Global Growth Of Cadillac: GM Cautious

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM appears to be less convinced of the second coming of Cadillac than many of its fans. In the Global Business Conference Call, Bob Ferguson, VP of Global Cadillac, did set very cautious goals for Cadillac.

Currently, Cadillac claims 8.5 percent of the worldwide luxury pie. By 2016, GM wants to gain only half a percent market share more. Then it wants to rest, to achieve only 9.2 percent global share by 2020. Looking at the plan, GM appears to be betting big on the success of its new Chinese assembly plant, and on its plan to sell 100,000 Cadillacs in China by 2016.

When that Chinese plant was announced a month ago, Cadillac targeted 10 percent global market share bu 2020, the Wall Street Journal said.. This plan did not live long. Now, the target is 9.2 percent.

As cautious as these targets may look, they will take a lot of work to reach. Audi, BMW, Mercedes all have their own growth plans, so do the Japanese. Premium buyers are conservative, and stick to their brand.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • SherbornSean SherbornSean on Jun 13, 2013

    Based on recent articles, I expected a different headline. Perhaps "Obama-coddled Cadillac surrenders share to Hitler's darlings", or "GM can't ship jobs to China fast enough." And about the boring graphic -- you can't tell me there isn't a stock photo of a Body by Fisher tramp stamp sitting on the TTAC hard drive.

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    • Danio3834 Danio3834 on Jun 13, 2013

      @rwb The banhammer swings down.

  • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Jun 13, 2013

    I never bought a new luxury brand vehicle but if I ever have enough money to do so I would opt for Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Infinity and Audi long before I would consider a Cadillac or Jaguar. It's commendable that GM wants to play in the same league as the big boys but the past is prologue and Cadillac never was a player in the global luxury market except with its own fan base. So maybe a cautionary approach is the right thing to do since it leaves the door open for the surprise that sales may exceed forecasts.

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    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Jun 14, 2013

      @wmba When I was a kid in High School in California in 1963 I bought an old '49 Buick with the straight 8 and Fluid Drive from a graduating senior. It served me well during MY junior and senior years in High School and when I graduated I passed it along to my younger brother, and so on, until it finally became too expensive to keep running, and smoked too much to elude the cops. I can't recall how many panties got lost or disappeared into the back seat. But that was a roomy back seat with plenty of room to stretch out and it was well used by me and all my brothers when they owned that Buick.

  • Nguyenvuminh Nguyenvuminh on Jun 13, 2013

    I much rather see this realism from Cadillac than not. Although Cadillac recent designs are so much better than their previous cars, the competitors have also improved a great deal as well. The lesson of the premature compliments on the new Malibu 3-4 years ago still ring true. People thought it was a great mid-size family sedan cars because the Malibu was such an improvement to its previous generation. But after 3 years (and after Toyota and Honda resolved their calamity-induced supply chain issue), it's not even close to the Camry, Accord, and Fusion now.

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