Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen said the XTS sedan won’t be replaced when it reaches the end of its lifecycle in 2019, as the luxury brand seeks to realign its products to compete with German premium automakers.
Cadillac’s boss said there are no plans for a follow-up to the front-wheel drive sedan. “Ultimately, a car like XTS when it reaches the end of its lifecycle, will not be replaced,” de Nysschen was quoted as saying at the New York Auto Show by GM Inside News.
This will most likely signal the end of Cadillac’s funeral and stretch limousine business, as the executive hinted. “We will not have a car that will lend itself to these kind of modifications and we will probably withdraw from those markets,” he said.
That’s obviously bad news for coachbuilders of funeral cars and stretch limousines, but not so bad for retail customers, who will be able to get newer products like the recently-launched CT6.
Johan de Nysschen also made an interesting statement about the future of the ATS and CTS sedans, which won’t get direct successors either. “As we move into the future refining our sedan portfolio, there will be no direct successor to the CTS. There will be no direct successor to the ATS. There is no point to renaming those cars because in the future those cars will disappear,” the executive said.
Given Cadillac’s new model nomenclature, many expected the ATS and CTS to be renamed on the occasion of a mid-cycle refresh, but this could mean Cadillac will reposition the two sedans when their time is due. The ATS may get two successors, a smaller one to target the Mercedes-Benz CLA and a larger one to compete with the C-Class, while the CTS may get slightly smaller in order to give the CT6 more breathing room.
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