July 11, 2025 - Cadillac Remains Committed to EVs

This is the telemetry transportation daily for July 11, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, VP of market research for telemetry.

Yesterday, John Roth, the vice president of the Cadillac brand at General Motors provided an update on the brand's business so far in 2025 and based on this, it sounds very much like the brand remains committed to pursuing an electric future. Overall, GM's luxury brand has had fairly strong positive momentum in the last several years and that continues in the first half of 2025. Year to date sales up 19% and the brand has its highest share of the luxury market since 2014. 

Of particular note was the performance of Cadillac's lineup of 5 electric models. In the first half of 2025, EVs accounted for 24% of Cadillac's US sales and 17% of global volume. Cadillac was also the fifth best selling EV brand in the US overall. The midsize Lyriq crossover was Cadillac's first electric vehicle, debuting in 2022 and remains the top seller although sales have tapered off in 2025. However, the introduction of the smaller Optiq, the 3-row Vistiq and the massive Escalade have more than offset the decline for Lyriq.

The success with EVs is going to be important to the brand as Roth emphasized the desire to grow Cadillac globally. That's why Cadillac is involved in the world endurance championship and is launching a formula 1 team in 2026. Both of these are racing categories with substantially larger audiences outside of the US. However, to leverage the growing brand awareness in the rest of the world, Cadillac will absolutely need a strong portfolio of electric vehicles even if the US market is slower in electrifying. In order for that to make financial sense, Cadillac needs to leverage the scale of the rest of GM with EVs. That means that while GM might be slowing some of its EV plans, it will likely persist with a robust lineup in the coming years regardless of the Trump administration's war on EVs. The EV isn't dead yet or anytime soon. 

Thanks for listening.