Cadillac won’t leave cars on the table with its Australian expansion, but it is still playing its cards close to its chest.
Cadillac might be launching in Australia with just one car, but more nameplates will follow the Lyriq to local showrooms in 2025 and the car-maker will consider all future right-hand-drive models for our market.
While not every Ultium-based (General Motors’ electric vehicle platform) Cadillac model will be made available in right-hand drive, the models that are produced in right-hand drive will be in contention for local sale, according to the GM’s senior vice president of international markets, Shilpan Amin.
“We’ll consider every Cadillac entry we have at the right time,” Amin told Australian media recently in the US.
“We need the Lyriq to be successful to continue the portfolio, but obviously our vehicle development cycles are still pretty long so you have to plan for these ahead of time. So there’s more to come already decided – we’re just not [revealing] those right now.”
“I think right now it’s about bringing the Lyriq [large SUV] to [the Australian] market. We’ll test and learn. We’ll understand how great this Cadillac experience will be with a great product like the Lyric and that will guide us into what’s next.”
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Cadillac is still playing its cards close to its chest in terms of what models come next, but the Optiq mid-size SUV, the Vistiq seven-seat SUV, and the Escalade IQ are all examples that could be rolled into the Australian line-up.
However, what seems certain is that Cadillac will remain an EV-only proposition for Australian and New Zealand markets.
“Our Cadillac plan will be an all-EV plan for Australia,” Amin said.
“I think there’s a limited lifetime… if you enter [new] markets with a brand and you’re going to bring in [petrol] products that have an end of life.
“[But] it’s different market by market. You’re going to invest a lot of time and effort to build a customer base, that eventually you won’t be able to fulfil.
“So truly going after the EV consumer base in Europe and in Australia and New Zealand where Cadillac is all-EV in those markets.”
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Electric-only platforms have opened up the possibilities for Cadillac to offer right-hand drive vehicles straight out of the factory.
“I think as soon as we talk about ‘would we bring internal combustion vehicles?’, now we’re back to converting [cars from left-hand-drive],” GM strategic markets communications director Lauren Indiveri-Clarke added.
“And so that is a huge factor for us of whether we would bring ICE in anything.”
“We have to look at the conversion. It’s not a simple [prospect to] move [internal combustion components and intellectual property]… We are going to keep Cadillac to an EV-only brand because if we don’t then we’re back to converting.”
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