{"id":108897,"date":"2016-08-19T09:40:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T13:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=108897"},"modified":"2016-08-19T09:48:28","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T13:48:28","slug":"cadillac-shifts-design-direction-with-escala-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2016\/08\/cadillac-shifts-design-direction-with-escala-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac Shifts Design Direction with Escala Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cadillac smooths out the edges of its Art & Design design language with the Escala concept.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been more than a decade since Cadillac set out to rebuild its once trend-setting credentials with the introduction of the edgy Art & Science design language. Since the debut of the first generation CTS sedan, it\u2019s been tweaking the theme but as General Motors\u2019 luxury brand gets set for what it\u2019s calling an \u201cunprecedented\u201d product blitz, it seems we\u2019re in for another major design makeover.<\/p>\n

But if anyone was expecting an equally radical new look, it seems that Caddy is going in a different, more buttoned-down direction. The new Cadillac Escala Concept making its debut ahead of this weekend\u2019s Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019Elegance won\u2019t get lost in the crowd, but it\u2019s certainly not the bold showstoppers of other recent Caddy concepts, like the Elmiraj Coupe Concept that was unveiled in Pebble Beach three years ago.<\/p>\n

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What a Concept!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The concept \u201cmarks an inflection point\u201d for Cadillac, said its President Johan de Nysschen, who declared the Escala, \u201cthe next design chapter\u201d for the brand, and promised key elements of the show car \u201cwill be incorporated in every one of our new products over the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for our review of the new Cadillac XT5 SUV.)
\n<\/em><\/strong>Long, low and wide, the coupe-like Escala sedan concept softens the sharp edges of the original Art & Science design language. For the past decade, Caddy has been harkening back to its days of dominance, a time when fins were all the rage. But Escala balances angular vertical elements, such as the LED lamps on the flagship CT6 sedan, with horizontal features \u2013 most notably the slit LED headlamps.<\/p>\n

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The Escala balances its vertical LED lights with new, horizontal slit headlamps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly as big as the brand\u2019s classic \u201860s-era behemoths, the goal of the Escala design team was to come up with \u201ca chauffeur-driven Cadillac (that) you\u2019d want to drive yourself,\u201d explained Andrew Smith, the marque\u2019s global styling chief.<\/p>\n

Inside, the Escala is lavished in leather and what Smith called a \u201cwood wave of American walnut.\u201d Luxury designers have been tinkering with new materials to better differentiate their products; Maserati, for example, has teamed up with fashion house Zegna to offer silk inserts on models such as the new Levante SUV. With Escala, Cadillac integrates a wool textile \u201cinspired by men\u2019s fashion,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect of a concept vehicle that could move Cadillac up a notch, the Escala \u2013 Spanish for \u201cscale\u201d \u2013 is loaded with various high-tech features, including all manner of video screens, large and small. The taillights blend increasingly common LEDs with next-gen OLED technology.<\/p>\n

One of the show car\u2019s more trick features requires opening up the trunk. It\u2019s load floor rises up so motorists don\u2019t have to reach in for their luggage.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to learn about Cadillac’s upcoming, semi-autonomous Super Cruise system.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The rear-drive Cadillac Escala concept is powered by a prototype twin-turbo V-8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cadillac introduced the Escala Thursday night, just hours after Mercedes-Benz unveiled a new Maybach coupe concept. But while the German show car featured a high-performance electric drivetrain, Caddy opted for a prototype twin-turbo V-8.<\/p>\n

Cadillac has been taking a number of major steps, as de Nysschen put it Thursday night, to \u201crelentlessly drive this brand back to its place at the pinnacle of premium.”<\/p>\n

A car like the Escala would certainly seem to have its place and, as he wrapped up the evening presentation, the brand boss anticipated what was sure to be the first question he would face from the assembled media. Unfortunately, for those who\u2019d like to put themselves behind the wheel of the show car, the answer is not likely to be pleasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept is not an announcement of a production car,\u201d de Nysschen cautioned, though he quickly added that it is \u201can indication of what we\u2019re thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a subsequent conversation with TheDetroitBureau.com, the South African-born executive said \u201cYou\u2019ll see many of the design cues\u201d return in a new production model due sometime in late 2018.<\/p>\n

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Escala's high-tech interior also features classic luxury cues, including leather and a "wave" of walnut."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then came another possible disappointment. That production model won\u2019t be the eagerly anticipated Cadillac CT8, a sedan meant to push even more up-market than the recently launched CT6. It will, instead be a replacement for an existing Caddy sedan, the timing suggesting it would be a complete makeover of the current CTS.<\/p>\n

The new flagship hasn\u2019t been dropped, de Nysschen continued, but as Caddy gets its priorities in order, it\u2019s been pushed back a few years, likely to around 2020 or 2021.<\/p>\n

And what about the twin-turbo V-8 \u2013 an engine TheDetroitBureau.com first revealed last November? It appears to have been pushed back a couple years, as well, reflecting shifting priorities and the limits of parent General Motors\u2019 resources.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still in the works, however, and will make it into production \u201cby the end of the lifecycle of the current CT6,\u201d said de Nysschen, or, at worst, around the launch of the second-generation sedan.<\/p>\n

(Long-rumored mid-engine Corvette may soon become a reality. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cadillac is shifting gears with the Escala Concept, a coupe-like sedan unveiled in Pebble Beach on Thursday night. For one thing, it marks some major changes in the maker’s familiar Art & Science design theme that will appear on all new Caddy models. More from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108897"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=108897"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=108897"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=108897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}