In a race for all-out electrification, there is a strong tendency to want to replace the internal combustion engines of certain legendary models with electric powertrains. Some manufacturers such as Ford with its F150 Lightning or GMC with the Hummer EV and Sierra EV Denali have — cheerfully — taken the plunge.
The General Motors (GM) group, which owns the Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands, has decided to tackle two monsters of American automobile production. Indeed, according to the Car and Driver site, GM plans to electrify the muscle car Camaro, signed Chevrolet, and the SUV XXL Cadillac Escalade. Even more, the idea would be to use its high value-added models and make them fully-fledged sub-brands, completely geared towards electrics.
GM is not at its first attempt since the Chevrolet Corvette is being transformed into a “Corvette” brand which would offer models (SUV) far removed from the original sporting universe. Thus, the new Camaro sub-brand should include “a coupé model, a 2+2-seater convertible, a resolutely sporty two- and four-door crossover as well as an accessible sports car with certain interior aspects of the Corvette C9”.
In the case of the Escalade, the leaders of GM were, at the start, rather on a strategy of “reinventing the Cadillac brand”, teaches us Car and Driver. Eventually General Motors came along “concluding that it made more sense to use the Escalade — the quintessential Cadillac — as an anchor for the second Corvette-style sub-brand (…)”.
Car and Driver imagines a smaller version of the Escalade would make sense “in the form of a seven-seater crossover, in line with Porsche’s three-row SUV, codenamed K1”. Also mentioned are an all-terrain Escalade and a high-end minivan. Remember that, in the SUV range from Cadillac, the 100% electric Lyriq should arrive soon.
Not sure that Camaro and Escalade aficionados see this electrification in a good light, and especially that these two icons are becoming somewhat catch-all sub-brands. We remember that Ford had to face an outcry regarding the choice of name for its Mustang Mach-E. Added to this are production problems for all brands of the General Motors group due to a supply chain problem and an acceleration in the production of new iconic electric vehicles. Consequently, the objective of delivering some 400,000 electric vehicles in North America by 2023 is not likely to be achieved, due to a lack of sufficient stocks.
In March 2020, General Motors announced its intention to produce 22 different models of electric vehicles by 2023, including 10 by 2021.