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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 CT5-V comes in under $50,000

Cadillac CT5-V pricing is out, giving us a fuller picture of the CT5 lineup from a pricing perspective. We still haven’t driven CadillacÂ’s new sedan, but we now know that a CT5-V with rear-wheel drive will set you back $48,690, including the $995 destination charge. If you want all-wheel drive, thatÂ’ll be $51,290, a $2,600 upcharge. ThereÂ’s a small tidbit of powertrain news available today, as well. When Cadillac first announced the CT5-V, it said the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 would make 355 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Since then, Cadillac has upped the final figures to 360 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque. The difference is only 5 horsepower and 5 pound-feet of torque, but still worth noting. We also got pricing information on the CT5 with the lower-spec 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6. This engine is only available on the Premium Luxury trim and it starts at $45,190 with rear-wheel drive. The all-wheel drive version costs $48,280. Cadillac opened up the CT5Â’s configurator with all the different variants on it today, too. We built a CT5-V with all the option boxes checked and saw the price balloon to more than $67,000. This sedan can get expensive if you let it. Compared to the BMW M340i or Audi S4, the Cadillac's base price is still cheaper. If you want to keep it in the Cadillac family, the smaller CT4-V starts at $45,490, coming in $3,200 less than the CT5-V. Cadillac says the CT5 will begin shipping to dealers in the first quarter and the CT4 will arrive in the second quarter.

Cadillac considering ultra-luxe, $100k+ Escalade

The Cadillac Escalade has pushed incrementally up-market over the years. From its humble Chevy/GMC truck underpinnings, the latest Escalade starts at $72,970 and tops out at $96,940. But according to the latest reports, Cadillac is weighing an even more upscale version. Though the exact nature of the upgrades that would push the Escalade further up-market remain unknown – and perhaps undecided at this point – the impetus for such a move is crystal clear. European luxury SUVs keep getting more and more expensive, both from established players and new challengers. Bentley just launched the Bentayga, and other luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Maserati, and Lamborghini are all getting into the game. All the while manufacturers like Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz keep rolling out ever more expensive offerings, like the Range Rover Autobiography and anticipating forthcoming Maybach sport-ute. To challenge those European imports with their astronomic price tags, Cadillac could go with an even higher trim level than its existing Platinum spec – or it could go with a more powerful, performance-oriented Escalade V or Vsport. Getting that big a vehicle to hustle would require a lot of power, but then General Motors has never been one to shy away from slotting a bigger engine into its vehicles. One thing's for certain though, and that's that Cadillac isn't quite done with pushing the Escalade higher up the market.