The latest from Detroit - About 150 Cadillac dealers are choosing to take buyouts from General Motors Co. rather than invest thousands to support electric vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Cadillac's 880 U.S. dealers were told in September they needed to invest $200,000 to transition dealerships for coming electric vehicles. The dealer network had until Nov. 30 to make the decision if they wanted to take a buyout. About 17% of Cadillac dealers took the buyout offer, the Journal reported Friday citing anonymous sources.

Cadillac, GM's flagship electric brand, is aiming to sell more vehicles powered by electricity than by fossil fuels by the end of the decade. The electric Lyriq crossover will kick off the transition for the luxury brand, arriving in the first quarter of 2022, nine months ahead of schedule.



Hey Cadillac! Stop pushing ugly shit like this out the door and learn how to spell!
Why anyone would buy such a thing without the influence of a schedule 1 controlled substance is beyond me.

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Cadillac, GM's flagship electric brand,...

I did not know this.

Attention GM, talk to Ford regarding the Edsel. I see similarities here.

I don't know who's doing the styling for Cadillac these last few years, but I find most of them so ugly you couldn't give me one.

Ok, I lied: You could give it to me, but then I'd sell it tout de suite.

Another poorly thought out program.

Similar to the move to NYC by the Cadillac Division and the subsequent return to Detroit of several years ago. A waste of time, money, resources and manpower for dubious returns.

To lose almost twenty percent of franchises, most likely in more rural areas on the surface does not seem like the best marketing plan. Unless I'm not seeing something here this is going to have an trickle down effect on their Escalade sales especially in small town USA with customers in higher incomes. They may "eat up" the home delivery of their new vehicle and while Cadillac promotes pickup and delivery of customer vehicles for service visits (even oil changes) let's see how well that works in the middle of nowhere Montana on a ranch when the dealership is 100 or so miles one way from the store.

GM has liberalized warranty repairs over the last decade I was in dealerships mostly as a response to the closings of the 09-10 period. From a policy of no cross-warranty to emergency assistance then finally anybody in GM can warranty anything in GM I can see how well this will go over when the edict comes down that all GM franchises must participate in this program "for continued customer satisfaction". Who knows how that will ultimately pan out, probably a lose-lose for those dealers.

Then there becomes the other issue, how many EV's will actually be sold in rural Montana,Idaho,Wyoming,et al? Just enough to bolster sales figures or hang enough of these out on dealer floor plan to the rural dealers basically making them store new vehicles for the Cadillac Division on the dealer's dime? And the dealers that have to buy the equipment, train their technicians, stock their parts departments for vehicles that may sell poorly in those areas due to being impractical for those areas? And for the techs to become and stay proficient with vehicles that may have very limited appeal there? Again, corporate forcing their will upon the dealerships and the market area.

Smarter move at least in my POV would be that Cadillac subsidizes this plan to all franchised dealerships or creates designated EV service centers only in larger metro areas, again subsidized by the corporation.

Only time will tell. But I can see Lincoln SUV's gaining more market out there.

Cadillac will survive, the luxury market is moving to E-hicles... That market tends to favor a bit more futuristic styling cues.

Cutting dealer points won't hurt them. Right now Dealer Profits are high, and the average age of owners is up there, competition from conglomerates in the dealer industry makes it hard on single point stores. For some it might be the perfect exit strategy.

Anywho, what you see there may or may not make it into production, preproduction vehicles rarely make it like they are designed once engineering and accounting grab ahold of it.

remember the Cadillac Sixteen, cool looking prototype, never made it in to production, even the boys at Top Gear loved it. Who wouldn't like 1000 HP coupe....



That industry is going through a lot of changes.

I don't see a problem here and Caddy's are sexy. Lectric is coming, people want it. If a dealer doesn't want to invest in the future, Adios

I wouldn't take an electric car if it given to me. Like corn fuel, the infrastructure is no where close to being able to support the concept, at least in rural areas.

HRK,

I don't doubt Cadillac will survive and even thrive at least while things are up. But what goes up comes down. Speaking from being inside GM dealerships for close to a half century in Fixed Operations, service, parts, body shop, everything outside of new and used sales. And when things start to slow trickle down becomes a flood.

I hope this launch is better than the ATS, the last Cadillac fiasco I saw up close and personal. At one time there were about thirteen recalls affecting that car including "stop sell" orders on any new and used in stock. And my favorite, a recall on the front upper roof console that became TWO recalls, we had to recall the recall fixes including all that were previously performed. Seems that the replacement part did not meet FMVSS Standards, oops!

Only time will tell but history repeats itself. At least how I see it.

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people want it.

Will they still want it when the Federal tax rebates stop? If they are in such demand then there is zero need for taxpayers to help fund them.

Next up is taxing them a road tax to pay for the building and maintaining of roadways.

I'm not shedding any tears. It sucks to be a mid- to low-level employee for these dealerships but, the writing has been on the wall for American auto manufacturers for decades now. The reliability of overseas imports has been a cloud hanging over every brand, but, more importantly is the overall styles being put out. The general atheistic is poor, clunky and not very refined; Cadillac has been riding on its name and trying to label it as a luxury brand is laughable when you look at the high end models being put out by European contemporaries.

The handouts American auto has taken from Uncle Sam has to end, time for new blood and new ideas to emerge.

My neighbor bought a Tesla last month and decided to lecture me on fossil fuels and the environment. I brought over my latest electric bill which included a breakout of how my electricity is being generated.

Over 70% of my/his electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.

I would love to have a Tesla for an everyday driver. It could never replace the thumping sound and feel of a V8 in my weekend toy and I’m in no way saying it’s free energy from sunshine and butterflies.

The fact is I got to drive a buddy of mines and until you drive a good one you really have no idea saying you would never want one.

If you have experienced a good one and don’t like it for some reason then ok but I would love to hear the justification.

I agree without giving any subsidies though. I think right now they are a little ahead of their time as far as cost basis is combined and I don’t think the tax payers should have to make up the difference.

Several years ago AZ (yup, same liberal lawmakers) enacted a law which allowed buyers to purchase a diesel powered vehicle and recoup a large portion of the purchase price from AZ taxpayers. It was a huge success, buy a $40,000 truck or suv and get much of it back in rebates...at the expense of taxpayers.

The program generated a lot of fraud as could be expected and ran out of money.

It least it does not look like every other car on the road like Honda, Mazda, Toyota, chevy, ford, dodge, nissan, lexus, etc. I will give them that. No electric or hybrid for me.

Remember when GM forced everyone who wanted to sell Hummers to have a stand-alone building in order to sell them? This seems like just as dumb of a requirement.

The government is requiring any manufacturer selling new vehicles in the USA to have at least 1 electric model in their line-up, this is another brilliant idea from our previous president Barack H. Obamanation

Most Cadillac dealers sell another GM product that already is offering a hybrid or totally electric vehicle so compliance may not be that much of an issue to be compliant.

Stand alone high end dealerships are what people want that spend $100k for a luxury brand. I want people who invest in the brand, training and tools to service it. I dig the Cadillac styling. So much better than the Lexus that looks like they hung a wrought iron screen door on the front.

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Originally posted by BigSwede:
Lectric is coming, people want it.

And if they don't like or want it, it won't much matter as government through the extortion of private industry will force it on you. I hope to keep and continue to drive my 10mpg, 20 year old, carbon spewing truck forever. I think it likely negates at least 5 of these Lectric toys.

Electrics have a lower maintenance cost than ICE cars.

My Tesla has had some issues, but far less than my MBs and BMWs.

I live, part of the year,in the Texas Hill Country, and it’s not an issue.

Would be 1 county west, but those folks drive pick ups, mostly.