QOTD: Can the Cadillac Celestiq Compete?
The official Cadillac Celestiq pricing is out, and the car will start at around $340,000.
That pricing puts the car in Bentley and Rolls-Royce territory. And like with cars from those brands, the Celestiq will offer a high level of personalization. That is, in fact, a big part of why the price will be so high.
Because the cars will be so personalized, the production rate will be a glacial 1.2 cars per day. Which adds up to fewer than 500 annual units.
GM/Cadillac is saying that demand is high enough that anyone who has yet to reserve a car will be waiting for quite some time before their vehicle is delivered.
That may be true, but we still have to ask -- can this car compete?
"Compete" is used loosely at this price point -- this ain't like a Mustang/Camaro pony-car pissing contest. With so few units being built, Cadillac probably isn't worried about outselling the Bentley or Roller which will be considered the closest competitor. Some might argue that the Celestiq doesn't even need to "compete" -- if Caddy sells the planned allotment, that's enough.
Of course, that might be good enough for the first year, but what about the future?
The counter-argument, or at least the argument I am working up for the purposes of this QOTD -- is that Cadillac hasn't sold a vehicle at that price for so long that buyers may shun it. At this price point, your typical buyer is likely a celebrity or CEO, and if these folks can't be moved away from Bentley and Rolls-Royce, that could be a problem for Cadillac.
Or not. As stated, volume matters little, if at all, at this price. So, again, selling the planned allotment may be enough.
Yes, it's a slow news day and thus there are slim pickings for a QOTD.
Anyway, sound off below.
[Image: Cadillac]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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So, no, this car won't "compete." It will create a new market, a demographic known as "we have so much money that we would have to buy 10 Caddilacs to show how rich we are, but now they have this one so I can just buy one, because I've always wanted a Caddy but they never made one expensive enough to justify my ownership."
The people who will purchase this thing are people nostalgic for the brand, but have way too much money to be caught driving a current model. They may in fact hit 500, but this thing won't generate allocation frenzy like any other car that sells for this price...there are so many "real" EV offerings from legacy lux manufacturers that this could only appeal to "Cadillac people."
Uh, it could go Max-Pimp and truly be worth the price. Escalades appeal to my very bad side.