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Cadillac Developing $250K XT9 SUV, $300K CT9 Sedan: Report

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A heated steering wheel comes standard with the 2016 Cadillac Escalade

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen has made clear his intentions to eventually bring Cadillac into direct competition with high-luxury brands. He has openly bandied about the idea of $100,000 halo sedans and $100,000 Escalades, and he told Reuters in 2014 that he believed a quarter-million-dollar Cadillac was possible “fifteen years from now.”

According to reports, that projection was right about on schedule.

GM Inside News, citing a source “who is intimate with Cadillac’s projected product cadence,” stated that the brand is anticipating releasing both an SUV and a sedan that will be priced in the $250,000-300,000 range “before the end of the next decade.” That places both models in production and on the market by 2030, or about 15 years after de Nysschen’s comments.

Per the report, the SUV will be called the XT9, and it is said to be a completely bespoke vehicle that will start at the quarter-million-dollar range. This SUV would be a direct competitor to the likes of the Aston Martin DBX, Bentley Bentayga, and Lamborghini Urus, and it’s expected to debut “sometime closer to 2027.”

De Nysschen has been clear about the fact that his brand has no intention of dumping the Escalade from its lineup even if it doesn’t fit with the brand’s image moving forward. Why? Simple: it’s a really popular model that makes a veritable butt-load of money and has the most name value out of anything in the lineup. There are rumors that the next-generation Escalade—expected to arrive by about 2020—may adopt the new Cadillac nomenclature and go by XT8, but even then, with so much cachet built into the Escalade name, it would not be the least bit surprising for the Escalade to remain the outlier. If the Escalade name sticks around that long, one has to wonder if the halo SUV ultimately wouldn’t use some variation of the name.

The report also has a new saloon, the XT9, bowing in 2029 and reaching into the $300,000 price range. Given General Motors’ focus on alternative propulsion methods, it is entirely likely that this high-end halo car would represent the pinnacle of whatever technology reigns supreme—whether it’s electric, hydrogen, or shockwaves.

According to a story earlier this month, Cadillac has put its CT8 flagship on hold for the time being, possibly to focus on the expansion of its CUV and SUV range. The Cadillac CT8, should it eventually find its way to market, would compete with the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

News Source: GM Inside News