{"id":18196,"date":"2016-03-09T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=18196"},"modified":"2016-03-14T14:25:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T18:25:35","slug":"cadillac-debuts-1st-of-4-new-crossovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/cadillac-debuts-1st-of-4-new-crossovers","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac debuts 1st of 4 new crossovers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"By<\/p>\n

In its battle for luxury relevance against Germany\u2019s top automakers, Cadillac has forged some of the best sedans in the world: the 2013 North American Car of the Year ATS, Car & Driver Top 10 pick CTS, and the luxurious cutting-edge CT6.<\/p>\n

Yet when the all-new, 2017 XT5 crossover debuts in showroom\u2019s later this month, Cadillac will still boast only one crossover at a time when sport utility vehicles are the hottest vehicles on the planet.<\/p>\n

While General Motors and other Detroit automakers have pioneered SUVs \u2014 bringing record profits \u2014 Cadillac has been conspicuously absent at the party. As a result GM\u2019s luxury automaker has struggled to gain market share.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I discussed it with product planning, they looked at me with a bit of puzzlement and said: \u2018There is no company in the world with a wider range of crossovers than GM,\u2019 \u201d\u00a0recounts Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen<\/a>, who took over the iconic brand in 2014. \u201cThe problem is, that doesn\u2019t include Cadillac.\u201d<\/p>\n

With XT5, that is about to change. Cadillac plans four new crossovers (including the XT5) by 2020. Built on an all-new platform that will be the backbone for future product, the mid-size XT5 also replaces the outgoing SRX \u2014 Cadillac\u2019s best-selling vehicle \u2014 with a new XT nomenclature for SUVs.<\/p>\n

Leading the charge is de Nysschen, who is remaking Cadillac within GM as an<\/p>\n

autonomous brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the smallest brand in a giant corporation,\u201d said de Nysschen in Los Angeles where the XT5 was being previewed. \u201cWithout 100 percent focus on the luxury brand, it tends to get consumed by the needs of the big brands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelly Blue Book, said Cadillac is\u00a0reversing its 25 percent sales slide<\/a>\u00a0in the last decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years it\u2019s been all about putting out fires at GM,\u201d says Brauer. \u201cIn that world, Cadillac just doesn\u2019t rank as high. (GM) had to their get most important divisions sorted first. In that race, GMC and Chevy were more important \u2014 and they needed leadership for Cadillac.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Nysschen has been here before. In 2004 he was given the job making Audi a focused, luxury brand apart from its Volkswagen mother ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nobody at Audi who also works on VW,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have dedicated resources. They spend their entire working day planning for utter and complete annihilation of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of the original Audi brand warriors,\u201d continues de Nysschen, recalling VW CEO Ferdinand Piech\u2019s shakeup of the company when he took over in the early 1990s. \u201cIn the mid-\u201980s, Audi was like Opel, it was nothing special. Piech … gave Audi the autonomy it needed and said: \u2018Go for it.\u2019 When I came over to the U.S. in 2004, (it) was the last major market to set up the brand separation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Audi\u2019s U.S. sales have more than doubled on the strength of its SUV growth. In 2015 Q3, Q5, and Q7 crossover sales were up 30 percent, leading a record 202,202 in Audi unit sales.<\/p>\n

De Nysschen has brought that focus to Cadillac. \u201c(It) explains why we\u2019ve decided to go to New York,\u201d he says \u201cBecause the luxury market is different than the mainstream market. Autonomy, move to New York, focus on the luxury market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the change in focus and crossover nomenclature, de Nysschen still sees a market for Cadillac\u2019s big, truck-based Escalade ute.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does Escalade fit into the master plan at Cadillac in such a way as you don\u2019t end up undermining the very things that have made it so successful?\u201d he asks rhetorically. \u201cWe have found a solution. \u201cIt will also represent progress in terms on technology and sophistication. We want to ratchet it up because there is room between the XT5 and Escalade for another vehicle. Maybe two.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his team now firmly ensconced in the hip SoHo neighborhood of New York City, de Nysschen is bullish on Cadillac\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last 12 months they\u2019ve made massive progress,\u201d he says. \u201cI consider Cadillac on a whole the most underrated brand on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its battle for luxury relevance against Germany\u2019s top automakers, Cadillac has forged some of the best sedans in the world: the 2013 North American Car of the Year ATS, Car & Driver Top 10 pick CTS, and the luxurious cutting-edge CT6. Yet when the all-new, 2017 XT5 crossover debuts in showroom\u2019s later this month, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18197,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196\/revisions\/18197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}