EV market skepticism? Cadillac is undeterred as it unveils its new VISTIQ SUV

While General Motors (GM) has been pumping the brakes, so to speak, on its once ambitious electric vehicle plans, its luxury brand Cadillac is still moving forward with its EV rollout.

Cadillac today unveiled the VISTIQ, a three-row EV SUV that sits between its two-row LYRIQ EV SUV and range-topper ESCALADE IQ.

VISTIQ is the third EV Cadillac has unveiled this year. It now becomes the fifth EV confirmed for Cadillac, with all five targeted to be in showrooms by the end of next year. Cadillac’s other two EVs revealed this year are the OPTIQ entry-level crossover EV and the Escalade IQ, which will join the LYRIQ and ultra-luxury CELESTIQ sedan.

Cadillac did not unveil pricing or specifics like the electric range. But given where it is slotted in the product portfolio, expect it to start around $75,000 with more than 300 miles of range.

Read more: Are electric cars more expensive to insure?

Cadillac is targeting upmarket, younger families with the VISTIQ, which has a similar footprint to its gas-powered XT6 three-row SUV.

"[For] the family that wants to try, and potentially have for the first time, something that's both a true American icon and luxury SUV — that's the vehicle for them,” said John Roth, Cadillac’s global vice president, in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

Roth hopes the VISTIQ, with its highly desired three-row SUV layout and Ultium EV platform, may attract new EV-curious customers to the Cadillac brand. Said Roth: “Consumers are telling us in our latest round of data that 60% of them are looking for an EV in their next purchase. And so as you set up a product portfolio, like our Cadillac EV portfolio.”

And that’s most likely the reason why Cadillac is sticking with its aggressive EV rollout — its target consumers are upmarket. This echoes what GM president Mark Reuss told Yahoo Finance back in August during the Escalade IQ launch. "We have a lot of demand for an Escalade or an SUV that is luxury, that’s an EV. We know that," Reuss said at the time.

That being said Cadillac isn’t dust-binning its gas-powered cars — like the Escalade SUV, XT SUV line, and popular CT4 and CT5 sedans. The Blackwing high-performance versions of the CT4 and CT5 were just named in Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars list.

“We were talking about earlier about how just recently the US crossed that 1 million mark in terms of EVs sold, but obviously, there's still a big market for traditional gas-powered cars,” Roth said. “And Cadillac has that two-track thing going on with our gas-powered cars and led by the Blackwings, which are getting so much press these days.”

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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