Cadillac President De Nysschen Reveals Luxury Brand's Product Plan

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

You don’t mess with the Johan.

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen isn’t known for sitting back and letting armchair analysts pontificate on General Motors’ luxury brand.

In reply to The Detroit Bureau’s August 25th piece about Cadillac’s future product plans — which includes details on Cadillac’s aboutface on a planned flagship sedan — de Nysschen jumped into the comments and set the record straight.

According to TDB’s Paul Eisenstein, Cadillac’s plans for a flagship sedan “have been delayed and could even be cut.”

Not so, says de Nysschen.

“It’s not so much an issue of Cadillac programs which have been ‘cancelled,'” de Nysschen wrote. “Rather than calling (the flagship model) a ‘cancellation,’ I prefer to consider the change to the flagship program as a revision to what will constitute the Cadillac flagship. There will be a flagship, but given the segment development, it will not be a large four door sedan.”

Considering Cadillac’s current non-sedan de facto flagship is the Escalade, this could mean a model above Escalade that pushes the boundaries of body-on-frame luxury SUVs. Though a lesser possibility, the flagship could also be a reprise of the Cadillac XLR, with the luxury brand’s newly revealed design language wrapped around the oft-rumored mid-engined Corvette.

Not content to leave the conversation clarifying Cadillac’s future flagship plans, de Nysschen dishes out other details on the luxury brand’s future products:

We ARE planning a Cadillac flagship which will NOT be a 4 door sedan;


We ARE planning a large crossover beneath Escalade;


We ARE planning a compact crossover beneath XT5;


We ARE planning a comprehensive enhancement to CT6 later during life cycle;


We ARE planning a major refresh for XTS;


We ARE planning a new Lux 3 sedan entry;


We ARE planning a new Lux 2 sedan entry;

These programs are secure and development work is well underway, with very substantial costs already committed.

In addition, new powertrain applications for the above portfolio, which will include New Energy applications, are also part of the confirmed planning.

While de Nysschen’s statements clarify much, they also raise just as many questions.

de Nysschen’s most intriguing statement surrounds the Cadillac XTS, a model that’s scheduled to run its course in 2019. GM build the XTS in Oshawa, Ontario, for North American consumption, and Oshawa Assembly is currently on the skids with General Motors Canada refusing to commit product to the plant during labor negotiations between itself and Unifor.

The two new sedan entries mentioned are likely replacements for the ATS and CTS, expected to be named CT2 and CT4. The large crossover beneath Escalade may receive the XT7 nameplate while a small crossover gets the XT3 alphanumeric badge.

Curiously, de Nysschen did not mentioned a rumored compact luxury sedan or coupe that would sit below the ATS (or its replacement).

And if we’re wrong on the names, maybe Johan can jump into our comments and set us straight.

[Image: Steve Fecht for Cadillac]

Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson

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  • Daviel Daviel on Aug 29, 2016

    Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen is not from around here, is he?

    • Paragon Paragon on Aug 29, 2016

      That is true. But he has kinda been around the world a bit, you might say.

  • Jplew138 Jplew138 on Aug 31, 2016

    Can someone tell me why GM hired this clown to run Cadillac? If my memory serves me correctly, this IS the same man who essentially ran Infiniti into the ground with needless name changes and half-baked "product strategies". Right? So why would the GM brass think that he'd do any better with Cadillac? Damn shame, this is.

  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
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