Cadillac gets rolling: ATS Coupe and new Escalade SUV confirmed

By Marcus Amick April 29, 2013

Pushing to build on the popularity of the award-winning ATS sedan, Cadillac is now revving up to add a coupe model of the luxury compact to its line-up.

According to AutoWeek, several dealers told Automotive News they were shown an ATS coupe at a national dealer meeting in Las Vegas this month.

In addition, AutoWeek reports that dealers were also shown the new 2015 Escalade, which is expected to go into production in January, as part of Cadillac’s aggressive product strategy to add 10 new or redesigned vehicles to its line-up by mid-2015.

Four of the ten new Cadillac vehicles have either been unveiled or are already at dealerships − including the full-size XTS, ATS sedan, ELR plug-in hybrid and the new CTS sedan, unveiled at the New York auto show.

A two-door ATS makes Cadillac an even stronger contender against segment leaders like BMW and could give the American luxury carmaker an added punch in cities like Los Angeles, a key market for two-door luxury car sales.

GM executives have said that 70 percent of ATS buyers are new to Cadillac, and more than half are new to GM, according to AutoWeek.

The AutoWeek report goes on to indicate that dealers who saw the new Escalade described the SUV’s exterior styling as evolutionary but said the interior was all new and featured wood and aluminum accents and an electronically controlled fold-flat third row of seat.

A new Escalade is way overdue. Once the segment leader, the Cadillac SUV has struggled to maintain the clout it once had and now faces stiff competition from vehicles like the Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne and Mercedes-Benz GL-Class.

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Marcus Amick has been writing about the world of cars for more than ten years and has covered everything from new automobiles…

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