Cadillac to Build New Flagship Sedan

Cadillac announced today it plans to build a new “top-end, high-technology car” starting in late 2015. Johan de Nysschen, Cadillac’s new president, said the rear-drive car would slot above the CTS and XTS to play against the “elite class of top-level luxury cars” with “new, custom-designed materials on a unique vehicle architecture.”

Related: Cadillac to Debut ATS-V at November’s L.A. Auto Show

It’s possible the all-new model will debut Cadillac’s first vehicle-to-vehicle communication and “Super Cruise” semi-autonomous driving tech, which GM announced earlier this month. Cadillac’s de facto flagship, the Escalade SUV, tops out in the mid-$80,000s. But this would be the first time in recent history that the brand had a flagship sedan that vied for attention from shoppers of the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and other such top-shelf cars. Given the competition, Cadillac may price its contender even atop the Escalade.

The car will come from GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, a 29-year-old facility just north of the automaker’s corporate headquarters – whose first car, incidentally, was a Cadillac Eldorado. Detroit-Hamtramck now produces the Chevrolet Volt, Impala and Malibu, plus the Volt-based Cadillac ELR. (GM’s U.S. brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.)

Expect more details on the uber-Caddy in the first half of 2015.

Editor’s note: This post was corrected on Sept. 22 to reflect the correct age of GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck facility.

Cars.com photo by Evan Sears