GM Confirms Range-Topping Cadillac, Bows Early Next Year

General Motors confirms plans to build a new range-topping Cadillac, likely based on the well-received Elmiraj touring coupe unveiled at last year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, calling the unnamed vehicle “a top-end, high technology car.”

“The objective for this upcoming model is to lift the Cadillac range by entering the elite class of top-level luxury cars,” newly appointed Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen says in a statement today. “Currently in development, this new rear-wheel-drive-oriented sedan uses completely new, custom-designed materials on a unique vehicle architecture.

“In addition to new technology in the car itself, we are instituting innovative manufacturing techniques to assemble it with the precision deserving of a luxury make.”

GM will build the 4-door Cadillac at its Detroit-Hamtramck, MI, assembly plant, where it recently invested $384 million in tools and equipment for the car.

The car will sit above the CTS and XTS in the Cadillac’s portfolio, GM says, and be shown in the first half of next year. Production will reportedly begin in November with sales commencing in early 2016.

Speculation over the future of the Elmiraj has loomed since its introduction, because Cadillac executives long have lamented the absence of a halo car at the division to compete with six-figure offerings from the brand’s German rivals. For the year the Escalade large SUV has filled that role, but as Cadillac makes a push in the coming years to expand globally it needs a big luxury statement on the car side of its lineup.

“That where we really want to take Cadillac,” Andrew Smith, the brand’s design chief, told WardsAuto of the Elmiraj in January. “It would be fantastic as a production car.”

Today’s news signals the concept car would add a pair of doors as a production model, which would be logical at least at introduction since it likely will perform dual roles as both personal and chauffeured transportation in important markets such as China.

It also will serve as a technology showcase for Cadillac. At the recent ITS World Congress in Detroit, GM CEO Mary Barra announced the automaker’s breakthrough Super Cruise technology, a driver-assist system with elements of automated driving, would appear on an all-new Cadillac in the 2017 timeframe. It appears that car will indeed be the new one announced today.

Super Cruise, which could get a name change in the future, features hands-off lane following, braking and speed control in certain highway driving conditions. Barra said the system is designed to increase the comfort both in bumper-to-bumper traffic and on long road trips.

It is unclear which GM powertrain might motivate the new Cadillac, although executives said last year at a showing of the Elmiraj in Detroit an engine similar to the concept car’s 500-hp, 4.5L turbocharged V-8 already was under development.

Today’s news further elevates Detroit-Hamtramck’s position with GM’s group North American assembly plants. The automaker says the addition of the new product will bring to five the number of vehicles assembled there on a single production line, making it the most complex of its facilities in the region.

GM has invested more than $1 billion at Detroit-Hamtramck in the last five years.

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