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Todd Hallenbeck2 Apr 2015
NEWS

Cadillac confirms Aussie assault

GM will finally bring Cadillac to Australia before the end of this decade, with a range topped by the luxurious CT6 limo

Cadillac is plotting its return to global prominence and Australia is one of many steps, but much of Caddy’s strategy depends on many unknown variables.

Brushing the dust off a 112-year-old brand and reinventing every aspect from design to technical content takes cash, and GM will write $US12 billion in cheques during the next five years to finance the brand’s renovation.

Reinventing Cadillac begins with luxurious new models like the new CT6 limousine, revealed tonight prior to the opening of the New York motor show.

Other big moves have already happened like Cadillac relocating its headquarters and marketing offices to New York City and philosophically far, far away from the blinkered thinking that has plagued Detroit for decades. GM appears to be making the right moves.

“Cadillac is a critical part of our future,” said Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, to a group of international media during the Detroit show in January.

"The luxury segment is growing around the world and as a full-line auto company it is vitally important that we perform at a higher level in this very important sector. So this year in North America, we will launch four new vehicles including the CT6 and in China we will launch nine new models in the next five years

“In 2015, 27 per cent of our global sales volume will come from vehicles new or refreshed in the last 18 months. This will rise to 38 per cent in 2017 and 47 per cent or nearly half of our total volume in 2018.”

Cadillac’s return to Australia before 2020 depends in the short-term entirely on markets like China and the United Kingdom.

“China is our clear path to take the brand global,” says Johan de Nysschen, president of Cadillac and a Detroit outsider who joined Cadillac in July 2014 after executive stints with Infiniti and Audi. 

In November in Los Angeles, de Nysschen spoke with us and talked openly about right-hand drive and diesel as being critical developments to Cadillac becoming a genuine global brand. He mentioned then that Australia was again on Cadillac’s map, but so much had yet to align. He’s had his ruler out.

“We are moving from being a very highly US centric brand to a global brand," he said later at the Detroit show. "To do that you also need to shape your product strategy so that you have products that are suitable to the various markets around the globe.

"On the one hand you need to generate the economies of scale to help you to finance the investment projects because it is no good to have a magnificent product range you cannot finance.

“Our priority in terms of sequence of events has got to be China. China is the area where we can generate the most rapid returns on investment into new product as we generate economies of scale to help finance them in the first place. This then sets us up to take the Cadillac brand global.”

At the CT6 reveal in New York tonight, he added: “Our venture into right-hand drive should not be seen in isolation. It is very directly linked to diesel engines and vehicles occupying a lower luxury segments which resonate better with European circumstances.

"That means small cars, right-hand and diesel engines all go together. There is no way we could imagine to begin to raise Cadillac’s profile in Europe without having a similar profile in the United Kingdom. If you look at right-hand drive in the United Kingdom, then it says where else can you generate volume for RHD applications.

"It cost money to develop RHD derivatives and for that reason we will not develop RHD for every single model but for those that make sense. That includes Japan, Australia, South Africa and markets in Southeast Asia that are RHD.”

The CT6 is a big sedan resting gracefully on a front-engine, rear-drive layout, quite different from Cadillac of years past that preferred a transverse V8 layout and front-wheel drive with boulevard ride. Steering response required patience.

Today Cadillac’s brand attributes are quality and luxury underlined by chassis dynamics and advanced technology. The same descriptors are used by Audi, BMW and Jaguar and that’s exactly who Cadillac is targeting with the CT6 and future models developed from the CT6’s very adaptable architecture.

“Internally we refer to the architecture as Omega,” says David Leone, Executive Chief Engineer, Cadillac. “The platform has a lot of bandwidth. We can do multiple body styles: coupes, sedan, different sized sedans, utilities. Whatever we want to do with this the flexibility is there. The CT6 is the first car off this platform.”

Providing driving dynamics that you cannot get from the competition was a primary focus, according to Leone. “It drives like a car much smaller than its size. It weighs just under 1680kg (with 2.0-litre turbo engine, RWD). If you get to the twin-turbo V6 with AWD, it weighs around 1770kg. From a mass standpoint, the CT6 is lighter than the smaller Cadillac CTS and lighter than a BMW 5 Series.”

The CT6’s design was forecast by two significant concepts – the 2011 Cadillac Ciel and the 2013 Cadillac Elmiraj. Both carried a long wheelbase and strong vertical grille framed by distinct vertical headlights, just like the CT6.

Australian Andrew Smith, who began his career at Holden Design as an apprentice with Mike Simcoe in the mid-1990s, was appointed Cadillac design director two years ago.

“We talk about the artistic integration of technology, so Art and Science. We coined the phrase. That’s been the design philosophy at Cadillac since the beginning,” says Smith, but he avoids using the term Art and Science to describe Cadillac’s forward-looking, avant-garde and dramatic design.

Smith describes the CT6 by going back to the Cadillac Sixteen (1999). “The Sixteen concept was a car that just blew me away when I saw it. You see elements of the Sixteen in the original CTS sedan. In the next-gen CTS and certainly in this vehicle (CT6), you start to see in addition to the continuance of the simplicity, proportion and stance is the sophisticated surfacing.”

“When you see this car driving on the road and you start to see reflection and the way the surfaces work, that’s when you start to appreciate it,” he says.

“I know it sounds like designer speak, but wash the car and you’ll start to find things about it that you didn’t realise were there. I want people to find things in the car when they start to explore it. That’s the kind of relationship I want people to build with Cadillacs.”

Beneath the exterior skin, the CT’s body structure is comprised of 13 high-pressure die castings which are used in three main ways: to consolidate parts, improve stiffness and reduce NVH (noise, vibration, harshness).

According to Travis Hestor, executive chief engineer for CT6 and another Aussie who started his career with Holden, the front body hinge pillar – the critical area just rearward of the front wheel – a single alloy die casting consolidates 35 parts into one part.

“And when you do that,” says Hestor, “you don’t get inherent flex in joints anymore.”  Reduce flex and the result is generally better driving dynamics, and the CT6 is extremely nimble and athletic, says Hestor. “It is so nimble and light for a big car.”

Amid its long-wheelbase, the CT6 debuts a longitudinally mounted twin-turbocharged DOHC V6 engine of 3.0-litre capacity developing more than 99kW per litre. The V6 is the only six-cylinder engine to combine turbocharging with cylinder deactivation and idle-stop technologies to conserve petrol. Cadillac anticipates fuel economy improvements by up to six per cent.

The turbochargers feature low-mass, low-inertia titanium-aluminide turbine wheels to significantly reduce throttle lag and quicken the engine’s responsiveness to right-foot inputs. The engine also features a low-volume water-to-air intercooler maintaining intake temperatures to hold optimal boost pressure up to 18 pounds.

In short, Cadillac has developed a very potent, quick revving forced-induction V6 engine with few if any of the negative side effects.

Its motor skills are impressive. According to claims by Cadillac, the new 3.0-litre engine is designed to achieve high levels of refinement and specific output for the CT6. Peak torque of 543Nm is reached at 2500rpm and carried to 5000rpm, while the engine touches peak power of 298kW at 6500rpm.

Cadillac describes the engine’s performance as ‘power-dense’ and its peak outputs make the twin-turbo engine one of the most powerful six-cylinder engines in production as of late 2015.

An eight-speed variant of GM’s Hydra-Matic automatic transmission – the 8L90 – transfers power and torque through the rear axle. Cadillac also uses the eight-speed automatic in the large Escalade SUV as well as the small ATS sedan and coupe, while Chevrolet uses a transaxle variant in Corvette.

An example of the advanced technology to be offered in the CT6 is high-resolution (171 pixels per inch) streaming video displayed on a 1280x240-pixel TFT-LCD display as an alternative to a traditional rear-view mirror.

Cadillac claims the streaming video mirror improves field of vision by an estimated 300 per cent. And the camera should work in all weather and temperature conditions.

The CT6, which goes on sale this year in the United States during the fourth quarter, will be built at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

We not overstating the importance of CT6 by saying the future of Cadillac as a global brand rides on it success. Its engineering and design will certainly impact a new generation of Cadillac customers as well as impact Cadillac’s competitors, including the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

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Written byTodd Hallenbeck
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