Cadillac

• Cadillac, General Motors' luxury brand, has stupendous name-recognition and segment-defining vehicles, such as the Escalade SUV.

• But the brand has been suffering in competition with German and Japanese luxury brands for decades.

• Now GM has decided to make Caddy the company's lead electric brand as it embraces an all-electric future.

• Business Insider spoke with Cadillac president Steve Carlisle at an electric-vehicle day even held the company organized this week in Detroit.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

DETROIT — "It's the end of the Ice Age for Cadillac."

That was the clever quip from Cadillac president Steve Carlisle. "Ice" is actually "ICE" — internal-combustion engine, the powerplant of virtually every vehicle Cadillac has sold since its founding in 1902.

For decades, Cadillac was the pinnacle of General Motors' brand ladder, the car you bought, like 1960s advertising maven Don Draper in "Mad Men," when you had made it in America.

The arrival of German premium brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the US market undermined Caddy's lofty position, as did upmarket moves by the Japanese automaker with Acura (Honda), Infiniti (Nissan), and most importantly, Toyota's Lexus.

Cadillac had been trying to get its mojo back for decades, and although it should always have the Escalade, its bestselling big SUV, GM president Mark Reuss has made no bones about the brand. "We need to fix Cadillac," he said in an interview with Business Insider several years ago.

The fix is underway, as the brand adds to its lineup of SUVs, backs away from sedans, and launched an all-new Escalade this year to keep pace with a reinvigorated Lincoln — but most critically, embraces its role as GM's burgeoning electric brand.

At an EV day for investors, media, and dealers held this week at GM's historic Technical Center near Detroit, the company showcased what looked very much like an all-electric design for the Escalade, revealed another electron-powered crossover named "Lyriq," and pulled the cover off a halo vehicle, dubbed Celestiq, that will be built by hand.

"We needed to do something we hadn't done before," Carlisle said in an interview at the event.

He has a 10-year plan. "We're going to start the decade as an ICE brand, but exit the decade as an EV brand," he said. 

To clarify the timetable, he pointed out that although the gas-powered automobile was on sale in the early years of the 20th century, the horse as the nation's primary form of transportation didn't really phase out until 1925. Change takes time.

For Caddy, the immediate action is with the internal-combustion launch cadence of the next few years. But the electrified transition should pick up speed in late 2022, as the brand shifts its dealers' showrooms to a battery-electric focus, Carlisle said.

Offering a slight hedge, Carlisle added: "By 2030, there might be a few ICE motors left."

Cadillac's US sales have been reasonable, with the past several years delivering totals in the 150,000-unit ballpark. The China business is also now well-established, beating US sales with over 212,000 units in 2019. And it's always worth remembering that luxury auto brands mint heftier profit margins than mass-market badges.

Carlisle isn't falling back on those arguments, however.

"We've never been in a better position as an internal-combustion brand, but want to drive change," he said, echoing GM CEO Mary Barra's mandate for the automaking giant to embrace an all-electric future.

NOW WATCH: The rise and fall of Cadillac

See Also:

• Why Cadillac's Super Cruise hands-free highway-driving technology is the luxury brand's killer app
• The business of transportation is evolving faster than ever, and the next 10 years will reveal the biggest changes yet. Here's everything you need to know
• GM's massive pivot to electric cars has officially begun and that's a truly radical move for the huge automaker

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