Cadillac CT5 to get Super Cruise in 2020

As Cadillac revamps its lineup, it's betting that not everyone wants a crossover.

The luxury brand is investing in sedans at a time when many rivals are putting model redesigns on the back burner — or dropping them altogether. The latest example: the compact CT5, a 2020 model Cadillac will use to expand its Super Cruise hands-free driver-assistance technology.

Cadillac unveiled the car online last month but planned the formal reveal ahead of press days at the 2019 New York auto show. With the CT5, upcoming CT4 and the CT6, Cadillac is reducing its sedan lineup from four to three, with the XTS and CTS slated to be dropped. The Cadillac ATS was discontinued last year.

The CT5, available this fall, sits on a rear-wheel-drive architecture and comes with a standard 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine or optional 3.0-litre, twin-turbo V-6 engine, both mated to a 10-speed transmission. The exterior features a fastback design inspired by the brand's Escala concept car.

Cadillac President Steve Carlisle, a Canadian who used to lead GM Canada, in a statement, said the sedan is meant to "elevate every drive and reward the senses."

The CT5 is the second Cadillac after the flagship CT6 to feature the company's Super Cruise system. The driver-assist feature won't be available when the car launches but will be added in the 2020 calendar year, officials said.

Cadillac is working to expand Super Cruise to all of General Motors' vehicles in the U.S., GM President Mark Reuss has said. The system operates through precision lidar mapping, high precision GPS, a driver attention system and a network of camera and radar sensors.

Standard driver-assist features on the CT5 include a window forward collision alert, forward pedestrian detection and low-speed forward automatic braking. Optional features include adaptive cruise control, a rear camera mirror, automatic parking assist and front and rear automatic braking.

The interior features a 10-inch-diagonal touch screen, as well as a rotary controller.

The CT5's standard 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine will get an estimated 237 hp and 558 pound-feet of torque, Cadillac said. The 3.0-litre V-6 engine, available on Premium Luxury and Sport models, gets an estimated 335 hp and 400 pound-feet of torque.

The sedan's exterior features a new Cadillac badging convention that identifies powertrains based on their torque rating in newton-meters.

The car will come in three trims: Luxury, Premium Luxury and Sport.

Officials did not discuss pricing.

Ahead of the car's online reveal last month, Andrew Smith, Cadillac's executive director of global design, declared that "boring sedans are dead."

Despite that sentiment, some analysts are skeptical.

"Cadillac's big problem right now is that it's building vehicles that are competitive when it needs to be designing showstoppers," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis at Edmunds. "If Cadillac is going to attract new buyers, it desperately needs to inject some passion and excitement back into the brand. The CT5 is good for what it is, but unfortunately it's not likely to move Cadillac's sales in any meaningful way."

Cadillac's total Canadian sales are up 27 per cent through the first three months of 2019. However, car sales are down 25 per cent to just 533 units while truck sales are up 49 per cent to 2,547 units, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

Cadillac's U.S. sales dropped two per cent in the first quarter, with car volume plunging nearly 36 per cent.

The brand, under Carlisle, is in the midst of a product overhaul that includes the introduction of a new or redesigned vehicle every six months, on average, through 2021.