The Chevy Bolt is fine and nice, and the CUV or crossover teased by Mary Barra at Barclay’s Auto Conference this week will probably be fine and nice. GM’s CEO also teased a bunch of other electric vehicles, including a possible sports car, which could be Cadillac.
Barra briefly covered GM’s plans for expanding its electrified vehicle lineup thru 2023. We touched on the boring part of the plan in The Morning Shift earlier today, mostly about how GM’s strategy is based on its new modular EV platform.
Barra teased the compact crossover pictured above, ambiguous in its nature but likely a Chevy or Buick. As Automobile Magazine reported, Barra’s presentation also included “an ‘expressive luxury low-roof’ battery electric-powered model” that the magazine speculatively pitched as an electrified Corvette or new Cadillac model.
From Automobile Magazine:
Is it a Chevrolet Corvette e-Ray? A high-end Cadillac electric sports car?
Barra offered no such details. Her presentation was designed to prove to investors that GM has a future worthy of the market cap that has graced profit-free Tesla for several years.
In her presentation, she sought to convince investment analysts that the world’s third-largest automaker, and one of its oldest, is at the forefront of EVs, autonomous vehicles, and car sharing.
[...]
Since we don’t know whether a sports car configuration of the Gen II EV platform will have enough connection with the C8 platform, badging the “expressive luxury low-roof” car a Cadillac is an intriguing alternative.
Cadillac could use something, anything new and exciting like an EV sports car. That is if they can do it properly, and it’s not the egotistical nightmare that was the ELR.
Here’s a list of other planned models, as collected by Auto Mag:
- Five-passenger luxury SUV (which means Cadillac).
- Five-passenger compact SUV (Chevrolet).
- “Shared” autonomous vehicle, likely a small shuttle-bus (GMC or Chevy).
- Functional light-commercial vehicle, an urban delivery van (GMC and/or Chevy).
- “Efficient” low-roof car (could be a Chevy, but we’d put our money on Buick or Cadillac).
- Small SUV (Chevy, possibly Buick).
- Compact CUV (Chevy, possibly Buick).
- Luxury-compact CUV (Cadillac).
- Seven-passenger, large SUV (Chevy and/or Buick).
- Seven-passenger, luxury SUV (Cadillac).
Hope you like EVs.