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Confident new Cadillac marketing boss ready to take on Tesla, BMW

When there's a former BMW executive heading Cadillac's efforts to boost sales of its only plug-in, it's a pretty safe guess that the marketing emphasis won't be on environmental friendliness and tree-hugging tendencies. The General Motors luxury brand has appointed ex-Bimmer executive Uwe Ellinghaus to be its marketing chief late last year, and the German-born Ellinghaus is now saying that he's targeting potential customers of Tesla Motors, in addition to BMW, for potential growth in sales of the Cadillac ELR extended-range plug-in. Appointed to Cadillac's head of marketing last November, Ellinghaus recently told Advertising Age that GM needs to highlight the Cadillac's looks and performance. He complimented Tesla for putting more emphasis on those attributes in the Model S than on its lack of emissions or lack of refueling costs (but Tesla hasn't shied away from highlighting the EV's savings). Ellinghaus says that trying to gear advertising "for people who are tree-huggers and green-wash an entire brand" won't be successful. You don't say. So far, the ELR hasn't made much of a dent in US car sales. Through May, Cadillac, which spent about $280 million on all of its US marketing last year, sold 293 units, whereas Tesla had been approaching the 11,000-unit figure for the Model S. With that in mind, Cadillac may be working on a sportier version of the ELR, as spy shots of a test vehicle from May revealed larger brakes and wheels. You can read our First Drive impressions of the ELR here.

Cadillac applies to trademark Symboliq, Optiq and Celestiq names

GM Authority found a General Motors trademark filing with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property for the phrase "Cadillac Symboliq" and the name "Symboliq." The documents submitted on July 22 were for the category of "Motorized land vehicles, namely automobiles.” It appears the Swiss action was GM following up on what it had done the day before in the U.S. On July 21, GM filed paperwork with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure three words and three phrases: Symboliq and Cadillac Symboliq, Optiq and Cadillac Optiq, and Celestiq and Cadillac Celestiq. Every name is listed for application to "Motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles." Cadillac recently explained its switch to model names that end in "iq," pronounced "ick," and the fact that the Celestiq name is among the recent trio leads us to believe the automaker has strong intent to use the other two on future products. We know the Celestiq — a large, hand-built, flagship sedan that will follow the Lyriq to market, predicted to retail for close to $200,000 whenever it goes on sale. We also know Cadillac has three more battery-electric products in the works after the XT5-sized Lyriq and "massive" Celestiq. As laid out in a 2019 GM Sustainability Report pitching 20 new electric vehicles across all brands by 2023, from Cadillac we're anticipating an XT4-sized crossover, an XT6-sized three-row crossover, and an electric take on the Escalade. Two of those three could get the Symboliq and Optiq names. The lineup, and more important, Cadillac's vision, will make more sense on August 6 when we finally get to see the Lyriq concept, with its single pane of 33-inch glass forming the instrument and infotainment display across the dash, tall taillights, and 22-inch wheels.   Related Video:

2016 Cadillac CT6 shows crisp sense of style in leaked images

You're looking at the 2016 Cadillac CT6, aided by the almost inevitable internet-aided leak, ahead of its debut at the New York Auto Show this week. As you can see, the overall shape is straight-edged and aggressive, and overall in keeping with what we've seen from Cadillac over the last several years. High-tech lighting clusters extend from the fender peaks all the way down in what appear to be LED strips toward the lower fascia and its rectangular fog lights. A suitably massive grille encrusted in chrome boasts one of the larger Wreath and Crest badges we've ever witnessed on a car. Under that sharply creased hood will sit a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 engine with 400 horsepower at its disposal, according to Cadillac, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. A naturally aspirated 3.6-liter V6 will also be available, we're told. We may wish for an edgier range-topping sedan from Cadillac, but it's not really fair to draw any real conclusions from just one leaked image. In other words, stay tuned, 'cause the rest of the story won't be far behind.