Cadillac’s Diesel Program Comes to a Halt

Electrification trend in the auto world has forced some car makers to rearrange their plans to keep up with global technological developments. One of those automakers is Cadillac, which – according to Automotive News – has announced a halt to its turbodiesel development in favor of electrification.

Diesel has been Cadillac’s focus for some time, but the company didn’t expect the market trends to change faster than the progress it made. Tending to move forward, the automaker has to make a strategic choice that will benefit it in the long term.

Cadillac’s previous program was to strengthen sales in the US and European markets with some turbodiesel models. For years the company has planned this. Unfortunately, there’s no chance to put the plan into action.

At least two major obstacles have got in the way of Cadillac’s turbodiesel program, one which is Volkswagen’s diesel scandal in 2015, which got Cadillac caught off-guard. The scandal is having such a huge impact that many customers everywhere today have a bad taste of diesels and even start switching to gasoline engines or electrified models. Not only that, it also caused production costs to increase and certification process to become more difficult in the US.

That was the first stumbling block, the second one was the separation from diesel development partner, Opel, due to the parent General Motors selling it to Peugeot in 2017. Remained persistent, however, Cadillac continued the diesel development by itself until recently.

Just like BMW, for Cadillac to revive its diesel project – which is now half dead, it has to wait until the customer’s demands rise again, or else a newly launched diesel model won’t be a product of interest at all in the market.