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GM won't really kill off the Chevy Volt and Cadillac CT6, will it?

General Motors is apparently considering killing off six slow-selling models by 2020, according to Reuters. But is that really likely? The news is mentioned in a story where UAW president Dennis Williams notes that slumping US car sales could threaten jobs at low-volume factories. Still, we're skeptical that GM is really serious about killing those cars. Reuters specifically calls out the Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac CT6, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Sonic, and the Chevrolet Volt. Most of these have been redesigned or refreshed within the past few model years. Four - the LaCrosse, Impala, CT6, and Volt - are built in the Hamtramck factory in Detroit. That plant has made only 35,000 cars this year - down 32 percent from 2016. A typical GM plant builds 200,000-300,000 vehicles a year. Of all the cars Williams listed, killing the XTS, Impala, and Sonic make the most sense. They're older and don't sell particularly well. On the other hand, axing the other three seems like an odd move. It would leave Buick and Cadillac without flagship sedans, at least until the rumored Cadillac CT8 arrives. The CT6 was a big investment for GM and backing out after just a few years would be a huge loss. It also uses GM's latest and best materials and technology, making us even more skeptical. The Volt is a hugely important car for Chevrolet, and supplementing it with a crossover makes more sense than replacing it with one. Offering one model with a range of powertrain variants like the Hyundai Ioniq and Toyota Prius might be another route GM could take. All six of these vehicles are sedans, Yes, crossover sales are booming, but there's still a huge market for cars. Backing away from these would be essentially giving up sales to competitors from around the globe. The UAW might simply be publicly pushing GM to move crossover production to Hamtramck to avoid closing the plant and laying off workers. Sales of passenger cars are down across both GM and the industry. Consolidating production in other plants and closing Hamtramck rather than having a single facility focus on sedans might make more sense from a business perspective. GM is also trying to reduce its unsold inventory, meaning current production may be slowed or halted while current cars move into customer hands. There's a lot of politics that goes into building a car. GM wants to do what makes the most sense from a business perspective, while the UAW doesn't workers to lose their jobs when a factory closes.

Why Cadillac needs a real truck in its lineup

Premium brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Cadillac sell vehicles that cover the spectrum from car to crossover to SUV. But trucks? They remain the last frontier when it comes to luxury brands. These days Chevy, GMC, Ford, and Ram sell cheap, bare-bones work trucks alongside loaded models that top $75,000. There is a reverse elitism that comes with this sales tactic. A brand gets to reflect a rugged working class lifestyle with the emblem up front, while what's behind it costs as much as a small house in middle America. But Americans who spend big money on cars and SUVs have always gradually tailed towards luxury nameplates over time. Everyone knows what an Escalade is, and thanks in large part to that image the Escalade is now the best-selling fullsize luxury SUV in the USA. Cadillac's flagship model, along with its midsize luxury crossover, the SRX, routinely outsell the competition from Audi, Mercedes, and BMW, not to mention Ford's Lincoln brand and most of the Japanese rivals. With trucks already dominating overall sales and headed into the pricing stratosphere, I believe it's time for Cadillac to consider a fullsize truck. And no, not a lipstick version that merely takes a Chevrolet Silverado pickup and throws in a few leather seats and some slight interior touches. That experiment already failed both for Cadillac (the Escalade EXT) and for Ford's Lincoln brand (Blackwood, Mark LT). Cadillac is an American brand that currently focuses a ridiculous amount of energy and resources trying to compete with European car offerings. The brand needs to create the Cadillac of trucks. Head honcho Johan de Nysschen has been blunt in his desire to "restore Cadillac to the pinnacle of global premium brands, not in sales but in aspirational brand character." This sounds well and wonderful. But the present problem in achieving this goal is that, on a global basis, Cadillac is a failed brand. Look at Europe, where Cadillac has sold so poorly in recent years that former Soviet manufacturer Lada managed more new registrations in 2014 by a factor of more than four to one. Cadillac is an American brand that currently focuses a ridiculous amount of energy and resources trying to compete with European car offerings. After more than 20 years of Cadillac models selling themselves as import killers, the only one with sustained success has been the CTS, and even that has been a marketplace loser for the last several years. The CTS-V?

Cadillac CT6 gets a plug in Shanghai, will come to US

Don't call it the third coming of the Chevy Volt. The unsurprising debut of the Cadillac CT6 PHEV in Shanghai today has a powertrain that sounds an awful lot like the one that can be found in the Volt and the Cadillac ELR. The plug-in CT6 – identical to the CT6 that debuted in New York earlier this month – has an 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery (just like the 2016 Volt) and offers an all-electric range of around 37 miles. It also copies the "Regen on Demand" feature from the new Volt and the battery cells "use the latest generation cell chemistry found in other GM plug-in vehicles." But Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen doesn't see the two powertrains as similar in at least one important way. General Motors calls the Volt and the ELR "extended range electric vehicles" (EREV) but in a statement, de Nysschen says that the plug-in hybrid CT6 is, "an ideal platform for Cadillac to offer its first plug-in hybrid." That GM is using the PHEV terminology rather than EREV is going to be important to some, even if the practical difference is only semantic. And yes, we all understand the irony of de Nysschen – the same guy who has a history of speaking ill of plug-in cars – hyping them now. Back when he worked for Audi, he said the original Volt was too expensive for what it offered and was thus, a car for "idiots." Speaking in Shanghai today, de Nysschen said the new CT6 PHEV was, "an EV without any of the disadvantages or range constraints," according to Automotive News. If the batteries are similar to GM's other EREV/PHEV cars, the CT6 powertrain is at least different. The ELR uses a 1.4-liter engine, while the new Volt has a 1.5-liter four-cylinder mill. The CT6, on the other hand, has a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine with direct injection. There is also an "all-new rear wheel electric variable transmission (EVT) with exclusively designed motors," that will give the CT6 PHEV, "smooth, spirited acceleration." The EVT is a two-motor-unit that uses three planetary gears. Maximum overall system output is 335 horsepower and 432 pound-feet of torque. Perhaps most interesting for American audiences is the fact that GM's press release, available below, makes multiple references to US-market sales of the PHEV. Official details on the EV range and fuel economy will be made available closer to the car's US launch.