Cadillac is likely to approve right-hand-drive versions of two new vehicles in its quest to become a global brand, Automotive News reported on Tuesday.
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The news came about a week after a US columnist for a UK car magazine lambasted the GM brand for not including right-hand drive sports models for the UK in its European re-launch plans. The new Dutch-based distributor retirted that RHD was under consideration.
Now, according to Automotive News, John Howell, Cadillac’s director of global brand development, says he is “more positive than negative” about the prospect for right-hand-drive versions of the 2004 SRX sport wagon and the 2005 STS sedan.
“We’re working the issue, and I think we’ll probably have an announcement in the not-too-distant future,” Howell told the weekly motor industry newspaper.
According to Automotive News, Cadillac has engineered the SRX and STS for right-hand-drive but has not received authorisation to tool for the vehicles at the Lansing Grand River plant in Lansing, Michigan. The report added that right-hand-drive versions of the initial Sigma vehicle, the CTS sedan, are built at the plant, and just-auto understands these are sold in Japan – right-hand drive sales of a previous Seville model in the UK ceased about two years ago.
Costs are relatively low, so Cadillac could justify the move with an additional 5,000 sales, Howell told Automotive News, adding that it has built and tested right-hand-drive prototypes for the SRX and STS.
The XLR roadster, built on the Chevrolet Corvette architecture, is a weaker prospect for right-hand drive because it is a low-volume vehicle, Howell told the paper.
Automotive News said the question is how far Cadillac wants to go to make itself a credible global luxury competitor and noted that General Motors executives have said Cadillac needs to gain volume to compete with such rivals as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
However, the paper noted, lack of a right-hand-drive model hurts Cadillac in two multimillion-unit markets, Japan and the United Kingdom – Europe’s second-largest sales market in 2002 – as well as several smaller markets.
But Howell told Automotive News that right-hand drive isn’t a necessity because it accounts for less than 25% of total light-vehicle sales worldwide.
“It makes you a complete global player, but you can be pretty global without it,” Howell reportedly said.
In fact, he told Automotive News, when Cadillac offers both left- and right-hand-drive vehicles for sale in Japan, it sells more left-hand-drive units – Japanese Cadillac buyers already are opting for an unusual vehicle and like to emphasise its distinctiveness.
Just-auto has, however, been told by other sellers of both left- and right-hand drive models that the preference for LHD is influenced by buyers with chauffeurs – LHD places the driver next to the curb in drive-on-the-left Japan and he is more easily able to get out in crowded, narrow Japanese streets to open the rear door for the boss.
Buyers in the United Kingdom reject left-hand drive, Howell told Automotive News, adding that, in Australia [and neighbouring New Zealand], importing left-hand-drive vehicles is illegal.
Ashvin Chotai, a London analyst for Global Insight, told Automotive News that GM probably can afford right-hand drive for the Sigma vehicles. “I’m surprised to see that it is engineered for right-hand drive,” he reportedly said, adding: “But if it is, the costs wouldn’t be that huge.”
Chotai told the paper it would be most economical to build the vehicles in the United States and ship them overseas in most cases while assembling kit cars is another option, but is usually done only for tax advantages in nations with high trade barriers.
But Chotai told Automotive News Cadillac will have difficulty selling larger, American-style vehicles in most global markets, regardless of whether it offers right-hand drive.
“Obviously, it would give them access to more markets,” he told the paper, adding: “But I would have thought that Cadillac faces even more important challenges – they don’t really have a track record outside of North America.”
Automotive News noted that, in past years, Cadillac’s sales in Europe typically have been in the 1,000- to 1,500-unit range while the brand sold about 225,000 vehicles globally last year, 199,748 in the United States.
