Cadillac President Denies CT6 Cancellation Rumors

July 24, 2017
The potential cancellation would have been of note for the collision repair industry, as General Motors has a patented method for manufacturing the CT6, which includes an industry-exclusive method for welding aluminum with steel.

July 24, 2017—In an interview with Jalopnik, Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen denied a Reuters report that stated production on six General Motors vehicles, including the new Cadillac CT6, would be halted.

The potential cancellation would have been of note for the collision repair industry, as General Motors has a patented method for manufacturing the CT6, which includes an industry-exclusive method for welding aluminum with steel.

Randy Sattler, collision manager at Rydell Collision Center in Grand Forks, N.D., said that his shop made a $30,000 investment to be qualified to repair the CT6. That training is available to shops through the GM Cadillac Aluminum Repair Network.

Back in December, GM found that 25 states currently lack any collision repair shop approved to work on the CT6, and that only 150 total U.S. shops have met the requirements to perform repairs on the CT6 per GM’s guidelines

On top of that, the CT6 will also fature the Super Cruise technology that aims to rival Tesla’s Autopilot. De Nysschen said being the Super Cruise launch vehicle makes the CT6 a flag bearer for GM as a whole, and that it “would make no sense” to have invested all of this development into the CT6 just to cut the car two years after its launch.

De Nysschen said that Cadillac will be investing more money into the CT6 and its segment of the company’s lineup over the coming years.

“The [CT6] forms a very important part of our product strategy going forward for the brand,” de Nysschen said. “The car also has a very major contribution to make to the shaping of brand perceptions, and the transformational process that Cadillac is undergoing as far as that is concerned.”

The Reuters report stemmed from GM’s current sales struggles, with factories extending their summer shutdowns and GM’s overall U.S. inventories being at a 10-year high in June. All of the vehicles in Cadillac’s current lineup, de Nysschen said, “will run through their natural life cycles” without being cut short.

Photo courtesy of Cadillac.

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