Cadillac Out to Reclaim Its Global Luxury Car Status With Expansion Into Europe

Cadillac is on a mission to reclaim its status as one of the world's top luxury brands, and its visit to the Paris auto show is a key part of that journey.

To achieved this, design is at the cutting edge of its marketing strategy with a global approach that hopes to revisit its bespoke coach-built premium heritage.

And leading that strategy is a team of designers from around the world like Laetitia Lopez, the Cadillac Optiq’s and Lyric’s French-born design manager for colors, materials and finishes.

She tells WardsAuto that the design journey began with the coach-built prototype of the Celestiq even before the current battery-electric luxury models hit the U.S. market.

She says the global approach to Cadillac’s flagship products taps into a segment of the market that is the same in virtually all regions.

Lopez explains: “We have a team of designers from all over the world and we are all bringing our sensitivity, our emotions from the global markets and bringing it to Cadillac.

“Of course, we want to focus on the brand and our heritage but we also want to make sure the design speaks to any customer... looking for modern opulence.

“This is especially true with Cadillac because it is a sort of quiet luxury in the sense that you do have pure lines and you have a canvas for my work. Inside the Optiq, for example, you have a simplified design surface but dressed up with beautiful details and texturing across the interior and exterior.

“It is a jewelry approach, such as storage compartments dressed in bright blue like a jewelry box.

Lopez says the heavy lifting in design terms was done by the teams working on the Celestiq concept to set the design language to make the flagship Cadillac instantly recognizable on the highways of Europe.

She adds: “I think we have already brought back Cadillac’s premium status with Celestiq, which is already available in the U.S. market. This is a coach-built vehicle where we are working with customers and clients offering a bespoke design service. So, it’s a true coach-built approach.

“We started everything you see now with Celestiq. This came first, even though it was only revealed after the Lyriq. We really set up the brand to bring back Cadillac as a top brand around the world.”

The global pull of Cadillac is what persuaded General Motors to bring it to Europe after a toe-in-the-water pilot sales scheme in Switzerland, says Cadillac Europe’s chief marketing officer, Jean-Pierre Diernaz.

He explains: “Cadillac in Europe is part of GM’s journey to become a strong global manufacturer. GM could have come to Europe with a different brand but Cadillac is a brand that is known worldwide, that is, premium. And we come with the flagship of the range which is the Lyriq.”

Diernaz also sees the brand's premium status as a foil against any price worries for wealthy consumers in markets where EV subsidies are low or lacking altogether. He explains: “The more premium you are, the less you are exposed to price elasticity. Therefore, that incentive as a way to sell cars becomes less important.

“Because Cadillac is at the top of the luxury range with our premium (Lyriq) fullsize SUV, we are not that much exposed to markets with or without incentives.”