Cadillac Evoqs Its Future

Automotive Industries,  August, 1999  by Marjorie Sorge

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GM's premier division launches an aggressive, but risky, plan to finally challenge Germany's and Japan's best.

Kip Wasenko's eyes were glued to the top of the Evoq, as General Motors' design chief Wayne Cherry introduced the concept roadster at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Wasenko, Evoq's designer, was sweating bullets. Just days before, on Christmas Eve, he'd gotten a frantic call -- the computer that raises and lowers the top burned out.

If that's not bad enough, the only thing GM President Rick Wagoner asked Wasenko when he saw the Evoq was, "will the top work?" It was a reasonable question. The long sails on the car's rear quarters would give ninny people pause. They made it impossible to use a clamshell-type retractable top, but Wasenko wouldn't change the design because he thought those long sails added critical drama to the Evoq's look.

"I told him, `I've done it 25 times,'" Wasenko recalls. Now the computer was on the fritz. Five long days later it was fixed, but there was little time to run long tests on the car. It was on its way to the show.

When the signal came, the Evoq's top performed flawlessly. Wasenko glanced at Wagoner who, holding his breath, quietly hissed an enthusiastic "yes" and punched his thumb into the air. The car was a hit at Detroit and later the Geneva auto show last spring.

Cadillac's future strategy is to see that "thumbs up" from younger buyers as it moves into the 21st century. The only way to escape the division's traditional "age 60-to-dead" customer profile is to inject the Evoq's wow factor into Cadillac's entire range -- and do it fast.

"Cadillac has been working very hard with a customer-centric and product-centric approach, designed to find a more attractive demographic," says Bill Pochiluk, managing partner of consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. "That is absolutely essential. But the question is, are they moving quickly enough in this transition?"

Competition is stiff. Analysts predict the global luxury vehicle market, those vehicles with pricetags over $35,000, will jump from 3.9 million sold just three years ago to 4.6 million in 2007. The luxury truck market alone could account for over a half million units by 2007 while the entry level and prestige luxury markets are expected to hit 1.45 and 1.4 million units, respectively, that same year.

The European makers and Lexus own those two markets, both in product breadth and global image. Cadillac also faces Ford's powerhouse Premium Automotive Group -- Jaguar, Lincoln, Volvo and Aston Martin, led by former BMW executives Wolfgang Reitzle and Vic Doolan.

Cadillac's sales have been relatively flat. It sold 182,570 vehicles in 1998 compared with 182,624 in '97, when it didn't offer the Escalade SUV. Still, its stretch goal is to double its current volume globally over the next seven years. To help do that, Cadillac General Manager John Smith says his division must sell 30,000 vehicles in Europe by 2004, up from 2,000 cars today.

But Cadillac, which is returning to a rear-wheel-drive platform strategy, won't launch some of its best products for two to three years. An all-new Escalade, derived from the next Suburban, appears for the 2001 model year -- a year after BMW's X5 launches. A new Catera based on GM's Sigma rwd platform debuts in the 2002 model year. Evoq isn't scheduled to appear until model year 2003 -- the same timeframe as Mercedes' SLR (see p. 9). An all-new luxury activity vehicle (LAV) also hits the streets then. A new Seville, also Sigma-based, bows for 2004.

More timely will be a luxo-pickup (GMT805) that may beat Lincoln's 2001 Blackwood to market. There could also be a coupe similar to the Mercedes CLK, also Sigma-based, in the early 2000s.

Until these vehicles, all aimed at the late-20s to early-30s buyer debut, "we have a challenge over the next two or three years," admits Smith. "My antenna is always up, but I'm not losing sleep over our strategy."

To fill the void until the new products arrive, Cadillac has launched a PR blitz, reminiscent of Chrysler's dark days. The plan is to spruce up the existing lineup, and hype to the heavens what's coming. Recently, GM's flagship division let reporters, including AI, drive the sole existing Evoq in Paris -- the same concept car that starred at the Detroit show. This uniquely styled roadster represents the future of Cadillac. Other new vehicles will carry the same angular design -- tomorrow's "Cadillacness," if you will.

"The Evoq is a preview of future Cadillac design," says Wasenko. "The strong family association of design will be very apparent in the new Catera, Seville and LAV, but they won't be like Russian dolls -- a papa bear, mama bear and baby bear. There will be a consistency of design -- a strong brand character -- like the Audi A4, A6 and A8."

Evoq's likely standard powerplant will be a 300-hp version of the current 4.6L Northstar V-8. New cylinder heads with variable valve timing may be added. And individuals close to the program say Evoq is package-protected for a supercharged 4.2L Northstar V-8, rated at 385 pounds-feet of torque. The 4.2L displacement was chosen to gain fuel economy, says GM Powertrain's Jim Cremonesci, and to package the engine in a rear-drive configuration. To make it fit, cylinder bore was reduced from 93 mm to 89.5 mm.