will from GM is not. This is a shame because the new Cadillac XT5 is such a good-looking crossover with what is essentially the Lyriq’s interior and technology. While not a bad or bad-looking car, the first-generation Cadillac XT5 has an aging design inside and out. It’s quickly becoming outdated compared to more modern Cadillac models.
The silver lining here is that we love the XT5’s electric replacement, the Cadillac Lyriq, and we can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the smaller Optiq and the bigger Vistiq.
Comments
Last sentence of above article is like a bad political ad. The BS is laid on thick.
The fact that the Lyriq is a good vehicle is not a political statement, but rather a statement of fact.
You’re reading into something that simply isn’t there.
No, I wasn’t saying the article was meant to convey a political stance. I’m not naive enough to say all ppl who are “pro-EV’ adhere to one party or another. I’m just saying that, like political ads, the sentence seems aimed to sway the public in a way toward something they’re really not interested in, by burnishing a certain “thing”.
Mandates by default and publicly funded incentives are political, EVs themselves are not.
Barra’s in very deep with her dream of rapid EV adoption, we all know that. Some of us who are very long-term GM fans are concerned about an over-zealousness toward a goal that so many other BIG players are shying away from… because the numbers do not add up. Some of us were earlier and louder in our opposition than others, but still, the facts remain, and not just in the US, VW faces a major reckoning in its homeland, as does Mercedes. Even Toyota still treats EV as dubious, and they touch every automotive market on the planet. GM, Ford, Toyota and VW… the four biggest automotive players in the world, are all facing reality too late.
We shall see how it turns out in the end.
I enjoy the site BTW, but I reserve the right to speak, as do the siterunners of course. Thanks for providing the opportunity.
Slow-selling EVs displacing better-selling ICEs? Oh, that’s just brilliant.
A huge load of crap… if Buick can build their garbage cars in China and ship them here, they can build the XT5 and send it here.
But if it’s “garbage” as you claim, why would you even want it shipped here?
Only the Envision is shipped here from the PRC. Most of the others come from Korea.
Since the EV market seems to be slowing (maybe retreating), this decision violates one of the movie rules of business:
And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.
Even if they keep making XT5s to salvage the dealers’ sales numbers in the short term, all cadillac will be doing is ensuring that no one buying them will be a returning customer.
Is it time again to beat on this dead horse? People keep begging for a new XT5 knowing full well they will slap a crest on an Equinox or Blazer and tell you to kick rocks in a heartbeat. Best we move on from this.
People will just vote with their wallets. I am not discrediting the Lyriq. It is a very nice vehicle and one of the reasons I decided on the XT5 was to experience owning a GM product before making a plunge to electric, which I saw GM as one of the companies actively moving towards. But if the cars are not better than the ICE counterpart in every way that matters by the time I replace my XT5 I will simply deem GM as not having what I am looking for and look elsewhere for an ICE midsized luxury SUV. GM is too reliant of brand loyalty but fail to understand that most people are more loyal to category. And as I said a million times. Once they experience a more reliable and easier to live with Japanese car like Lexus, they NEVER come back.
Lincoln and Lexus are loving this half-brained decision by GM.
I Love General Motors
I do too but if they don’t have what I am looking for then I look elsewhere. I also love Genesis and Lexus and if they have what I am looking for then they will have my business instead. GMs decision on what they want to sell rather than what customers want does not constitute a compromise on my end especially a big ticket item I replace once every 7 or so years like an automobile.
Because GM is the stupidest company on Earth?
I love General Motors
You can get your gas guzzling cars from Chevy, Buick and GMC. Cadillac will be exclusive EV in a few years and you will get one. Stop complaining.
Not a snowballs chance in hell will I be buying a BEV from GM or any automaker.
One less Cadillac CUV blob and I’m supposed to care?
I have been looking for a US built replacement for my Audi Q5 and like the looks of the Buick Envision and the XT-5. Since the Envision is built in China it is a non-starter for me. The same would be true if the 2nd generation XT-5 were to be built in China. I am not ready to move to an EV. That takes me back to a Q5 or other import. Sad.
Agree David.
Made in China, sell it in China.
Make it in the US, I will buy it.
They’ll do an about face when the Chinese don’t buy the thing, and to keep the factory from gathering dust, they’ll import it, just like they do their Chinese Vehicles imported to Mexico..
you’re right, Bill. And if if doesn’t sell in the USA, Mary and her Mary-Men will be puzzled as to the reason why.
two wrongs don’t make a wight.
come on GM build it here where you true customers are.
It seems all new and improved models, designs are in China… Why? CT6…China….New xt5…china…well fine.. I think I can get a Lincoln here in the USA/
keep the xt5
Isn’t this the same reason GM cited for the death of the CT6? I recall them saying they had to retool the Hamtramck plant for all EVs and there just wouldn’t be capacity for the big Caddy sedan anymore. The reality though is that Hamtramck, now renamed Factory Zero, doesn’t seem to be producing much of anything these days.
Factory Zero builds the Hummer EV and produced 3,280 units of that product last year; they’re up to nearly 5,000 this year. They also built the Cruise Origin but the robotaxi is now cancelled with an unknown quantity built last year but suffice it to say, the number was small; less than 500 units in 2023 and probably much less. They’re building the EV pickups but they’re not selling in high volumes. It looks like they’ll build about 5,000 units of those this year. I don’t know of anything else being built at FZ. They’re getting the Escalade IQ later but as of now, they’re not building it.
All of that suggests production at the plant is running somewhere south of 20,000 units and if I recall correctly Hamtramck could build 360,000 cars before its conversion. Obviously there is still room to build the CT6 had the plant been configured to do so. They may have as much as 340,000 units of excess capacity right now.
Furthermore, GM’s Orion plant which was supposed to be retooled to build 400,000 EV pickups and the original plan was for them to begin rolling off the line now (Summer of ‘24) is on hold. It seems there isn’t sufficient demand yet for 400,000 EV trucks. That plant was building the Bolt EV which, like the CT6, was also discontinued due to the supposed need to make way for new EV products.
It looks like now FZ could produce the Hummer EV, the Escalade IQ and all of the EV pickups for the foreseeable future and could’ve still had room for the CT6.
Oshawa Plants I and 2 are greatly under Utilized at 8 million square feet building ICE and EV trucks with 2500 production employees when thirty years ago had 25000 employees and numerous car lines have lots of room with anything that hasn’t been sent to Mexico or cancelled anytime deemed by Detroit headquarters and do excellent quality work like they did on Chevrolet Impala and Regal for 100 years that Americans loved!
Was this article revised?
In the sixth paragraph, the second sentence says “The capacity is there, but the will from GM is not.” I don’t remember that point being included originally and obviously it is the assertion I was making with my comment above.
I believe GM has Hamtamck that could be building over 300,000 more vehicles than it does and then Orion is sitting idle with 400,000 unit capacity. Both plants are “allocated” as GM likes to say for EVs and presumably waiting for demand for those vehicles to increase.
Problem is they’ll be waiting a long time.
GM top brass and CEO Mary have drank the kool aid of the green new deal and don’t care what we, the customer wants. So be it, politics will hurt the car business, the assembly line workers and the Cadillac name as we have known it. Smart companies will build what the customer desires and not what the politicians demand.
True, but at least gm’s DEI are through the roof!
Since I have absolutely zero interest in a EV, I’m sure I’ll find my next Crossover from one of Cadillacs competitors (may it be a hybrid or straight petrol). With everyone else pumping the brakes in their electric plans, it’s mystifying why GM continues in putting all their eggs in an uncertain EV basket.
We’ve got capacity in Kansas City. Build it here.
As well as Orion, Hamtramck, Lansing Grand River, etc….
Springhill Tennessee is were the XT5 is currently made which used to be the former Saturn plant. They should continue building it there. Flint Michigan should build the Buick Envista, Encore GX and Envision. Kansas City would be another Great location for building the Small Buick SUVs. It’s a terrible and stupid decision to Not bring the New Second Generation XT5 here. I really like the looks of it especially the interior. I only buy GM products that are made here in the USA.
All part of Mary’s “winning with simplicity” mantra. That translates into minimizing pretty much everything…including effort.
I thought this Cadillac EV was cancelled from import to the U.S. and Canada by a100 % dumping tax on all Chinese built EV’s by both governments to strengthen our NAFTA build success, survival and capability ?
I think GM is making a big mistake not selling this here. It looks great, inside and out. The 2.0 turbo being the only engine might turn some people off tho.
Mark my words, competitors who keep their V6 engine will start highlighting that fact more… I see the new Honda Passport preview video is touting their V6 in big letters, where before, it would be a footnote… because everyone used an understressed, simple, economical, musical V6 engine in this class of vehicle. Now it’s turbo 4, increasingly, which is not an improvement for the customer.
No place to build it? Bullcrap. GM by far has the most underutilized facilities. Queen Mary is like Linus waiting for The Great Pumpkin- the EV utopia she’s envisioned ain’t happening for decades. She and her management teams best get off their butts and figure out what ICE vehicles can be built in these underutilized plants.
Mary and her cronies ‘are continuing this EV crap that we are rejecting ,if they stay on this track she will have to ask China for a bailout . We will keep our ICE ‘s till they die . The excuse not to bring the new XT5 here sounds like BS just like the Green new deal is , Mary is just stubborn
It is becoming increasingly clear (except to GM) that the American consumers (including myself) are more interested in hybrid or pure ICE vehicles and not full EVs. I’m aware that EV sales continue to increase (don’t look at percentage – look at the actual quantities), but eventually the initial demand will wane and overall GM sales will go down. Hybrids are a good transition vehicle for those of us who like the idea of an EV, but aren’t ready to switch. I won’t buy an EV until the next gen batteries have 600+ miles of range, recharge faster, and aren’t affected by cold weather like the current ones. If the range is there, then I don’t have to worry about infrastructure.
I would ABSOLUTELY buy a new XT5 if it were built in the US and offered a hybrid powertrain. I currently have a Lincoln PHEV, because Cadillac doesn’t offer any. I’m glad I cashed out my wife’s GM pension, as I’m not sure they will be around as long as I will.
Kansas City 816?
Short-term Barra said hybrids were not the answer 5 years ago.
Rick good points on EV’s and hybrids ! There are also millions of rental apartment dwellers where convenient EV charging isn’t possible and won’t be in the next ten to twenty years that would like Hybrid or PHEV and can’t do .EV for many years because landlords can’t or won’t update their surface or undrgrondparling areas !
I took delivery of a new XT5 in mid-January, having traded a Mercedes ML, first for a ‘23 GMC Acadia Denali, then the ‘24 XT5, & I will NOT be buying another GM product. Make no mistake, it is a very nice vehicle, very sharp looking, & the bride loves it. However, fit/finish & overall quality are in the toilet… (I have owned 5 previous Cadillacs, and actually managed a Cadillac body shop in 1975/76), & it pains me to say that I will likely LOOK at Lincoln, but will just as likely go back to Mercedes, because… when they claim engineering like no other, they’re not lying! I hope the GM braintrust understands that they are killing themselves with all this EV nonsense.
With Barra in charge, there is no rhyme or reason in the way the company is run. Many of her hunches have been suspect. She implemented a ludicrous strategy for EVs, which has decimated sales and market share. GM fans must wait until Barra retires for sanity to return. Her Jack-welch style of leadership has not worked.
I bet a year from now this thing will be built in Mexico for the North American market.
Mike N -sorry to here of your shoddy fit and finish ,, we have leased an 2018 which was turned into a 2021 which was just turned into a 2024 , back in 2020 we leased a 2020 ,when that lease was up we purchased it .. the wife and I are completely satisfied there were issues
tomg… Make no mistake, Our “Midnight Sky” XT5 Luxury/Premium/Platinum, is a very nice vehicle, & the bride absolutely loves it. (My personal ride is a 24 year old Ford F250 Super-Duty diesel)… but speaking from a professional viewpoint, little things like paint blemishes, joint-seal product @ hood/doors & liftgate, was left un-trimmed in several areas, & even Hyundai vehicles don’t go out to delivery like this. This would NEVER go out the door when GM quality really meant something.
The best thing about the current XT5 is that it is instantly recognizable as a Cadillac, which you can’t say for their electric offerings or the second generation.
The trouble with all electrics is that they are very prone to be obsoleted with better technology. Clearly distance and recharge times is the issues. There was some work being done in Australia where lithium batteries had a distance of over 1000 kms. I don’t know the details but buying an ev vehicle and then it becomes obsolete in a couple of years is bad.
I have a 2017 XT5. Wonderful car but I won’ buy the all electric. There are other brands.
I have been a lifelong GM enthusiast and have owned many. I am very disappointed that they insist on building some of their product in China. When the day comes that ALL of it is built over there, I will become the leading cheerleader for the demise of GM.