Photo: Cadillac
Less than 24 hours after Cadillac took the veils off them, the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing “First Edition” have sold out. 500 units have been reserved by means of $1,000 deposits, which are working out to $500,000 in the bank for the crown jewel of General Motors.
Although sedans are a dying breed and sporty cars are on a downward spiral, the Blackwings' commercial success shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. GM has laid the groundwork to complete electrification, and Cadillac has recently alienated U.S. dealerships over this switch to electric vehicles.
Approximately 150 out of 880 dealers said no to selling EVs such as the Lyriq and Celestiq, and I can’t blame them for that because legacy automakers are living in the shadow of Tesla. Looking at the bigger picture, not even Tesla has proven its business model because Palo Alto made a bigger profit last year from selling regulatory carbon credits instead of all-electric vehicles.
At least in the United States of America, the automotive industry will have to adapt once again after every player embraces the all-electric trend to its full potential. Given these circumstances, the more skeptical among us aren’t impressed by the electrification strategies of the Big Three in Detroit.
There is, however, a second reason as to why Cadillac sold 500 sporty sedans in less than a day. The Blackwing twins are probably the last hurrah of internal combustion for the luxury-oriented brand, and both models are seriously impressive on paper thanks to force-fed V6 and V8 mills.
472 horsepower and 445 pound-feet (603 Nm) of torque put the CT4-V Blackwing above the standard version of the BMW M3, which cranks out 473 horsepower and 406 pound-feet (550 Nm). As for the CT5-V Blackwing, make that 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet (893 Nm) as opposed to 627 horsepower and 553 pound-feet (750 Nm) for the M5 CS.
On an ending note, First Edition models differ in only one way from the bone-stock specification. The only dissimilarity boils down to a steering wheel that features a serialized plaque with a five-digit portion of the VIN sequence.
Approximately 150 out of 880 dealers said no to selling EVs such as the Lyriq and Celestiq, and I can’t blame them for that because legacy automakers are living in the shadow of Tesla. Looking at the bigger picture, not even Tesla has proven its business model because Palo Alto made a bigger profit last year from selling regulatory carbon credits instead of all-electric vehicles.
At least in the United States of America, the automotive industry will have to adapt once again after every player embraces the all-electric trend to its full potential. Given these circumstances, the more skeptical among us aren’t impressed by the electrification strategies of the Big Three in Detroit.
There is, however, a second reason as to why Cadillac sold 500 sporty sedans in less than a day. The Blackwing twins are probably the last hurrah of internal combustion for the luxury-oriented brand, and both models are seriously impressive on paper thanks to force-fed V6 and V8 mills.
472 horsepower and 445 pound-feet (603 Nm) of torque put the CT4-V Blackwing above the standard version of the BMW M3, which cranks out 473 horsepower and 406 pound-feet (550 Nm). As for the CT5-V Blackwing, make that 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet (893 Nm) as opposed to 627 horsepower and 553 pound-feet (750 Nm) for the M5 CS.
On an ending note, First Edition models differ in only one way from the bone-stock specification. The only dissimilarity boils down to a steering wheel that features a serialized plaque with a five-digit portion of the VIN sequence.
Google News