General Motors Co’s Cadillac brand is on the point of making an extraordinary boost to their expansion plans, by taking on market a small, sport-utility vehicle. The president of Cadillac is Johan de Nysschen and he has told some novelties to the reporters at the Washington Auto Show, on Thursday. His first statement was that even if he doesn’t have a date in mind, he would estimate that the grand reveal would be somewhere about 4 years away.
The small SUV’s price will be considerably smaller than the Escalade SUV, which is now about $68.000. The newer one, about which no details were released whatsoever, is going to take part of an expansion initiative that has $12 million put on hold especially for it and which will last approximately 5 years. The plan is to launch 8 vehicles. A midsize SUV that is very well-seen at the hour is Cadillac SRX, currently prices at $38.000, more or less.
Internationally, there are 929 Cadillac dealerships available, from which 200 of them have an exclusive space for Cadillac, and more than 700 put this extravagant brand side by side with Chevrolet and other GM brands.
Mr. Nysschen said that his main purpose is to “take this brand right back to the pinnacle of premium”. Unfortunately, this mix of brands that are being sold at dealerships is a negative aspect of Cadillac’s reputation.
“We both know that this is not the right thing for Cadillac. But I also do not want to force upon you to build a large Taj Mahal mausoleum for the brand because it is not an investment that’s appropriate to the market size that you’re in.”
Instead of big dealerships that sell more brands of luxury cars, Johan de Nysschen believes that a greater difference would be made if his Cadillacs were to be sold in small boutique showrooms, even if they can expose only two cars. The system has been organized in silence and with a steady hand. It would have an electronic feature that would allow the customers to configure several models, as well as check exterior colors of the cars. Holograms of the cars would be an option for those who want to see the bigger picture and all its details. All in all, for Cadillac, the boutique is the new technique.
All this new investment measures were taken because 2014 hasn’t been a good year for Cadillac, as far are sales are concerned. The number is rather small for this legendary brand: 170.000 Cadillacs, 6.5 percent less than 2013 and half of the cars that Mercedes and BMW sold in the same period of time.
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