Chevy Camaro and Cadillac Escalade reportedly becoming sub-brands
To the surprise of no one, there are some strong opinions about GM’s rumored plan to turn the Chevrolet Corvette into a sub-brand with an electric four-door and an electric SUV around 2025. Georg Kacher’s GM source apparently had more to say about family trees getting more branches, so here’s part two from Car and Driver: The Chevrolet Camaro and Cadillac Escalade are supposedly being primed for the same treatment.
The Camaro news isn’t the bombshell here. There have been rumors for years that 2024 will see the Camaro’s current incarnation into retirement, twinned with the rumor that GM was prepping something like an electric sedan to keep the name alive. The C/D piece says GM sees a viable model-based brand as able to support three vehicles. In the Camaro’s case, we’re told that could be a “fully electric 2+2 seater coupe and convertible,” plus a “sporty crossover” and a “mid-price flagship sports car loosely linked to the C9 Corvette in content but not appearance.”
The first sounds like an electric version of today’s Camaro. The second sounds like a Camaro that does to the Blazer what the Blazer did to the Camaro. The third sounds like what a Pontiac would have been if Pontiac still existed, distinguishing itself from top-tier versions of the 2+2 coupe and convertible by having only two seats. The previous Camaro rumors have always posited a purely electric reboot, but Kacher’s report doesn’t mention powertrain possibilities.
The Escalade is the unexpected one, despite how long everyone has considered Escalade its own brand akin to the way everyone considers Range Rover its own brand. As Cadillac’s begins its pure-electric reinvention, it’s alleged GM saw the Escalade on its own as having the strength and legs to go global as a brand. It’s said the ‘Slade could branch into a smaller seven-seat crossover destined for the U.S. and China, a challenger to Porsche’s planned SUV above the Cayenne; a luxury minivan for the Chinese market that’s currently going gaga over fancy kid buses; and a “more carlike modern-luxury segment-fusing all-terrain Escalade.”
Parsing every word of that last theoretical vehicle gets us to carlike luxury all-terrain crossover. Is that something between an Audi RS6 Avant and a BMW X6? Is it a luxxed-up Lyriq with a lift and mud terrains? Or is it GM’s version of Land Rover’s mythical Road Rover? There were no dates offered for product arrivals this time, so we’ll have to wait and see the splits of all these pieces of all these pies. As long as no one’s talking about an Escalade pickup, no need to ring alarms. Yet.
