General Motors has announced that the next top-line Cadillac car will be called the Cadillac CT6, signaling the start of a new "simplified" way to name its cars from now on.
Cadillac will reportedly use the letters "CT" for all of its cars, with the number that follows indicating the vehicle's size and position within the product lineup.
"This Cadillac will be the lightest and most agile car in the class of top-level large luxury sedans," said Travis Hester, executive chief engineer of the CT6. "It will employ a mixed material philosophy that combines the best and most efficient components optimized for each area of this new top-of-the-range car."
The new car will be built at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant starting at the end of 2015. GM CEO Mary Barra said last week that the naming process would be up to Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen.
"This will be an evolutionary process -- we will only change a product's name when the product itself is redesigned or an all-new model is created, as in this instance," said Uwe Ellinghaus, global chief marketing officer at Cadillac.
Despite the new name, it is difficult to say if it will have an impact on car sales.
"This is not going to have any immediate impact on sales and I think it's questionable whether it will make any impact on brand perception," said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at AutoTrader.com.
Other cars in the Cadillac line, such as the ATS, CTS and XTS, will eventually be renamed to the CT1, CT2 and so on. As more cars are added, they will also be part of the new naming system. While many would prefer that the company goes back to its classic names, such as the Fleetwood and Eldorado, the naming of the vehicles is, according to Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell, not up for public vote.
"They want us to have a passionate, emotional name and we do," said Caldwell. "It's called Cadillac."
While the name of the CT6 may not be that exciting, the car itself certainly is, with the CT6 set to compete against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the Audi A8.
Cadillac sales have been suffering of late, falling 4.8 percent so far this year through the end of August. Sale of the ATS sedan, which is a competitor for German sedans such as the BMW 3-series, have fallen a whopping 20 percent from a year ago. Even sales of the CTS have seen a 6 percent drop.
The renaming scheme comes on the heel's of GM's announcment Sept. 24 that Cadillac will be splitting off as a separate line from GM and moving it's headquarters from Detroit to New York City's SoHo district.
