GM will position Cadillac as their lead EV brand in a mission to catch up to Tesla in the US electric vehicle market, according to sources talking to Reuters.
They report that GM will announce these plans to investors on Friday. They are expected to announce that a Cadillac vehicle will be the first car made on their upcoming next-generation “BEV3” platform. This would be the first all-electric Cadillac GM has made or announced.
So far, we have no other details and GM is not expected to release any other details about the upcoming Cadillac in the Friday update.
Cadillac’s previous entries into the electrification space included the Cadillac ELR and the Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrids.
The ELR was a plug-in hybrid based on the Volt platform with an upgraded interior and two fewer doors. It sold poorly due to its high introductory price, almost twice the Volt’s base price despite having the same internals.
Eventually, GM dealers lowered the price to around $50,000 and managed to sell a few more cars to some pretty happy owners, but the adventure was short-lived and the car was killed off after only two model years in existence (2014 and 2016). GM also announced the end of the Volt, the car the ELR was based on, late last year.
The Cadillac CT6 was actually a quite impressive offering when compared to other powertrains in the CT6 line, offering more power, more efficiency and a lower price than similarly-equipped gas models. Alas, GM managed to sell very few of them and killed the project along with the Volt at the end of last year.
GM, for their part, has made other electric vehicles, including the excellent Chevy Bolt, and has sold more vehicles with a plug in the US than any company other than Tesla.
