Apparently, Cadillac, the luxury brand division of Ford, is planning to release a flagship luxury saloon/sedan that will cost an eye-watering $200,000. Yes, that’s in dollars and not in fake Bitcoin. It will be based on the 2016 Escala concept. But here’s the problem, SUVs and pickup trucks are eating into sedan/saloon sales across the globe. As an example, in America, SUVs and pickups grabbed 70 percent of the auto market share in 2019. So why isn’t Cadillac developing a $200k SUV/Pickup? That is the real unanswerable question.
Nevertheless, Cadillac has outlined what their new ultra-luxury vehicle will be. It will be hand-built and sold in hundreds of units per year. And it will also be a fully electric vehicle. Ultra-luxurious of course. Cadillac is hinting at an all-electric 200kWh powerplant with a 400-mile range. None of that hybrid nonsense at this price point.
So who will buy this ultra-luxury Cadillac EV? Cadillac’s main markets are the USA, Canada, and China. In America alone there 18.1 million millionaires with a net worth of $1m and above. But the real target audience for a car costing $200k is the UHNW group.
UHNW – Ultra High Net Worth – denotes an individual who has $30m or more in the bank. The United States is home to 69,560 ultra-high net worth (UNHW) individuals worth at least US$30 million, equivalent to a third of the global UHNW population.
So clearly Cadillac has a target group. But they also have one big-massive problem. Rolls Royce. How do you tempt these UHNWs away from what is considered to be untouchable, peerless ultra-luxury, that is the real question.
But not for this journalist, I can barely even afford my monthly rent.