Cadillac President De Nysschen Reveals Luxury Brand's Product Plan

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;

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]