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Cadillac Hopes To Sell More Cars In China Than In The U.S. By 2020

 
3 1,654 views Nov 21, 2011

2013 Cadillac XTS

2013 Cadillac XTS

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The United States is still the largest market for GM’s luxury brand, Cadillac. Even optimistic projections don’t show international sales surpassing domestic sales until the end of the decade, according to Cadillac’s VP of marketing, Don Butler.

According to Automotive News (subscription required) Cadillac will sell some 150,000 new vehicles in the United States this year, but only 50,000 to the rest of the world. Despite extensive development and  testing in Germany, Cadillac expects to see its biggest growth in China, far from the European market.

Is that a sign that Cadillac has an image problem in Europe? Actually, it’s a content issue, and as GM CEO Dan Akerson explained to Automotive News, “To go to Europe without having right-hand drive or diesel is, in my estimation, premature.”

Conceding that Cadillac had work to do before it could successfully grow its presence in Europe, Akerson justified the push into the Chinese market as a matter of numbers. By 2020, China is expected to account for 40 percent of the world’s luxury vehicle sales, and more shoppers equal more potential unit sales.

Even today, China is a significant market for Cadillac. Of the previously mentioned 50,000 units Cadillac will sell internationally this year, roughly half will go to China.

Success there isn’t guaranteed, and Akerson sees Cadillac as having to push to firmly establish the Cadillac brand as a premium luxury marque. Should Cadillac succeed in China, Akerson then sees the company as being well positioned for further global expansion.

For Cadillac at least, the road to Munich takes a detour through Beijing.



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Comments (3)

  1. WizardsLore avatar WizardsLore Posted: 11/21/2011 6:41pm PST

    To go to Europe without having right-hand drive or diesel is, in my estimation, premature
    actually to go to Europe with such heavy nosed archaic styling, and cars that still dont know how to go around corners properly is reason that it wont grow there. for all the "testing" that they do in Germany its a shame that they dont visit the design studios in europe and pilpher some of those designers to capture and embrace the passion of the true stylign of an automobile and then map it to a US car. pretty simple really. Just like the Japanese have done, they wanted to sell cars in the US and Europe, so they set up design studios in California and Holland/Germany.
     
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  2. fb_1491948054 avatar Kurt Ernst Posted: 11/22/2011 4:22am PST

    @WizardsLore, while most Cadillacs won't corner like BMWs or Audis, there is an exception to that rule: the Cadillac CTS-V. I've driven it on a racetrack, and will be the first to admit its capabilities are impressive. It's not only fast in a straight line, it's fast around corners and blessed with some of the best non-carbon-ceramic brakes you'll find on a production car.
     
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  3. WizardsLore avatar WizardsLore Posted: 11/22/2011 7:45pm PST

    Kurt - thats 1 Car in their whole line up.
    all Audi's and Bms and Mercs are built fro the ground up to engage the driver at every level. Hell even the Japanese are doing it.
    i think its the faux belief that Caddy is at that level. Look at Holden Commodores in Australia, they arent at that level and dont aspire to be, they are big cars that you can throw around that are more fun, challenging and engaging than the Caddy's that are loosly based on them. Im not hounding Caddys per se, im merely pointing out that a sense of realism and perspective is required when attempting to market the marque. No one outside of the US will ever consider Caddy as good as BM or Merc regardless of how big an engine or topsuspension they shoe horn into the front
     
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