Cadillac President Confirms New Halo Model That Will “Stun The World”

Cadillac doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to halo vehicles as both the ELR and XLR failed to catch on with consumers.

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen is apparently undeterred as he used the 2018 Automotive Forum in New York to confirm the automaker is working on a new halo model which will “stun the world.” The executive asked people to be patient as he can’t talk specifics yet but the company has released a handful of high-profile concepts over the past few years including the Ciel, Elmiraj and Escala. The latter concept’s styling was recently applied to the 2019 CT6 V-Sport which will be unveiled at the New York Auto Show later this week.

While de Nysschen wasn’t ready to go into details, he said “I do not think the world needs yet another large, three box conventional sedan.” He went on to say such models are in a “segment we used to own” but the market is now occupied by vehicles such as the Audi A8, BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S-Class. His statement seems to suggest the company has decided against a flagship sedan and will instead go with something different.

There has been plenty of speculation about a new halo vehicle in recent years and a number of reports have suggested Cadillac could offer an XLR successor based on the mid-engine Corvette C8. That remains purely speculation at this point but General Motors might have dropped a clue about the halo model back in November.

At the time, the company confirmed its new modular platform for electric vehicles would used on at least 11 different models and one of them will be a “Lux Low Roof” vehicle. The image included in the presentation suggested the model could be a coupe which might hint at an ELR successor.

There’s no word on when the halo model will arrive but we’ll likely hear more about it after Cadillac launches mainstream vehicles such as the XT4 and CT5.

Carscoops