Cadillac Plan to Become Leading Luxury Brand
October 23, 2004 | Levent OZLER
Cadillac has an ambitious plan to become one of the world's leading luxury brands, on a par with BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The program includes doubling Cadillac's sales outside North America every year between now and 2010, manufacturing in China and developing new vehicles to appeal to customers in Europe and China.
General Motors' Cadillac will always remain a U.S. brand, executives say, but the moves beginning now are intended to raise its international profile and produce substantially more sales.
Cadillac sold 216,090 units in the United States last year, 6,890 in Canada and a mere 3,252 in the rest of the world.
The brand is on pace to sell more than 9,000 cars outside North America in 2004.
"Our goal is to double that each year through the end of the decade," Cadillac product director John F. Howell said. "If we succeed in Europe and China, we should be able to do that."
China should account for 20 percent to 25 percent of global Cadillac sales by 2010, including a variety of models to be built there. Cadillac recently shipped its first 500 CTS sedans to China. Chinese assembly of the CTS and SRX will follow.
Cadillac dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin opened earlier this year, and about a dozen more should be in operation by the end of 2004.
Future Cadillac models are being
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