General Motors at BofA Securities Automotive Summit: Cadillac’s Strategic Revival

On Tuesday, 15 April 2025, General Motors (NYSE: GM) presented its strategic vision for Cadillac at the BofA Securities Automotive Summit. The company highlighted Cadillac’s resurgence as a luxury icon, driven by strong sales growth and a robust electric vehicle strategy. However, challenges remain as the brand seeks to balance its product portfolio and maintain its market position.

Key Takeaways

• Cadillac’s market share increased to 8.1%, making it the fourth-largest luxury brand.
• Q1 sales surged by 21%, marking the best retail performance since 2008.
• EVs accounted for nearly 23% of Cadillac’s Q1 business, with a 26% increase in EV sales.
• Cadillac’s global sales are projected to grow by 36% in 2025, with EVs comprising 16% of the volume.
• The brand’s partnership with F1 aims to enhance global brand awareness and technological innovation.

Financial Results

Cadillac has achieved significant financial milestones, with an 8.1% market share positioning it as the fourth-largest luxury brand. The first quarter of 2025 saw a 21% increase in sales, marking the best retail performance since February 2008. Electric vehicles played a crucial role, contributing to nearly 23% of the business, and EV sales rose by 26%. The average transaction price for Cadillac vehicles stands at $77,900.

Operational Updates

Cadillac is reinforcing its position as General Motors’ innovation brand, leading the charge in electric vehicle development and technology. The implementation of a dealer retail platform aims to provide a consistent and transparent customer experience. Additionally, Cadillac is strengthening its after-sales service to enhance customer loyalty and protect residual values. The F1 partnership is expected to drive global brand awareness, with a notable increase in social media engagement following the announcement.

Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Cadillac aims to expand its global presence and capture additional market share in various regions. The brand is committed to meeting customer demand while maintaining brand value through a balanced supply strategy. Leveraging its F1 partnership, Cadillac seeks to enhance its brand image and drive technological innovation.

Q&A Highlights

Cadillac’s electric vehicle strategy focuses on great design, range, and price value to attract new customers and drive sales. The Lyriq’s conquest rate is at 76%, with over 50% representing new customers to GM. European sales saw a significant increase of over 200% in the first quarter. Additionally, the age demographic of Cadillac customers has shifted from 58 to 54-56 years.

For a more detailed understanding of Cadillac’s strategy and performance, refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - BofA Securities Automotive Summit:

Unidentified speaker: Thanks everybody for getting settled in on a timely fashion. We appreciate that. Next up, have John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac at General Motors. I think from our perspective, GM is arguably one of the companies that’s sort of at the leading tip of the spear in the industry transformation with its EV efforts, AV efforts, OnStar insurance efforts, and other sort of verticals within the the industry. We think they’re really playing way ahead of the the curve versus a lot of the rest of the industry.

And one of the hidden gems and not so hidden gems, but one of the the real gems is Cadillac that we don’t think gets, you know, enough airtime, and there’s huge opportunity. John has been head of Global Cadillac since June of twenty twenty three, has been in the industry for, I’ll just say, a few few decades, a little little little a little over thirty years. So he’s, you know, battle tested. He’s now leading the charge Cadillac. And, you know, as I mentioned, I mean, the product portfolio is great.

It’s growing. There’s more and more product coming. So to really hear about the the real opportunity for for Cadillac, we have John Roth, and I’ll turn it over to John to give his his his opening remarks before we we grill him.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Okay. John, kick you over. Sounds good. Yeah. So appreciate being with all of you today.

I’m gonna stand up here and grab the clicker, but we’ve heard a lot about all the headwinds in the industry. So I’m gonna ask you to pause that headwind conversation just for a little bit today. And let’s talk a little bit about the tailwinds that are happening with the Cadillac brand. And, you know, it starts with outstanding vehicles like with the one you see here on the screen. But the journey of Cadillac is actually goes all the way back to ’15 when the original vision plan was written around Cadillac.

And we asked ourselves back in that time, the leadership team got together and really sat down and had a heart to heart around, if you asked yourself, what would be missing from the world if Cadillac ceased to exist in the industry? And the simple answer that came back is an American icon, a symbol of what America stands for would disappear from the landscape and really disappear from what our customer bases are truly authentic and genuine vehicles in the marketplace with just a storied history to build upon. As you look on the screen here, you’ll see over time, we have been building this energy, building this momentum and really putting the foundational building blocks that will showcase in the results that I’m gonna share with you just here in a few minutes. It really comes down to building momentum, building a great customer experience and really investing in innovation and technology. Cadillac is really at its best within the General Motors portfolio when we’re investing in innovation and Cadillac is leading the charge for General Motors overall.

So this is our roadmap. There’s been many leaders through GM and Cadillac through time, but the roadmap really hasn’t changed a whole lot. We’ve pivoted as the customers’ needs have pivoted, but we have really tried to stay true to this strategy. And you’ll see here that it’s working. And that top line message never really holds more true to what Cadillac stands for in the marketplace than taking a vehicle like Lyriq that we did this past year and going into Germany’s backyard and winning car of the year by 40 German journalists in that marketplace.

That speaks volumes to what that vehicle delivered and what the whole portfolio of Cadillac is delivering. We have the best portfolio I’ve ever seen in my thirty plus years with General Motors. And you see it in our leading design, leading interiors. When you get into a Cadillac now versus maybe what you perceive a Cadillac to be, you will be wowed by that vehicle. And that’s what the customers are telling us.

That roadmap that I showed you at the beginning is truly working in the marketplace. And it’s showing up in our Cadillac standards as well. Number three in an industry of thirty, forty makes in the marketplace. We’re number three in after sales service business with the customer base. On the other side of the chart, you look at the service side, or excuse me, the sales side, we’re number eight.

But even more importantly, what do our dealer partners, and many of them you’ll hear from or maybe are in this room today, what do the dealers say about the value of the franchise? And we’re in that number eleventh position and continue to grow in NADA’s annual survey. So there’s a continued momentum in building. We talk about Cadillac being the standard of the world. Every day that standard never has a finish line.

We keep moving that finish line, keep raising the bar on what the brand needs to stand for in the marketplace and keep growing and evolving the brand on a forward looking basis. And you see it here in our sales results over the last ten years. We’ve been hovering right around that 7%, seven point five % market share. And just this quarter and over the last eleven quarters, we have seen foundational growth in the Cadillac brand, achieving an 8.1% market share and really pushing us into the number four position in luxury overall. Lots of conversation around EVs, bevs, what’s happening in the marketplace.

What I’m here to tell you is when you build the right formula around your EVs, they sell. We are selling regardless of propulsion, really strong Cadillacs in the marketplace. And when you look at a nearly 23% or almost a quarter of our business in Q1 being EVs, that demonstrates to you that with the right formula, an EV will be sought out by the customer base and will be purchased by that customer. You see the industry numbers here running at about 14% for luxury. When we strip out Tesla Model S and X, could argue whether they’re luxury or not.

When you strip those out, you really see the strength of the Cadillac brand in the marketplace, having that luxury of choice of both an ICE portfolio as well as an EV portfolio. And our Q1 results speak volumes to what’s going on. 21% increase, best retail since 02/2008, record market share for us, record ATPs for us, low inventory, day supply, the second lowest incentive spend in the marketplace. That’s building brand health. That’s building brand value.

And we’re setting records with our franchise player with a vehicle I’m sure you all know, which is the Cadillac Escalade, which really over the last twenty years has truly helped as a halo and an advanced vehicle to demonstrate what Cadillac is capable of doing. And just round it out, our EV sales are up 26%. So while the industry may be having some starts and stops, as you heard earlier, Cadillac continues to grow. Again, reinforcing with all of you, we are selling really great EVs in the marketplace. Globally, I know we’re interested.

This is a global brand. We are in 10 markets around the globe. And as you can see, great performance, not just in The US, not just in North America, but Cadillac is growing and expanding around the world. And great stats, best Escalade year ever in The Middle East. China is flat overall, but XT5, our new mid cycle enhanced vehicle in that market, gaining market share, penetrating the segment and really doing well in that marketplace.

And I had the honor and privilege to both introduce our right hand drive offerings, in Japan and in Australia and New Zealand. That truly tells you that you are a global brand when you offer factory built right hand drive from an offering standpoint in the marketplace. So globally, 294,000 units sold in 2024. We see great growth opportunity here in ’twenty five. We are up 36%.

EVs amounted to about 16% of that overall volume. And again, having the right product in the right segments really makes a difference. And we see great opportunity with a vehicle like Optic as we go forward. One last item I want to cover with you because I know I get this question everywhere I go. F1, what’s happening with F1?

I would tell you this is an excellent platform for Cadillac to continue its global expansion. In just the March 7 announcement alone, we added three and forty two thousand new customers just to our Instagram base. Individuals looking for F1, looking for Cadillac, and really reading the Cadillac brand for the first time on a global stage. I was down in Dallas this past week with some of our dealer partners. They are seeing customers who would never have knocked on our door before saying, hey, I saw Cadillac’s a part of F1.

I wanna be part of that journey. Show me the brand portfolio. It is building momentum. Yes, we race to win, but we also race to learn. We race to grow and we race to grow the customer base that’s in the marketplace.

So I’ll finish here. This is our new marketing campaign. It’s really a simplistic message, but it speaks volumes to what Cadillac is doing in the marketplace. Let’s all take the Cadillac. Alright?

So a little bit of Q and A? Awesome. That was a

Unidentified speaker: great great start. I appreciate it.

Unidentified speaker: Most good.

Unidentified speaker: So I guess maybe to to to kick off, we have a whole bunch of questions here we wanna get through. Sure. You know, as you look at sort of the EV strategy at GM, there has been sort of a a sort of a focus on on making Cadillac sort of the the tip of the spear in in some ways for that. You know, one, maybe you can explain why that decision has been made. And, you know, two, you know, how how true is that go going forward?

Because there you know, there’s certainly some opportunity on the ice side for you as well.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. The as I demonstrated in the business and spoke to, there’s there’s a formula here that really sells good EVs and good Cadillacs. And it’s really three things, great design, great range and great price value equation. When you hit those three elements right, and we’ve seen from our competitors out there that they didn’t necessarily hit the mark, you’re able to grow and have a quarter of your business be EVs. Cadillac’s position within General Motors has always been the innovation brand.

We go first. We plow the road for others within the organization to follow. And so that innovation story, that technology story, hearkening back to our heritage, our early days, first electric start, first four headlights on a vehicle, first shatterproof glass, all those firsts come to Cadillac. And there’s just, if you look online and the story of Cadillac, you’re gonna just see a laundry list of innovation and first for the auto industry in its entirety. That’s Cadillac’s role in the portfolio and it’s attracting new customers.

Our conquest rate with Lyric is 76%. And true conquest, not new to GM, but true conquest is over 50%. So you can think about all the different EV customers that are out there that are coming to Cadillac. We’re seeing a younger, more affluent buyer and an opportunity to really showcase what these next generation of Cadillacs that were really designed from the ground up to be truly Cadillacs.

Unidentified speaker: So when you when you when you think about sort of the the long the long term strategy here, it seems like there’s a tremendous opportunity maybe outside of the heart or heartlands, both one and the same for GM. So you think about sort of where the sort of the mix of sales might come from, where they may ultimately go and any maybe other notable objectives. Are are I mean, where are you where are you taking this? I mean, 294,000 units is is great, but it sounds like given the product portfolio and the, you know, the addition, maybe not exclusive of EVs, but the addition of EVs to, you know, portfolio may allow you to grow on the coasts and and and Europe and maybe even China faster than you would have otherwise. So how do you how do you kinda think about, you know, where where you’re going, what the objectives are, and how this this powertrain strategy might be a real boon Yeah.

In in a big way to Cadillac.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. So the EV portfolio, as you saw in the in the graph, has actually really truly been additive. It’s bringing those new customers to the brand. As you finish out calendar year 2024, we were the number one selling EV model in the marketplace. As you go into Q1 of this year, ’40 ’8 states had year over year increases out of the 50, and the only two, Alaska and Hawaii, really, really low base, missed by one unit.

So I’m, you know, you can argue across the board, we have seen really great growth, But even in Europe, we’re up over 200% in our Q1 sales numbers. And so when you look at the brand holistically, it’s sending a message to the marketplace. It is a growth brand. We’re up 22%, in The US. Canada is coming off five years of year over year, every year growth.

So everywhere we go, when we bring this product portfolio to the marketplace, it makes a statement, it renews people’s interest in the Cadillac brand and really helps them understand that innovation lens, the where we’re headed with these kinds of models are making a big difference in General Motors overall profitability. I often talk to the team scarcity sells luxury. That’s true no matter what the luxury good is. And so there’s a balancing act around having the right vision for the sales targets that maybe aren’t too tall, but aren’t too short as well. Finding that sweet spot in the marketplace where you can occupy and have the proper throughput in your manufacturing footprint, in your dealer footprint, how you operate around the globe really puts Cadillac in a great position to take on the marketplace and really showcase the pinnacle of what General Motors can engineer, manufacture, and design.

Unidentified speaker: So, motors, right, where have been a a a major, technology that you guys have has have really kind of led the charge on. I mean, think it was the North Star for for a while. It’s a Blackwing, you know, now current currently, which, I mean, if you haven’t driven one of those, you know, those vehicles with the Blackwings in them, you you really should. You know, as as you think about this, it’s kind of a a story that, you know, the Cadillac, Mico, all EVs, you know, for a while. But there’s this incredible, you know, story, at least in my opinion, on the on the on the I side and and the powertrain tech there that you guys bring to the table.

You know, how does that fit into the the portfolio over time? I hope maybe, hopefully, you can make a little bit news and say that’s not gonna go away ever. Maybe maybe not, you know, today. But, I mean, that’s really really, really great product. Do you think that is going to stay as part of the portfolio, particularly the way that kind of the winds are shifting at the moment?

How you think about that?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. I guess it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to any kind of predictions, right? But what I can tell you is we will always meet the customer where they are. And that’s an important piece of what Cadillac is working to do. We work within the guidelines of whatever administration is in office, the regulations we will always meet, but we will deliver to the marketplace really great Cadillacs in the form of the V story, the Blackwing story is twenty years in the making.

These vehicles, if you get behind the wheel, you will never have a on street track experience like you would with a CT5 Blackwing. Six sixty eight horsepower if you start it up or start up an Escalade V, if anybody has neighbors, you will wake the neighborhood. They just have an amazing presence and sound around them. We are also complementing the portfolio with really strong EVs that are doing the same. And so we just announced Lyriq V, I’m driving one of those right now, zero to 60 in three point three seconds.

It doesn’t get much more quick than that. It’s actually the quickest Cadillac we’ve ever designed from a vehicle standpoint. So it’s not just about horsepower or zero to 60 speeds. It’s about the whole design, ride and handling, engineering, customer enjoyment piece of driving a Cadillac. We often talk about that owning a Cadillac is really a sense of an occasion.

Usually you’re buying one to mark a milestone in your life or an achievement that you have. So these vehicles have to be every bit as expressive as the customers really as iconic as the customers who drive them. And so it’s a great opportunity to have a holistic portfolio, like what I showed a full lineup of EVs and a full lineup of ICE that really complement where customers are today and where they’re going in the future.

Unidentified speaker: I was going to maybe dive into the relationship you have with dealers and the software that’s enabling GM and Cadillac to more directly interact with customers. And just kind of expand on that a little bit.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. So first, I’ve been calling on dealers my entire career. They are a competitive strength in the marketplace. They are the frontline with our customers each and every day. They give back tremendous amount of money to their communities in which they live and work.

They sponsor everything from the little league to the hospital and everything in between. Just being with them this past week in Dallas, re subscribed to me that notion, that idea of how important their role is in our organization. And so we have to give them the tools, the advancement, the look forward approach. And so we’ve developed over the last couple of years, what we call the dealer retail platform or DRP. And all the Cadillac dealers are on that platform.

It starts at our tier one level where consumers are shopping, maybe exploring for the first time the Cadillac models so they get a very consistent experience. And then that transcends down into the tier three space as you kind of fine tune your shopping needs, what’s on your consideration list from an opportunity standpoint. And they just, they get a real quality, transparent, excellent experience around the customer experience. And as you look at that journey map that I showed, that is one of our key pillars is making sure when you’re conquesting at a 76% rate with a vehicle like Lyric, you got to make sure the experience matches the product that you’re coming in to shop for. And that’s what we’ve been working with our dealers on, making sure they have the right tools that allow that full funnel experience, everything from, hey, I’m just looking for a new car, now I’m looking for a Cadillac, now I’m looking for a Cadillac Escalade IQ.

What does that funnel look like? And so we’re we’re providing the innovation and tools they need to deliver that best best in class customer experience.

Unidentified speaker: Jen, also one of the big things with the dealers is is is the service side of the equation post sale, and that’s something that, you know, is very important to the to the luxury consumer as a huge opportunity for the dealers that that work it well because they can make a lot of money over the lifetime of the vehicle, but also protect the residual values of of of of your your product, right, that makes selling the new one better, you know, for for you, for the customer, and for for everybody. You know, how is that relationship with the dealers, emphasizing that need for sort of the multiyear life, you know, almost lifetime, you know, relationship with that vehicle and that consumer going? And are they understanding that? And is that part of the equation that’s helping them and you and the brand over time?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah, the best way to think about it is our after sales, and you saw it in that chart, we’re number three in the marketplace out of thirty, forty makes that are out there. It’s an important piece of the equation. An old saying in the car business, you sell them once in the sales department, you sell them 10 times over in the after sales part of our business. Growing those units in operation, making sure those customers have a great experience drives repeat and referrals. It gives you an opportunity to make customers for life in our various dealership operations.

I ran our after sales business just prior to sitting in this chair for Cadillac, and it’s a huge opportunity for fixed coverage, making sure that the operation of the dealership, is run really, really well and allows them to make trades and allow for great used car experience. A dealership is a holistic environment. It’s not, while it’s departmentalized, it is one dealership. And it’s really important that that whole ecosystem work well together. And that allows you to deliver a world class customer experience because your offering allows that customer to be not only loyal to the Cadillac brand, but loyal to the dealer brand that they’re visiting as well.

Unidentified speaker: So I think one of the one of the challenges that the brand has is that that the Escalade is is is so successful, and it’s, you know, almost so all encompassing and dominating of the brand that that some of your vehicles don’t get the other, you know, the other vehicles don’t get the proper airtime, not by you, but by, you know, by the market and and and by customers. So as you as you think about, you know, sort of the benefit of that halo, but maybe the the slight issue with with that halo being so so dominant, You know, how do you kinda break beyond that with, you know, the crossovers and and the and the cars that are really certainly fighting weight, if not class leading, you know, in their segments? And and it just kinda seems like you’ve got this great product that kinda punches a little bit below its weight on volume to some extent, but certainly on pricing. And, you know, is is there something you you can do there? What kind of market dynamics might, you know, drive that realization of of of the true potential of the of the brands.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. So I I guess there’s a couple of stories to unpack inside that. First, let me start at the end. Our average transaction price right now is 77,900, give or take. The luxury average right now is 72,000.

So I would say we’re actually carrying the right price in the marketplace from a a volume standpoint. I believe that we have found the sweet spot in the marketplace and Escalade has actually helped define that as an organization. Internally, we talk about the Cadillac standards. These are the things that thou shall not violate when they design, engineer and bring a vehicle to market. A Blackwing must perform at a certain level in order to wear the label Blackwing.

But what we’re seeing as we do our media drives, as we are doing our analyst drives, we’re seeing now that halo cascade back down across the rest of the portfolio. So our communication team just did our most recent round of drives and introductions, and the reviews we’re getting are just amazing and glowing. But probably the one that’s most prominent in my mind is our VISTIC, which is our three row EV that is just now coming to market. All those who have driven it are calling it baby Escalade. That’s not us calling it baby Escalade.

That’s the customer base, the media base, the analyst base putting that label on that vehicle. There’s no better compliment in the world to have a vehicle that’s been number one in its segment for eleven years in a row to have that label, that moniker now placed on one of our other EVs in the lineup. And so we’re really proud of the foundational brands and sub brands that we’re creating in the marketplace. And I do believe that’s why we’re attracting loyalists as well as conquests across the brand. If you look at the Escalade IQ that we just brought to market, the average age right now is 48 years old.

Luxury is normally somewhere between probably 56, 50 eight, and some brands are even as high as 62. That vehicle is 48. That’s an excellent customer to have in your portfolio because that’s repeat referrals, longevity, that’s growth for the brand, not just for today, but cultivating that customer experience and making sure that that builds as we go into the future. It’s really amazing to watch luxury goods that are able to reposition themselves younger. In 2015 in that chart, we were 58 years of age.

We’re now right around 54, 50 six. So we’ve shaved off roughly four years of age demographic, which is really another data point that tells you we have a really healthy brand inside General Motors.

Unidentified speaker: I think you may have just launched a new nameplate, baby Escalade. That might go that might go pretty well in market.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: We’ll call it VISTIC.

Unidentified speaker: We’ll it VISTIC. You know, technology, you know, you’re you’re talking about how it’s you’re you’re you’re at the leading edge of the curve for for Cadillac, but really, really the industry. Maybe you could talk about sort of the customer feedback and the experience with Super Cruise and how it’s going because that is a very differentiating factor, at least in in my opinion. What’s the customer feedback, buy rates, feedback that you’re getting there?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah, so Super Cruise, if you haven’t experienced it, I encourage you to do so. Motor Trend just rated it Tech of the Year. It is a fantastic autonomous driving experience. It’s really kind of the precursor to where we’re gonna head with level three, level four into the future. You saw that on my earlier chart.

There’s roughly about 750,000 miles of road that are already mapped in the marketplace. And when you talk to customers who have utilized it, the surveys come back time and time again. My drive was so much more relaxing. I didn’t have to battle the wheel in traffic in order to get from here to there. And so it is a great enabler and that’s why we’ve made it standard on all the Cadillac models where it’s available today, because it’s such an incredible experience.

I just drove from my home near Ann Arbor, Northville, Detroit area to Northern Michigan. I had to be up in the Northern part, had to leave at about five in the morning. I turned on Super Cruise and the whole ride up seventy five. It did all the work. I drank my coffee.

I’m still paying attention. You still gotta look out the windshield. There’s eye monitoring and tracking so that you don’t disappear into the back seat and cause a problem. It will notify you if there’s a challenge or construction coming up. It’s an amazing piece of technology, but it really takes the fatigue out of driving.

But at the same time, we still have vehicles that are driver vehicles. So in a CT5 Blackwing with Super Cruise on the highway, it’s a dream to drive. But if I wanna grab that manual transmission, by the way, it’s one of the few manuals left in the world and really have a performance driving experience, can do that too. So Super Cruise is really a strong enabler and it’s on about, like 40% of the car park is Cadillac in the marketplace with Super Cruise today. So it’s been an outstanding success.

Unidentified speaker: And to put you on the spot a little bit, has the Garden State Parkway, I-ninety 5, and the LIE open maps for people in the room that they can Yes. Think you’re sitting in in the Tri State area? Is that correct? Good. All right.

So that’s good.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: That’s good. All all your major roads are mapped and even some of the two lane, you know, mini highways that are out there are mapped.

Unidentified speaker: That’s good as well. We we should all be using that. On the demand side of the equation, we’re we’re more more sort of macro, you know, from a macro standpoint, been a lot of concern around demand in general, but then certainly the the luxury consumer. What’s been sort of your more recent experience in the market?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. Overall, is actually holding up quite well from a volume. It’s, in any given day about 14% of the overall marketplace. Affordability, we have a lot of conversations about that. The great part about luxury vehicles is it’s usually not the primary or the secondary vehicle in the household.

It might be the third or the fourth vehicle in the garage from that standpoint. So having that right price value equation, which we believe we have really dialed in, which is showing up in our sales results is in the right place. So overall, you know, we might see some adjustments here in the overall luxury business, just given what’s going on in the marketplace, but the future for Cadillac, the fact that, you know, we’re built in Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas gives us a great competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Unidentified speaker: On the supply side, right, it’s always a challenge for all automakers to to manage that, particularly with the the finished goods dealer dealer inventory. You know, what’s the strategy there? What are the what are the levels? What kind of feedback are you getting from your your partners in the in the dealership base? And is there anything that is managed differently, like floor plan assistance or anything like that that might be different than other brands, the industry, or even even GM is how you handle sort of that that back and forth with the dealers on the supply side of the equation?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. We we had some great learnings over the last three, four years. The reset that we got is part of COVID and chip shortage and other things really put some strong muscle memory inside General Motors on whole and specifically Cadillac. I made two statements earlier, scarcity sells luxury. There is the right balance around having the right ground stock, but also the right level of inventory coming in behind that ground stock so that you can manage the customer experience.

Many wanna shop online, use our DRP to configure exactly what they want in a vehicle. And we have regional distribution centers that allows us to deliver a vehicle to a dealer in three days if they don’t have it in stock right now. But we’ve been running, you know, right between forty and forty five days on ground, which is about the perfect amount of inventory on the ground side. And then on the upper end, we write around fifty seven to sixty two days, you know, depending on when you measure it, so in total availability. So I think we found that right level of discipline that’s allowing our dealers to have the right throughput in their operations, and we have the efficiencies we need in our operations as well.

And so I think as you go forward and we look at what we need to do to run the business, we have some great learnings, great discipline, and the outlook of making sure that we keep supply and demand, you know, Econ 101, price elasticity, all those things in check, I think we’ve we’ve found that that right formula that works for us.

Unidentified speaker: And and at the moment, you know, some of the competition may have a little bit of a a shortage for for various reasons that might, you know, might have to do for for different, you know, for for different things that are going on with administration. You know, if there’s a a little bit of a void in the market that opens up, I mean, your ability to restock those dealers and get to them them, you know, quickly, I mean, you know, if you all said another 50,000, you know, the, you know, the Escalades and the Optique and the Vistique in in the dealers, you know, hands, you know, what kind of flexibility do you have to get that restock done so they can get out in the market and you you can take the share that’s rightfully yours?

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Yeah. That’s a a great balancing act. We look at it almost weekly. If not, you know, I’m looking at it almost daily in the reports that were provided internally. But we do have that agility inside our manufacturing footprint.

You know, I talk with Anton, our plant manager down in Spring Hill all the time, where he at, what’s available. And, you know, I’m in sales and marketing and I’m talking directly to the plant manager. General Motors has really kind of opened up the lines of communications and people are out of their verticals and we’re operating more in the horizontal, which allows for regular conversation to pull those levers. And there may be times where you can see things are slowing down and you need to get in front of that. Or if in the case you described as things are speeding up, we’re able to step into that and make sure that we’re building the right product.

Escalade in Arlington is a great example of that. Or Escalade IQ, the EV version made it factory zero in Detroit. Those conversations are weekly and we’re able to adjust as we need to make sure that we’re covering the marketplace.

Unidentified speaker: Now there are many high notes, but I kind of want to end on on a on a high note maybe for for investors. Know, maybe you could talk about f one with a little bit more depth, and and maybe you can also let us know, you know, when we could do an analyst you know, at the at the first f one race because we really all like to to to go. But, mean, you know, as as far as what it means for the brand, I mean, you look at, you know, a company like Ferrari, I mean, that’s where they develop all, you know, their their their powertrain tech, and and they they use that as the the testing ground. I’ve gotta imagine, you know, that might be an opportunity, you know, for r and d and marketing for for Cadillac and and GM generally. But, know, how do you really kinda think of this sort of in-depth?

And and all joking aside, we’d love to come to a race. So so so we’re looking forward to that.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Well, we’ll work on that, John. But the F one is the premier racing league. And when you you know, the simplest way to to think about it, and if you’re not if you don’t follow racing, hopefully this one will register with you. Pit times. Just to think about how fast and how they are truly a performance driven team.

Pit times in NASCAR are twelve seconds. In F1, they’re about 3.8. If you get past four, you’re pretty much out of the race. The fastest pit time ever recorded was one point eight seconds. That’s changing all four tires.

You almost can’t even see it happening that the speed and precision at which those individuals work. The endurance it takes to race, the knowledge around tires, the knowledge around aero, all that knowledge gets transferred back. And for our engineers, it’s learning at an exponential rate. So you might come out of school, you might be an engineer for five or ten years and you cycle through our race programs and you go through maybe what you would learn in three years, you’re gonna learn in about six months or less because there’s just so much going on at speed, especially in our endurance racing like F1 or IMSA or WACC, the other performance series that we have. And then those individuals cycle back onto the vehicle programs and bring that learning with them.

So what are the two most important things in selling an EV? Tires and aero. That’s what gives you range. You can learn more about tires and aero in a race performance team than anywhere else. And so I was just down at our Charlotte, Technical Center here a couple of weeks ago, watching them do all those simulations and thinking about, okay, now how does that engineering, that knowledge find its way back into the vehicles?

Well, if you look at an Escalade IQ, which is an all EV platform, it’s a fairly sizable vehicle that gets four sixty miles of advertised range. I drove one for four months, five zero five miles range was what I actually got out of that vehicle. It’s got a 13% improvement in aero because we designed that vehicle from the ground up to be an EV, to be a Cadillac, to be an Escalade. All those were, you will not compromise on these items. And so as we look at our Cadillac portfolio and we look at racing, it is an enabler to making sure that we put the best product in the marketplace that will be an enjoyment by these customers and a true mark of their achievement.

It’s just, it’s a fabulous connection. It’s a great way to build an owner base, but it’s also a great place to learn.

Unidentified speaker: Well, we’re very much looking forward to that analyst event. So thank you, John, for the time today, and thanks for the future invitation. We appreciate it.

John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac, General Motors: Thank you. You.

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