Tuesday, March 31, 2015

GM's Cadillac CT6 tests strategy for taking fat out of big cars

Tech News - The CT6, to be unveiled ahead of the April 3-12 New York auto show, is an expensive car aimed more at boosting Cadillac's brand image than sales volume. Among the promised features is a system that will enable partly autonomous highway cruising.
             
But the CT6 could have a broader impact on GM's future products because of the way it is built. The car is the largest scale application of the company's new approach to using a mix of steel, aluminum and other materials to build vehicles light enough to meet tougher fuel efficiency standards, but big enough for customers who want spacious cars.
             
GM engineers are studying variations on the CT6's multi-material construction for at least four other future vehicle architectures and other models could be derived from the CT6's "Omega" architecture, Travis Hester, CT6's chief engineer, said in an interview.
            
Automakers are under pressure in the United States and China to dramatically increase fuel efficiency over the next decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But as oil prices tumble,
consumers in the world's two richest auto markets are paying premiums for luxury sedans and sport utility vehicles, not small cars.

 

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