Report: Cadillac plans new crossover, Porsche 911 and Rolls-Royce rivals, confirms Johan de Nysschen

CARandDRIVER recently got the lowdown with Cadillac at Los Angeles, following a year full of big changes. For one thing, Cadillac just moved their entire center of operations from Detroit to New York, and there’s a new CEO in town to move Caddy into the next level. That CEO would be Johan de Nysschen, formerly of Audi and Infiniti, and he sat down with C/D in a recent interview.

In that interview, C/D learned de Nysschen has big plans for Cadillac, one of which involves a new ultra-luxury sedan competitor to go neck-and-neck with some Rolls-Royce and Bentley models, which was recently confirmed by de Nysschen to be around 15 years away from happening. There’s also mention of a sports car to rival the Porsche 911 and new Cadillac diesels in 2019. Nonetheless, he strongly implies Cadillac’s goal to grow into a world standard once again.

Old-geezers will cringe at the words Cadillac and diesel but all the Germans have been doing diesels just fine, even in America. So, in order for Cadillac to run with the Germans, they need powerful yet efficient diesels.

“Diesel is the fastest, most cost-effective way to reduce CO2 and emissions,” de Nysschen said. “I think it has to be part of our portfolio approach to meeting compliance. Cadillac also wants to be more global and less U.S.-centric, and for many markets, diesel is simply a prerequisite. We will introduce an all-new diesel engine developed specifically for Cadillac by around 2019.”

Next, Audi has the R8, Porsche has the 911, and now Mercedes-Benz has the AMG GT. de Nysschen is establishing plans for Cadillac’s own player, but for now, this is another long term goal, much like the said Rolls-Bentley competitor. Like, a post 2020 goal.

The SUV crowd is important too so Caddy can’t be shy in that department. Especially the hot luxo-crossover ring with the BMW X5 M and the Mercedes-Benz AMG versions. So yup, you can expect a possible new high-performance ute in the somewhat near-distant future.

For the full rundown of the interview, head to CARandDRIVER.

Source: CARandDRIVER