2014 Cadillac Escalade Esv Premium on 2040-cars

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New V6 engines are only the start at Cadillac

Cadillac debuted its new family of V6 engines Friday, but that's not all General Motors' luxury brand has in store for the coming years. The six-cylinder powerplants will certainly help Cadillac in the near term, but they're just two of the many parts of the company's future strategy. GM has invested $12 billion in Cadillac to help the brand grow over the next five years, and the company will launch eight new products between now and 2020. That all starts with the launch of the CT6 flagship later this year – a fullsize luxury sedan we'll see for the first time in New York on March 31. The CT6 will introduce several new features and technologies to the Cadillac range, and with its launch also begins the slow restructuring of Cadillac's model-naming system. The new nomenclature means CT and XT badges for cars and utilities, respectively. Cadillac says that of the eight new vehicles it plans to launch by 2020, five of them will be first-time offerings in market segments where the brand currently does not play. But it's not just about new products – new powertrains are an important part of the Cadillac story, too. After the new V6 engines – a naturally aspirated 3.6-liter and a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter engine – launch later this year in the 2016 ATS, CTS and CT6, the company says it has a strategy for V8 power – possibly a twin-turbo application – as well as future electrification. Cadillac also says it's working on adding four- and six-cylinder diesel powertrains, though it's unclear which vehicles will make use of those engines. This new six-cylinder engine family is indeed important, with Cadillac's chief engineer, David Leone, calling it the "most advanced V6 in the industry." With 335 horsepower, the 3.6-liter engine is the highest output, naturally aspirated V6 powerplant Cadillac has done – and that's SAE-certified, and on regular fuel. Beyond that, the 3.0-liter mill (pictured at right) marks the first application of GM's active fuel management system on a twin-turbocharged engine. This means that when full power isn't necessary, the TTV6 can run as a 2.0-liter V4 in order to save fuel. New transmissions are also part of the V6 engine story. GM's all-new eight-speed Hydra-Matic 8L45 gearbox will be paired to the 3.6-liter V6, and the 3.0-liter TTV6 will use the company's existing 8L90 transmission that is already found in the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups (with the 6.2-liter engine).

GM intends to offer semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020

Prepare for a few years of technological saber-rattling, as the world's automakers begin pushing to bring self-driving cars to market. Earlier this week, Nissan announced that it aims to offer autonomous vehicles by 2020, while Google, BMW and several other marks are working on similar efforts.
General Motors is doing things differently, though. Rather than push for a fully autonomous car, it's continuing to refine its semi-autonomous Super Cruise, a product that we tested in April 2012 and that will eventually see use on some Cadillacs before trickling down to the rest of the General Motors family. Super Cruise, which is undergoing testing in the Cadillac SRX, doesn't take complete control out of the driver's hands. Rather, under a very specific set of circumstances on the freeway, it will marry the capabilities of things like lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control to allow the driver to take their hands off the wheel. All of which sounds a lot like the system Mercedes-Benz is launching on the 2014 S-Class.
The system is still in development, according to John Capp, GM's director of electrical controls and active safety technology. Now that that the biggest hurdle, steering control, has been cleared, GM's engineers can focus on things like teaching the system to adapt to differing road conditions and visibility levels. As we reported in 2012, Super Cruise is still befuddled in low-visibility situations or when road markings aren't particularly clear.

Cadillac shows dealers convertible rendering

Cadillac is getting serious about revitalizing and expanding its lineup, and to that end, a new report claims that brand boss Johan de Nysschen has been showing plans for several new models to the marque's dealer body - among them, a new convertible.
The droptop which Cadillac reportedly showed its dealers in sketch form, would be based on the same platform as the ATS and CTS, those it's unclear to which (if either) of those model lines the new convertible would be added, or whether the design features a canvas or folding hardtop roof. One way or another, it would be the first time Cadillac would offer a convertible since the Corvette-based XLR roadster was discontinued more than five years ago.
Quoting an unnamed brand spokesperson, Cadillac would "like to introduce an open car to the portfolio at some point," however, "it's not likely to be one of the near-term portfolio additions."