Cadillac CT6
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The Cadillac CT6 (short for ''Cadillac Touring 6'') is a
full-size Full-size car—also known as large car—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than mid-size cars. It is the largest size class for cars. In the United Kingdom, this class is referred to as ...
luxury car A luxury car is a passenger automobile providing superior comfort levels, features, and equipment. More expensive materials and surface finishes are used, and buyers expect a correspondingly high quality (business), build quality. The term is ...
manufactured by
Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...
between 2016 and 2020 over two generations. The first generation CT6 was introduced at the 2015 New York International Auto Show and went on sale in the U.S. in March 2016. It is the first car to adopt the brand's revised naming strategy, as well as the first rear-wheel drive full-size Cadillac sedan since the
Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
was discontinued in 1996. In 2020, the CT6 was discontinued in the United States, to be replaced by the forthcoming Cadillac Celestiq
liftback A liftback is a variation of a hatchback car body style, with a more gently sloping roofline, roughly between 45 and 10 degrees, whereas traditional or archetypal hatchback designs tend to use a 45 degree to near vertical slope on the top-hinged ...
sedan.


First generation (2016)

The first-generation CT6 is built on a different platform than the smaller CTS and is engineered as a rear-wheel drive vehicle with optional all-wheel drive. In addition to its primary markets of North America and China, the CT6 was also offered in Europe, South Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. General Motors discontinued the assembly of the Cadillac CT6 in the US in February 2020 due to poor sales and retooling of the Detroit/Hamtramck facility for electric vehicle production, beginning with the new GMC Hummer EV.


History

The CT6 is longer and wider than the XTS and offers more interior volume. It uses a mix of steel and aluminum, making it lighter than other cars in its size class. It was brought to market initially as an addition to, not a replacement for, the XTS, which has since been discontinued. Cadillac anticipated the CT6 would serve as a temporary flagship for the marque until a larger, more luxurious sedan would be marketed as the CT8. However, the CT8 did not come to fruition, and the CT6 remained the brand's flagship sedan. For the American market, the CT6 was manufactured at GM's Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant. On March 11, 2016, the first CT6 delivery took place, having been delivered to the winner of a 2015 auction for the first CT6 sold. The vehicle sold for $200,000 at the auction. The car was "Platinum" trim level and painted Stellar Black Metallic. The CT6 was offered in four trim levels: standard, Luxury, Premium Luxury, and Platinum. For the 2019 model year, the base (standard) trim was renamed Luxury, and a Sport trim was added, along with the CT6-V. There were nine exterior colors offered for the first year, and nine different interior packages, all featuring leather seats, with two reserved for the Platinum trim. Standard CT6 features include the second generation CUE system, 4G LTE connectivity, and a Bose audio system: base models were equipped with an 8-speaker Bose system, which was upgraded to a Bose Centerpoint 10 speaker system included with the "Luxury" and "Premium Luxury" package, or a 34-speaker Bose Panaray audio system included with the top level "Platinum" package. Cadillac once again offers the Enhanced Night Vision which previously had been discontinued in 2004 with the DeVille. Available equipment includes Adaptive Cruise Control, as well as Magnetic Ride Control coupled with accident avoidance technologies. New with the CT6 is the Rear Camera Mirror, which uses streaming video from a camera that displays within the rear view mirror, which provides an enhanced view without obstructions from the " C-pillar" and passengers sitting in the rear area. The front seats can be adjusted 14 different ways, with an optional 16- or 20-way adjustment package that includes heated and cooled seat with a massage feature for both front and rear passengers. Another option package provides rear seat passengers with retractable 10" LCD screens that rise out from the back of the front seat seatbacks, behind the front seat headrests; these monitors can play
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
content from user-supplied portable devices, and were introduced on the Cadillac Escala concept car. GM's
advanced driver-assistance system Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are technologies that assist drivers with the safe operation of a vehicle. Through a human-machine interface, ADAS increases car and road safety. ADAS uses automated technology, such as sensors and came ...
, branded SuperCruise, was released exclusively with the CT6 in early 2018. Initial reviews of the system were positive. The styling was refreshed in the 2019 model year, with the most visible changes made to the front and rear lamps. In November 2018, GM announced the Hamtramck plant would be retooled for electric vehicle assembly, and production of the CT6 in the United States was discontinued in February 2020, although the model continued to be produced and sold in China by the SAIC-GM joint venture near Shanghai. In March 2020, Cadillac announced a new battery-electric
liftback A liftback is a variation of a hatchback car body style, with a more gently sloping roofline, roughly between 45 and 10 degrees, whereas traditional or archetypal hatchback designs tend to use a 45 degree to near vertical slope on the top-hinged ...
sedan, marketed as the Celestiq, would replace the CT6 as the Cadillac flagship in North America.


Technical specifications


Powertrain

The CT6 was initially available with a choice of three engines, a
4-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engine, Wankel engines are o ...
2.0-liter
turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...
(a first for a full-size Cadillac) and two
V6 engine A V6 engine is a six- cylinder piston engine where the cylinders and cylinder blocks share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, ...
s, a 3.6-liter and a 3.0-liter
twin-turbo Twin-turbo is a type of turbo layout in which two turbochargers are used to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case of a direct-injection engine). The most common layout features two identical or mirrored turbochargers in ...
charged offering and together with
cylinder deactivation Variable displacement is an automobile engine technology that allows the engine displacement to change, usually by deactivating cylinders, for improved fuel economy. The technology is primarily used in large multi-cylinder engines. Many automobil ...
. Four-cylinder models of the CT6 have rear-wheel drive, while six- and eight-cylinder models have all-wheel drive. The version sold in China has RWD with the four-cylinder turbo engine. A
Voltec Voltec, formerly known as E-Flex, is a General Motors powertrain released in November 2010. The Voltec architecture is primarily a Plug-in electric vehicle, plug-in capable, battery-dominant electric vehicle with additional fossil fuel powered Hybr ...
-based hybrid model was added for the 2017 model year, supplementing the 2.0 L ''LTG'' turbo-four with two electric traction motor/generators. It was discontinued after the 2018 model year. The 4.2-liter twin-turbo 'Blackwing'
V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...
was made available for the 2019 and 2020 models making for the CT6-V model and for other models with the Platinum trim. Torque for both engines is respectively. This is the most sophisticated V8 engine ever made by General Motors. It reportedly cost GM about $20,000 each to produce this engine. Production of the 4.2TT Blackwing models were limited with CT6-V totals of 504 (2019) and 411 (2020) while the Platinum totals were 168 (2019) and 117 (2020). Badging for the 2019 and 2020 CT6-V is the stylized Cadillac "V" on the trunk while the Platinum trunk badging is 4.2TT for 2019 models and 800T for 2020 models.


Technology

The CT6 line comes with one of three audio systems designed by
Bose Corporation Bose Corporation () is an American manufacturing company that predominantly sells audio equipment. The company was established by Amar Bose in 1964 and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is best known for its Home audio, home audio syste ...
: an 8-speaker Bose Premium Sound System, a 10-speaker Bose Centerpoint Surround-Sound System, or the top-of-the-line 34-speaker Bose Panaray Surround-Sound System, which processes stereo audio into
Surround Sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to ...
using Bose's automotive sound system technologies, as well as technologies from its Panaray line of professional speakers; typical
Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby li ...
or DTS surround modes are not available. The Panaray name is a
portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
of "panoramic" and "array"; the system consists of 34 speakers mounted in 19 separate locations in the car, including ones mounted in the front seat headrests, as well as a motorized center-channel speaker that rises from the center of the instrument panel. During the development process, one of the prototypes presented by Bose called for 49 speakers. Most of the drivers are less than in diameter; there are four amplifiers, with a combined output of 570 watts. In a review, ''Car and Driver'' called it "powerful and sure to dazzle neophytes" but added it was "lacking in detail and separation compared with the best in-car audio". The CT6 uses a digital display embedded in the interior
rear-view mirror A rear-view mirror (or rearview mirror) is a, usually plane mirror, flat, mirror in automobiles and other vehicles, designed to allow the driver to see rearward through the vehicle's rear window (rear windshield). In cars, the rear-view mirror ...
showing output from the rear-view camera, which allows the driver to easily see what is behind them. This is the first vehicle to offer a rear-view camera display over the entire rear-view mirror surface. It has a resolution of 1280 × 240, and was developed in partnership with Gentex Corporation. Starting in 2017, GM Super Cruise became available for semi-autonomous highway driving. It is part of a US$5,000 option package on CT6's Premium Luxury model and is standard on the top-of-the-line Platinum. Super Cruise sensors include an array of exterior cameras to detect lane markings and provide a 360-degree view of the vehicle's surroundings, a high-accuracy
global positioning system The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...
receiver, and a driver-facing camera with infrared emitters to monitor driver engagement. The system was designed to operate in a
geofence A geofence is a virtual "perimeter" or "fence" around a given geographic feature. A geofence can be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood b ...
d area, which initially consisted of of
limited-access road A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, partial controlled-access highway, and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a contro ...
s that Ushr, Inc. had mapped for GM with
LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...
. To engage Super Cruise, the driver must first engage the Adaptive Cruise Control system in the CT6. Once the system has satisfied the prerequisites (visible lane markings, driver paying sufficient attention, driving on a limited-access freeway, no system faults), a white steering wheel icon will illuminate in the upper right corner of the speedometer display to alert the driver that Super Cruise is available. If the Teen Driver mode is active or Forward Automatic Braking is off, Super Cruise is not available. Engaging the Super Cruise button will turn that icon green, indicating that Super Cruise is active. In addition, the "steering wheel light bar" on the upper rim of the steering wheel will illuminate in green. If the light bar and speedometer indicator is blue, that indicates the system has detected manual steering. These also are used to alert the driver when the system decides the driver is not paying attention: first flashing the light bar in green as a first warning, then progressing to flashing red and changing the dashboard indicator to red for the second and third warnings when the driver needs to take control immediately.


Models


CT6 PHEV

A
plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...
variant, the CT6 PHEV, debuted at the 2015
Shanghai Auto Show Auto Shanghai (), officially known as the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (), is a biennial Auto show, international automobile show that alternates with the Auto China, Beijing Auto Show (Auto China) as China's yearly int ...
. The plug-in hybrid uses a variant of the GM Voltec powertrain derived from the Chevrolet Volt (second generation). In the CT6 PHEV, the powertrain combines a , 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder direct injected gasoline engine with an electric continuously-variable transmission incorporating a dual electric motor hybrid design, and a liquid cooled 18.4 kWh
lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...
pack, which is integrated into a space behind the rear seat, reducing the trunk cargo volume from . Total combined power is and torque is . The CT6 PHEV is the first Cadillac product for the U.S. market to have its final assembly point in China. One of the motors (M/G B) is assembled at Baltimore Transmission, while the battery pack is assembled in Brownstown, Michigan using cells manufactured by
LG Chem LG Chem Ltd. ( Korean: LG화학), often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was the 9th largest chemical company in the world by sales in 2021. It was first established ...
in
Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa and Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located in the West Michigan, western region of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula, the city is si ...
; the powertrain is shipped from the United States to Jinqiao, China, where final assembly is performed by SAIC-GM. It was released in the Chinese market in December 2016. Pricing in China started at (~), with a higher trim at (~ ) before any applicable government incentives. The CT6 PHEV went on sale in the U.S. in March 2017 with equipment similar to the Premium Luxury trim level, including the upgraded 12-inch digital gauge display, head-up display, rear camera display embedded in the rear view mirror, and moonroof; relatively few options were available. The base price was including destination charges, before applicable government incentives. For 2017, Cadillac offered the CT6 PHEV in a choice of five exterior colors, one of which ("Deep Amethyst Metallic") was exclusive to the PHEV, and one of up to three interior colors, depending on the exterior color choice. One more exterior color ("Cocoa Bronze Metallic") was added for the 2018 model year. The CT6 PHEV has an EPA fuel economy rating of 62 MPGe (54 kWh per 100 miles) combined while running on full electric power, or 25 MPG combined in hybrid mode. The EPA-certified electric range is , while the total range of both the gasoline engine and hybrid electric motor combined is over . While driving at a steady , ''
Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published in 1955. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Fi ...
'' observed fuel economy of in EV mode and in hybrid, with corresponding ranges of , respectively. According to Cadillac, estimated charging times range from 4.5 hours (using 240 VAC at 16 A) to 20 hours (using a standard household outlet, 120 VAC at 8 A).


CT6-V

Introduced as a high-performance version of the CT6, the CT6-V (formerly known as the V-Sport) was first revealed at the 2018 New York Auto Show. Powertrain improvements over the regular CT6 include a newly developed DOHC twin-turbocharged, hot vee V8, code-named Blackwing, which produces at 5,700 rpm and of torque between 3,200 rpm and 4,000 rpm. This engine has an bore and stroke with a compression ratio of 9.8:1. In order to withstand the stress of a high-performance engine and reduce internal friction, Cadillac has used forged steel connecting rods and a special coating for piston pins. To improve efficiency, Cadillac employed cylinder deactivation on cylinders 2, 3, 5, and 8 while variable timing was used on all four camshafts (which can adjust 55 degrees on the exhaust and 70 degrees on the intake). When the engine is off, the intake cams are parked in the middle of their travel, preventing exhaust/intake valve overlap to allow for easier starting and smoother initial idle. Fuel is injected directly into the cylinder at over of pressure. Cast stainless steel exhaust manifolds incorporate the housing within the engine bank for the twin-scroll
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the prede ...
turbochargers, mounted between cylinder banks in a hot vee configuration, to allow for better response. Titanium aluminide turbine wheels spin up to 190,000 rpm, producing peak boost of which is relieved by electric wastegates. The intercooler is mounted just above each cylinder head, which reduces the charge air temperature by approximately before reaching the engine intake. The engines were hand-assembled and personally signed at the Bowling Green plant in Kentucky where each Chevrolet Corvette is also assembled. The engines are mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission, which uses Performance Algorithm Shift programming to achieve the ideal shifting patterns. The CT6-V also features an AWD system with optimized transfer case, rear steering, and mechanical Limited Slip Differential (LSD). The AWD system will adjust according to the three different driving modes available. The standard torque bias remains 40:60 front to rear, but will adjust to a torque split of 10:90 for optimized track performance with minimum understeer. Furthermore, the front end and rear end are redesigned; the front features a new hood, headlamps, and grille while the rear features a new deck lid and tail lamps. The chassis is recalibrated with specific stabilizer bars, springs, and Magnetic Ride dampers.


Second generation (2023)

Photographs and details of an updated second-generation CT6 were leaked in November 2022; it has similar dimensions and the same wheelbase as the first-generation CT6. The second generation CT6 made its public debut on May 28, 2023, and is now exclusively sold in China, and went on sale at the end of Q2 2023. Despite being a new generation, the second iteration of the CT6 takes design cues from the previous model. With a new interior, adding new technology, it is an improvement in technology, and has been modernized significantly. The second-generation CT6 carries over multiple compartments from the previous generation such as, gearbox, size, design cues and platform.


Powertrain


Equipment

With the technology upgrade, the CT6 receives a 33-inch infotainment screen along with Super Cruise, Magnetic Ride Control 4.0, and a digital rear view mirror.


Reception

The car was chosen as one of the Top 10 Tech Cars by the
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...
in 2018.


Sales


See also

* Electric car use by country * List of modern production plug-in electric vehicles *
Plug-in electric vehicle A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any road vehicle that can utilize an external source of electricity (such as a wall socket that connects to the power grid) via an detachable power cable to store electrical energy within its onboard rechar ...


References


External links

* (archived)
Official website (China)
{{Cadillac CT6 Flagship vehicles Cars introduced in 2016 Plug-in hybrid vehicles Sedans Full-size vehicles Limousines Rear-wheel-drive vehicles All-wheel-drive vehicles