Latest news with #MichaelSimcoe
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Cadillac Celestiq in Photos
More from Robb Report First Drive: The $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq Is a Quiet Tour de Force With a Lot Riding on It Lexus's New IS 500 Ultimate Edition Might Be the Last of Its Kind The New Hummer EV Is the Fastest One Yet Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. The all-electric Cadillac Celestiq, the marque's first hand-built production car since the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The model is a four-door hatchback presenting a mid-century modern aesthetic. The Celestiq has a low-slung fastback profile, but its wheelbase exceeds that of a Cadillac Escalade. With 655 hp and 646 ft lbs of torque, the car is claimed to cover zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds on its way to a purported top speed of 130 mph. The interior features a 3-D-printed steering-wheel casing, hand-polished aluminum controls, and options that include leather floors and eucalyptus-fiber mats. A smart-glass roof features four quadrants for passengers to control opacity. The car embodies America's 'very optimistic, very strident view of the world' in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, according to Michael Simcoe, Cadillac's vice president of global design. The Celestiq is Cadillac's most technologically advanced production vehicle to date, which factors into the car's next-level pricing compared to others in the automaker's model line. Cadillac hopes the Celestiq will capitalize on the brand's legacy while catapulting the automaker into the future.
Fast Company
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Fast Company
Why Cadillac can only make two of its new $340,000 EVs per day
'I've had more caviar since starting work on the Celestiq than I have during the entirety of my career at General Motors,' Erin Crossley, Cadillac's design director for color and trim, says before tucking into a ramekin at Gucci Osteria on Rodeo Drive. The uptick in caviar consumption is a leading indicator that Cadillac is going upscale. As design director for the Cadillac Celestiq, the American luxury brand's new, bespoke electric vehicle, Crossley sits with customers from all over the world and mines more than 350,000 permutations to deliver their perfect personalization. The low-slung EV with a 303 mile range starts at $340,000, pushing the American automaker into the realm of German, Italian and English luxury sports cars. But the price can tick much, much higher, with options from leather floors to eucalyptus fiber mats. 'We know that these clients have the means to do anything,' she says. 'It's like building a house: How detailed do you want to get?' Return to glory days Cadillac owned the luxury market for most of the twentieth century before ceding share to more exciting foreign rivals. GM hopes the arrival of the Celestiq heralds the brand's comeback and represents a return to its glory days. With its exaggerated proportions and brash demeanor, the Celestiq's design evokes the American style and optimism of Cadillac's midcentury heyday, according to Michael Simcoe, VP of Global Design. Simcoe, the handlebar-mustachioed designer who is set to retire this year, considers the Celestiq his swan song. 'For Cadillac to come back as a brand, it needed to do what Cadillac had always done, and that's create vehicles that exaggerated proportion and were very American in their style,' he tells Fast Company. 'It's a very optimistic, very strident view of the world, which was very big in the '50s through '60s and '70s in America.' In particular, the Celestiq drew inspiration from the 1957 Eldorado Brougham, a limited-edition sedan filled with luxury features; it was Cadillac's last hand-built car for nearly 70 years. With its low stance, large wheels and wheelbase longer than the full-size Cadillac Escalade SUV's, the Celestiq defies category, Simcoe says. 'At this level of luxury, everything is much bigger,' he says. 'Think about the other premium brands around, and they're traditionally executed as a three box sedan with a big trunk. But the Celestiq has a low, fastback profile that makes it stand out on the road.' Built by hand GM builds two Celestiqs a day on average, a far cry from the automaker's higher volume vehicles churned out on a production line. The car is built by hand in Warren, Michigan, at GM's Tech Center —a midcentury marvel itself commissioned by legendary designer and automotive executive Harley Earl and created by renowned architect Eero Saarinen. But the car also uses 3D-printed parts made from aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium. And like the Brougham, which introduced air suspension to the market, the Celestiq showcases a couple of other firsts: a smart glass roof featuring four quadrants for passengers to control opacity, as well as electronic shutters that obscure screen content while driving and can be controlled remotely via a QR code on the phone. 'It's very rare in an engineer's career where you get to go completely off script and make up a bespoke car,' says Tony Roma, executive chief engineer. 'The idea was, when you're making a statement to hang your whole brand on, you don't want somebody to walk up and find that piece of plastic and go, 'Oh, really, like, this is the best you could do,' right? For the interior, it became an obsession of the team that all of the little metal parts were either printed or made from finely detailed casting.' Who wants to buy a $340,000 Cadillac? Cadillac has declined to reveal the number of Celestiqs it plans to build, but it will need to find a viable customer base ready to spend somewhere in the mid-six figures for a Detroit-made car. The value proposition lies in the customization process, which usually takes place in a screening room at Cadillac House in New York or at a mobile popup like the Pendry West Hollywood, where Crossley and her team walked me through a process so extensive I forgot I wasn't a paying customer. 'When we design a vehicle with a customer, we won't share that same specification with anyone else, so you'll know that there's no one else who has a car with exactly the same specification as yours,' Simcoe says. 'Do you need to do that? No, but it's important to the people who are buying this car to go through the process and own it.' To herald its return to luxury, Cadillac's new playbook has the brand meeting customers where they are, feverishly expanding its presence in the luxury market over the past three years. In 2022, the carmaker signed a multi-year deal to become the automotive sponsor of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. The following year, the brand returned to the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France after a decades-long hiatus. On Saturday, it unveiled a logo for its inaugural Formula 1 team ahead of its plans to join the grid in 2026. Ultimately, GM hopes that some of this glamour trickles down into its more quotidian EV lineup, as it aspires to make Cadillac the best-selling luxury EV brand in the U.S. this year. Yo, VIP, let's kick it I took the Celestiq for a test drive in Los Angeles. As the morning rush faded away on the 101, Vanilla Ice came on the 38-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system, and I was transported into the rapper's ode to the open road. Luxury, I realized, is what you don't notice. No noise, no bumps, no traffic—although, to be fair, the Celestiq's extravagant proportions drew a share of the rubberneckers. Instead, I felt as though I was gliding through air as I ascended the Angeles Crest Highway—a career-first out of the thousands of cars I've tested. The wide open space between my vantage point and the car's front pillar—a mark of distinction in the premium segment—captures cloudless blue skies on a 76-degree day. A sedan that's longer than an Escalade and takes four months minimum to build isn't exactly practical, but at this moment, this drive is in a class of its own.
Zawya
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
GM opens new UK advanced design studio, showcases Corvette-inspired concept car
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – General Motors has expanded its global design studio footprint with the official opening of a new advanced design studio in Royal Leamington Spa, about 20 miles from Birmingham. In connection with the opening, GM revealed an advanced design study Chevrolet Corvette concept car developed by the UK team as part of a global design project involving multiple studios that will see additional Corvette concepts revealed throughout 2025. The studio opening also provided a first glimpse of a GMC concept vehicle to be revealed later in 2025, developed in partnership with the GMC design team in Detroit. GM's design teams regularly work on conceptual design studies that are intended to drive ideation, innovation, and collaboration across the company. With the opening of the UK studio, GM continues to demonstrate its commitment to Europe as the company scales its Cadillac electric vehicle business there, while also preparing to launch Corvette sales across the UK and mainland Europe. The UK design studio is an integral part of GM's global design footprint, providing valuable insights into European customer and cultural trends and introducing new talent and fresh perspectives into GM's global network. GM's global design footprint also spans studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Seoul. The UK studio is led by Julian Thomson, a deeply experienced automotive designer who has worked with some of the industry's most recognized brands. The 24,584-square-foot Royal Leamington Spa studio, which employs more than 30 designers and creative team members, is outfitted for both digital and physical clay model development. "Our advanced design team's mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like five, 10 and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM." The Corvette nameplate has long been leveraged to introduce experimental cars, concepts and prototypes that push the boundaries of automotive design and engineering, and the new UK design concept is no exception. While there is no production intention behind this concept, the GM UK Design team undertook this exercise to rethink what a Corvette could be with a true blank-page approach. 'As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we'll see more of later this year' Simcoe said. 'It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette's historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project. That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.' The UK team's concept subtly incorporates Corvette's iconic design heritage into a futuristic aesthetic focused on clean forms and muscular shapes. The design draws inspiration from the aviation industry, both in the sculptural and functional elements. 'One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept's design is a feature known as Apex Vision,' said Thomson. 'A nod to Corvette's centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic 'split window' 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, also providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings.' The exterior design includes a distinctive division between the upper and lower halves of the vehicle. The upper half captures the Corvette's classic design elements, but in a futuristic manner. The lower half focuses on functional technical design, including EV battery technology embedded into the structure and aerodynamics elements designed to channel air efficiently without the need for wings or spoilers. Concept technical specifications and assumptions: Body structure: Additive manufacturing body structure For low mass, manufacturing efficiency, part count reduction and driving agility Halo roof structure with wind shield center spar Body panels: Additive manufactured structure exposed for light weight authenticity Part integration, panel count reduction Closures: Full wrap around side glass to deliver Apex Vision Powered wing door design Aero-Duality: On-road efficiency and on-track performance in harmony Fan assistance and active ducting to redirect air over and through the vehicle On-road: flowing forms, functional intakes and vented surfaces On road: air directed through vehicles to fill its wake, increasing efficiency and range On track: like an aircraft wing, aero surfaces reconfigure, dorsal fins deploy and spoiler venting creates aero vectoring to enhance cornering performance Sculpted underbody, lowered ride height and fan assistance delivers ground effect Chassis: Racecar inspired, package efficient, pushrod suspension set-up Interface: Windshield center spar augmented display Dimensions: 1033mm tall / 2178mm width / 4669mm length 22inch front wheel / 23inch rear wheel 127mm seat height – race car inspired -Ends- About General Motors Africa & Middle East Operations General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM's Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry's widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. The GM Africa & Middle East operations have been in the region for close to 100 years, now headquartered in Dubai, UAE with a manufacturing plant in Egypt. With a network of 17 distributors serving 29 countries, the organization has over 203 customer-facing rooftops to cater to countries in Africa, Levant, the GCC and other Middle Eastern countries. For more information, please visit Contact: Dialla Atallah GMC & Chevrolet Communications Manager
Miami Herald
07-04-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
GM opens new advanced design studio in Britain, reveals EV Corvette concept car
April 7 (UPI) -- General Motors has opened a new advanced global design studio in Britain to "demonstrate its commitment to Europe," the automaker announced Monday as it showcased images of its next-generation, EV-powered Chevrolet Corvette concept car. The new studio, located in Royal Leamington Spa near Birmingham, is part of GM's plan to launch Corvette and Cadillac electric vehicle sales across Great Britain and mainland Europe. GM said its goal is to provide "fresh perspectives" into its global network. The company also has design studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Seoul. "Our advanced design team's mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior vice president of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like in five, 10 and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM," Simcoe added. The Corvette concept car, which was a collaboration of multiple studios, maintains its muscle car vibe and iconic "split window," but with gull wing doors and a "futuristic aesthetic" drawn from aviation. "One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept's design is a feature known as Apex Vision," said Julian Thomson, the lead automotive designer at the 24,584-square-foot studio in Britain. "A nod to Corvette's centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic 'split window' 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings." The new Corvette also includes EV battery technology and aerodynamics that channel air "without the need for wings or spoilers." While GM said it wanted its design studios to "push the boundaries of automotive design," it also wanted to respect the history of Corvette as well as its iconic image. "It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette's historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project," Simcoe said. "That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do -- push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
GM opens new advanced design studio in Britain, reveals EV Corvette concept car
April 7 (UPI) -- General Motors has opened a new advanced global design studio in Britain to "demonstrate its commitment to Europe," the automaker announced Monday as it showcased images of its next-generation, EV-powered Chevrolet Corvette concept car. The new studio, located in Royal Leamington Spa near Birmingham, is part of GM's plan to launch Corvette and Cadillac electric vehicle sales across Great Britain and mainland Europe. GM said its goal is to provide "fresh perspectives" into its global network. The company also has design studios in Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Seoul. "Our advanced design team's mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior vice president of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like in five, 10 and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM," Simcoe added. The Corvette concept car, which was a collaboration of multiple studios, maintains its muscle car vibe and iconic "split window," but with gull wing doors and a "futuristic aesthetic" drawn from aviation. "One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept's design is a feature known as Apex Vision," said Julian Thomson, the lead automotive designer at the 24,584-square-foot studio in Britain. "A nod to Corvette's centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic 'split window' 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasizes a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings." The new Corvette also includes EV battery technology and aerodynamics that channel air "without the need for wings or spoilers." While GM said it wanted its design studios to "push the boundaries of automotive design," it also wanted to respect the history of Corvette as well as its iconic image. "It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette's historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project," Simcoe said. "That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do -- push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be."
