Last month, we reported on the relatively sad state of Cadillac in Europe. In particular, the luxury marque sells only one model in the region – the XT4 compact crossover. And now, we have some more details on Caddy’s retail operations in the European region.
Currently, Cadillac has 20 retail sales partners and 123 aftersales partners across Europe, René Kreis, Head of Public Relations at Cadillac Europe, has confirmed to Cadillac Society.
The 20 retail partners figure represents less than one per country on average, and that’s including only those countries that are members of the European Union, which is about half of them. This does not compare well with an average of nearly 18 Cadillac dealers per U.S. state.
Of course, it was not to be expected that Cadillac’s retail presence would be as strong in Europe as it is in North America. Furthermore, as mentioned in the aforementioned article, of all the models offered by Cadillac, only the XT4 crossover is officially marketed in Europe, having been introduced on October 10th 2020.
The XT4 made its debut in Europe two years after it was launched in the U.S. and China. The long gap between these events was due to the time required to develop the car’s turbocharged 2.0L I4 diesel engine (production code LSQ). The new diesel motor is rated at 174 horsepower and 281 pound-feet (381 Nm) torque, resulting in its 350D nomenclature. The engine also complies with Euro 6 emissions regulations.
Though a turbocharged 2.0L I4 gasoline engine (production code LSY) will become available in select European markets, the 2.0L diesel is the primary engine for the XT4 in the region – a response to European motorists’ long-standing enthusiasm for diesel vehicles. For most of the 21st century so far, manufacturers have found that in some market sectors, it is hardly worth offering a gasoline car at all.
However, this may not prove to be as strong a selling point for the diesel XT4 as it once appeared. Industry analyst JATO Dynamics reports that registrations of diesel cars across the continent fell from 50 percent of total registrations ten years ago to just 24.8 percent in September 2020. Registrations of EVs (including battery electric and hybrid cars) achieved a higher proportion of the total than those of diesels for the first time ever. This situation has led JATO Dynamics to refer publicly to “the fall of the diesel car”.
If the European auto industry continues to head in this direction, Cadillac Europe’s best hope might be to reduce its reliance on the XT4 350D and concentrate on ensuring it can sell its upcoming Lyriq electric crossover as well as other future electric vehicles.
Whichever side of the Atlantic you live on, subscribe to Cadillac Society for ongoing Cadillac news coverage. We also invite you to join the latest discussions in our Cadillac forums.
Andrzej
How about checking FACTS instead of posting GM propaganda from employee who gets his salary for doing nothing? Most of that mentioned 123 partners don’t have any single Cadillac for sale! Some of those low-rent multibrand dealers call themselves ‘official distributors’ and if You ask them about cadillac/corvette all they offer you is importing a car From one of the German dealers with a huge mark-up! One of many examples is a shoddy low-rent opel dealer autozoliborz From Poland. The Last time they had a new cadillac for sale was one year ago! And what about those real dealers (cadillac leipzig for ex.) That invested so much money in their showrooms and are left with one car (xt4)!?
Cadillac Europe is a parody of a car company.
And they developed a diesel engine in time when nobody buys diesel?! I dont even want to comment it.
David Finlay
If they had Cadillacs for sale they would be listed as retail sales partners, not aftersales partners.
Andrzej
‘Aftersales partners’ sounds like gm corporate newspeak. The same goes with ‘available in Europe in selected markets’ without saying what markets they exactly mean…Looks like everyone can be a ‘cadillac aftersales partner’ – just sell some used cars Put a cadillac logo on your webpage and Voilà! Nevermind. If they use Word service on their webpage next to their ‘partners’ it should be a service not a place where a guy in an opel service uniform will tell you ‘we dont make cadillacs we can only change oil’. And what about their ridicolous, chaotic policy as offering cadillacs in england with the steering wheel on the wrong side at the time where they Could be offered in continental Europe in countries that dont have a dealer at all? The same goes for ct5 not offered here but gm considers offering it in…Japan with a Wrong location of the steering wheel of course! Watching the cadillac-corvette soap opera in Europe is like watching decisions of a far-right sinking government from a 3rd world country. All the best From ex-owner of sls and cts that will never Come back to cadillac. Maybe if I get a dream job at cadillac Europe and get money for doing nothing just as Rene 😀
Alex Luft
Andzrej – regarding this bit of your comment:
“How about checking FACTS instead of posting GM propaganda from employee who gets his salary for doing nothing? Most of that mentioned 123 partners don’t have any single Cadillac for sale!”
You are mistaking total/count for effectiveness. There are currently 20 sales locations and 123 service locations. If you want to discuss their effectiveness, that’s a different matter entirely.
Andrzej
And You are misspelling my name 🙂
The truth is in many cases those ‘service points’ don’t exist at all. I heard cases when even a service manager didn’t even know why his Opel service was listed on cadillaceurope web page. Just make a research on Your own on various internet Cadillac forum boards and European Cadillac FB groups. Talk to real people. You don’t even have to come here personally. GM managers are already here, sit in their armchairs on their Euro-vacation doing completely nothing but checking their private bank accounts. There was a internet chat with one of them on Jalopnik – Uwe Ellinghaus – I asked him a question about basics as Cadillac spare parts sales and service. He said ‘we’ll take care of that’. 1,5 year later he was gone and now he brags about his succesful career at Cadillac on Linkedin!
Scotty Keen
Andr… whatever your name is… you are a real whiner.
The guys who run this site do a very good job with the facts. Are you suggesting that the writers go out and physically check out all of these locations themselves just to see if Cadillac is telling the truth… only so that you can then come back and complain about it while reading a free article? Get real buddy. I’m sure you’ll be the first to pay for their expenses, right?
We’ve seen your troll type before.
Roger Zimmermann
As an owner of 3 vintage Cadillacs and a 2011 DTS, I can only be sad at what Cadillac is doing in Europe/Switzerland. I used to work for GM as a District Service manager for US GM vehicles; at that time we still had some organization in Europe; mainly run by US citizens who were there for just 2 years and had no idea about Europe. Then came the decision from somebody from Pakistan to distribute US vehicle through the Opel organization. What a mistake! Then came a distributor from the Netherland who went bankrupt, and so on.
There was a time when Switzerland could absorb 200 to 300 new Cadillac each year; with now just one model, even if its a nice one, and the wrong engine, we can forget those numbers. Fortunately, some clever dealer is importing vehicles from the US or Canada, so the brand is not completely dead, but not far away.
Andrzej
I am sorry to hear that Roger. I am glad a former a GM employee gives voice in this discussion and says truth. Good there is a devoted Cadillac dealer ready to import cars on his own to survive. We used to have a dealer in Warsaw that invested own money (without any GM support) and sold Cadillacs only for 2-3 years, after that he packed Cadillac showroom floor with used Opels and still got many inquiries about people wanting to import a Cadillac through their dealership. Former manager told me it when I was buying a Vivaro there. Sad, just sad 🙁
Roger Zimmermann
Well, Andrzej (it’s easy to misspell your name!), I don’t know how long this dealer will be able to import vehicles on his own because the new regulations about CO2 will increase the retail price at a level people will go to the competition (most past customers are already there). The Cadillac story in Europe is a perfect example of mismanagement. It could be that electric cars will be the possibility for a revival (once more!) of the brand.
Andrzej
But it’s not that heard to pronounce, just listen how Jane Fonda did it when she gave Oscar to Andrzej Wajda 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rImCpUzwGx0
Coming back to subject, I do not believe in electrics due to mentioned by You GM mismanagement. While some of their servicing might seem simpler, still there must be a phisical place where they can be test-driven, purchased and profesionally repaired after an acccident. European automakers already have them and nobody will cover 600 miles to have a look at even the most competetive product from a rather unknown brand. The only hope American car enthusiasts can have is Ford bringing future electric Lincoln products to Europe using their multiple qualified Ford dealers that already have experience in selling Mustangs and premium Volvos.
Chris Smiley
Andrzej – do you have to send that link to everyone when meeting them? If so, that must make life difficult for you.
Anyway, your perception is way off. Things can change on a dime in this industry. In fact, they have already changed several times: in the 1930s, Ford had 90% market share and GM had something like 3 percent. 15 years later, GM had 60% and Ford had 35%. And now, GM has 20% and Ford has 18%. Things change substantially.
The disruption brought about by EVs is significant and will make for another scenario where the status quo changes. And GM will be leading the way in this space. And guess who will lead the way for GM? Cadillac. Ford and Lincoln are way behind GM and Cadillac when it comes to EVs.