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2020 Cadillac CT4 First Drive | Small shoes to fill

Following an existential crisis of fits, starts, headquarters moves and executive shakeups, Cadillac has itself a new luxury sedan, the CT4. It’s a convincing driverÂ’s car, less convincing as a luxury car, and seems a long shot to lure BMW, Audi or Mercedes owners into the Cadillac fold. For all the changes at Cadillac, that sure sounds familiar. The 2020 Cadillac CT4 is a redesigned ATS by another, equally unmemorable name. That includes an updated rear-drive chassis with eager, enthusiast-friendly tuning and 50/50 weight distribution – always among the ATSÂ’ top selling points. Styling is another winner, with crisp sheetmetal and CadillacÂ’s distinctive lighting signatures helping to differentiate this Yank from the international crowd. Cadillac is stretching so hard to cherry-pick the CT4Â’s competitors, it's possible they might slip a disc. We all remember the ATS as an able, rear-driven rival to the compact BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C-Class et al. But to paint the CT4 in a more competitive light – even as this sedan grows nearly 5 inches in length versus the ATS – Cadillac suddenly claims that its entry-level model, regardless of what it's now called, competes against subcompact, front-drive-based models like the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe, Mercedes CLA-Class and Audi A3. Unfurling a tape measure reveals the truth: At a bit over 187 inches, the CT4 is actually longer than a 3 Series, C-Class, Audi A4 and every other major compact player. ItÂ’s a foot longer than an Audi A3. So, it's not a subcompact sedan, but there is one area where the CT4 does align with them – just not in a good way. The back seat is scrawny and hard-to-access, the result of its rear-wheel-drive platform and the sort of inefficient packaging that plagued the ATS. As such, it's better to think of the CT4, like the Genesis G70, as an affordable alternative to the roomier 3 Series, and other German compacts. And thereÂ’s nothing wrong with that. It starts at $33,990, undercutting the Germans by many thousands, and still boasts CadillacÂ’s greatest competitive strength: Smartly engineered ride-and-handling that matches up against the Euros with no excuses required. I drove the evident smart play in the CT4 lineup, the Premium Luxury 2.7 model, priced from $40,990, or $42,990 for the all-wheel-drive version I tested. (A Premium Luxury with the 237-horsepower 2.0T starts from $38,490, or $41,690 with AWD).

2015 Cadillac ATS sedan gets early reveal in making-of video

Cadillac is apparently preparing to roll out a minor facelift for the ATS sedan - which we know not because General Motors has already revealed it or because we're looking at it in a fresh batch of spy shots (though we've seen that too), but because a behind-the-scenes video from the filming of its commercial has leaked out online. Which may be bad news for Cadillac, and even worse news for the film production company, but good news for us, because we get to see it ahead of schedule.
The revised sports sedan seems to be sporting a new front bumper and less egg-cratey grille with Caddy's new wreath-less badge at its center, all apparently put in place to bring the sedan more in line with the new ATS coupe.
We're sure Cadillac will be revealing the updated 2015 ATS sedan shortly, but you can scope it out right now in the video below. By way of comparison, we've included an image gallery of the current ATS, released back in 2013, as well.

GM will likely build PHEV batteries in China soon

It's a big week for batteries. Friday, Tesla will hold a big event at its Gigafactory in Reno, NV. But even in Michigan, there are things happening on the electrified automotive front. This was proven when GM invited journalists to its Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant today, highlighting the six different battery packs it makes for nine vehicles around the world (plus a tenth, coming to Asia, that has not yet been announced). During our tour, we learned a few interesting tidbits that we thought readers would like to hear: The Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid launches in China this fall before coming to the US next year. GM builds the battery packs in Michigan and ships them to China for final assembly in the PHEV. For now, this is all fine for GM to qualify for China's incentives for building green cars in the country. But, as Bill Wallace, GM's director of global battery systems, told AutoblogGreen, this could change thanks to the country's 'Made in China 2025' plan. The situation is "evolving," he said, and it's a safe assumption that GM will need to build packs in China some day. For the CT6 PHEVs that will be sold in the US, the batteries will make a round trip, since GM will only build the plug-in version in China. As for the range of the CT6 PHEV, that hasn't been announced, but since China offers incentives for vehicles that get at least 50 kilometers (31 miles), that's a likely target (the US range (UPDATE: GM did announce an expected range for the CT6 PHEV in the US at the LA Auto Show last fall, saying it would "travel approximately 30 miles on a full electric charge"). The battery pack in the CT6 is also a clunky box-type thing, totally unlike the near-elegant T-shape used in the Volt. This despite the fact that the guts of the two packs are similar. Both have 192 li-ion cells and weigh almost the same, but GM tuned the CT6 pack for acceleration instead of range, the way it did with the Volt's pack. Still, the main reason the packs are different is because the CT6 is a rear-wheel drive vehicle, and the tunnel that the Volt's pack uses is occupied by the driveshaft. Despite the highly touted second-gen Chevy Volt going on sale last year, GM still has the capacity to build battery packs for the old, first-gen model. This is because the company is legally required to be able to provide replacement packs for warrantied vehicles (for up to 10 years), and the second-gen packs don't fit into the first-gen vehicles.