Cadillac is getting ready to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its V series of high-performance cars at this weekend’s running of the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race. But the anniversary celebrations won’t just look back. They’ll include a glimpse of the brand’s future.
GM’s luxury arm teased that future this week with the first glimpses of a concept car meant to illustrate the future of the V sub-brand. Like BMW’s M shop or Mercedes-Benz’s AMG arm, the V division takes Cadillac’s normal cars and builds high-performance versions. Current offerings include the CT4-V and twin-turbocharged CT4-V Blackwing, the CT5-V and the supercharged CT5-V Blackwing, and the supercharged Escalade-V.
But V hasn’t reached Cadillac’s electric car lineup yet. Since GM plans an all-electric future for the brand, an E…V…seems inevitable.
Cadillac hasn’t officially said this one is electric. Still, Bryan Nesbitt, Executive Director of Cadillac Global Design, says it “is designed to foreshadow a zero emissions expression of performance and modern luxury leadership.” “Zero emissions” generally means “electric.”
Blurry Video Gives Away Little
To preview, Cadillac gives us the Opulent Velocity concept – as good a 2-word phrase as any to explain what a luxury automaker’s high-performance department aims to create.
Those glimpses, however, were blurry. Automakers routinely tease us with difficult-to-see photos of concept cars. But Cadillac has taken that trend to the extreme, releasing an out-of-focus video of the OV concept racing at and away from the camera.
We can’t tell much, which is the point. It looks to be a long, low-slung coupe? Sedan? SUV? Cadillac’s signature vertical lights may frame a wide front fascia, and we think the greenhouse may fade, teardrop-like, toward the… why are we trying to guess at this? It’s a car driving at a camera with a lens smeared in Vaseline. No one knows what it looks like.
Cadillac’s press release doesn’t say when we’ll see the full car. Cadillac announced the V brand at the Sebring event 20 years ago, so the wait may be brief. However, reports already suggest the company will use this weekend’s race to show off a Lyriq V, so the Opulent Velocity may be reserved for a later event, like the upcoming New York International Auto Show.
