GM cancels plan for ultra luxurious Cadillac sedan

Though CIEL concept car might never see the light of the day in production but some of its elements could be implmented on future cars.

General Motors has scraped the plans for developing a rear wheel drive range topping flagship model.

Rumors started to gather pace of introducing a flashy flagship model when the eye riveting CIEL concept debuted in 2011 at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. This particular concept was the marquee of the 2003 concept debuted in Detroit Motor Show 'Sixteen Concept' which made it seem like rumors were materializing into reality but this news has put a rest to it.

   

Through these past five years Cadillac researched about the feasibility the product and came to a conclusion that the model had to be launched at a starting price of 100,000 USD which involved high investment and given that the production would be of low volume, the project seemed to be a little far fetched so they have decided to abandon the project.

The company is currently developing a rear wheel drive model to compete with its German nemesis like BMW 7-Series, Audi A8 and Mercedes-Benz S-Class which is expected to be launched in the latter half of 2016 or early 2017. The model will be based on a new platform entitled Omega designed for large, rear-wheel drive models.

Cadillac sells a large sedan, the front-wheel-drive XTS. But the brand wants a large rwd sedan as it continues to position its lineup head-to-head against the German luxury brands.

It is speculated that the new rear wheel drive sedan will replace the XTS model.