GM’s vice president of global design, Ed Welburn, had some interesting things to say about Ford’s luxury brand Lincoln. In an interview with Car & Driver magazine at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Welburn said GM no longer considers Lincoln a competitor to Cadillac.
“In the luxury category, everyone is looking for designs that evolve over time, that don’t shift the design language radically every few years,” said Welburn. “Customers in the luxury category don’t respect brands that change their spots every few years. They want a design that has deep roots, that they can respect for the long term,” he added.
When asked whether Lincoln is one of the brands that made a radical styling change, Welburn told the publication: “No, I’m not going to comment on Lincoln design. But I don’t consider Lincoln to be a competitor for Cadillac.” The exec explained: “They’re not a global luxury brand. I don’t consider them a competitor. Are they a competitor for Buick? Quite possibly. But not for Cadillac.”
That’s an interesting point of view coming from a top-level GM executive, especially since he admitted Infiniti is a competitor for Cadillac in terms of design.
Welburn also talked about Cadillac’s future vehicles, saying the carmaker has “more vehicles under development today than at any other time in the history of the brand”. While he didn’t mention specific models, he did point at the Elmiraj concept as one of the cars considered for production. “I’m very interested in it. We’re very interested in bringing it to production, if possible. But I’m not announcing that we are. Just to be clear,” Welburn said.
By Dan Mihalascu
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