• Cadillac’s best-selling model globally in 2023 was not an SUV. It was the CT5 sedan.
These days, the top of automaker’s sales results are the exclusive domain of pickups or SUVs.
However, that wasn’t the case at Cadillac in 2023. The luxury brand’s top-selling model worldwide was… the CT5 sedan.
The CT5 benefited from an upgrade last year, which surely boosted its sales. But still, it’s a surprise.
And which markets enabled the model to achieve such results? You've hit the nail on the head if you've identified the U.S. and China.
Cadillac Global VP John Roth recently emphasized at a press conference that the CT5 rose to the top thanks to good results across the globe. And the vehicle's success is not attributable to declining sales of other models. Cadillac's sales were up by almost 9 percent in 2023 in the U.S.
Roth did take pains to mention that the CT5's success wasn’t due solely to Chinese consumers' interest in sedans. Cadillac does not publish global sales results by market, but it did confirm that China was the biggest market for the CT5 in 2023. In North America, the car accounted for 20 percent of the brand's sales, which is still pretty high.
This comes in an interesting context, that of many automakers abandoning sedans in the past few years.
In the U.S., deliveries of the car rose by around 17 percent in 2023 to 18,593 units. Only the Lyriq electric SUV saw greater growth last year. As for the company's other sedan, the CT4, results were down 1.4 percent last year, to 9,144 units. This is nothing dramatic, but the model's performance will be something to watch in 2024.