Cadillac Tells Us Big Changes Are Coming By 2020

Its presence at Detroit this year was boring. Next year at this time will be very different.

If you happen to go to this year’s Detroit Auto Show and walk by the Cadillac stand, you’ll notice there’s nothing new on display. The lineup is nearly the same as last year’s, which is a bit unusual for a major domestic car show. But that’s all about to change next year. We spoke with Cadillac spokesman, Donny Nordlicht at Detroit and inquired about the luxury brand’s lack of new product. “In the course of the next couple of years, by the end of the decade, our entire model range will either be heavily revised or all-new models.

“We’ll have a huge product offensive on the SUV side, including the new XT4. This is our last quiet show for a while,” Nordlicht explained. Cadillac previously announced that the ATS, CTS and XTS will continue through their current lifecycles, but their successors will be consolidated to two models. Which of the three will be sacrificed the most is unknown (best guess: XTS), but Cadillac’s major focus will be, not surprisingly, crossover SUVs. And this begs the question: Are there high-performance SUVs in the pipeline? “We care a lot about what makes a V Series car and a V Sport and we don’t want anything to be simply just add-ons. If something can be done right, that’s the mentality we’re taking.”

Given the huge success that is the BMW X5 M and X6 M, Cadillac clearly isn’t ruling anything out. If there were to be a high-performance Cadillac SUV, best guess it’d be next year’s XT4. Remember, BMW will also soon launch the first-ever X3 M, and considering Cadillac clearly knows how to do performance, an XT4-V does make an awful lot of sense. “We’re moving to bolster our crossover portfolio. We need more. We know that. We’re launching more,” Nordlicht said. "Cadillac makes driver's cars. The core of the brand is around passion. It's been that way for 115 years. We care very passionately about cars that make design statements, are fun to drive and are luxurious."

We'll find out next year at this time whether or not that remains true, but all indications point towards some interesting times ahead for Cadillac. Here's hoping some hot rod-like SUVs will be a part of that, especially since the future of coupes, such as the ATS and ATS-V, isn't looking so good.