GMSV Australasia comment appears to leave door open.

NATIONAL distributor comment could feed conjecture about latest Cadillacs - of the electric kind - being set to officially represent in New Zealand.

Brewing thought that General Motors is poised to make a spectacular return this part of the world with its premium marque gained extra vim with new reports last week in respect to cars on the Ultium electric car platform, which has so far restricted to a Hummer though other vehicles are coming.

Since then General Motors Speciality Vehicles - which presently serves NZ with petrol-hungry Chevrolets, the Corvette factory-built in right-hook and Silverado full-sized pick-up (converted from LHD in Australia) - has issued a statement that might further fuel the saga, as it doesn’t outright confirm or deny.

"GM participates in select right-hand-drive markets around the world,” a New Zealand-based spokesman said when asked for comment.

“We have previously said that the modular Ultium platform and EV architecture offer greater flexibility in vehicle configurations. 

“We do not have any product announcements to share at this time … but stay tuned."

Rumours that Cadillac is planning to build its cars in right-hand drive have been building for some time. Likewise talk that it wants to deliver several electric models to key right-hand-drive markets.

New Zealand has been cited as one of those countries. The other two, unsurprisingly, are Australia and the United Kingdom.

This is from ‘GM Authority’, a website in the United States, which often seems to act as a independent portal for the maker, ahead of it offering any direct comment.

The site recently quoted company insiders as saying the right-hook project have confirmed the project is focused on EVs and will not include petrol-fed models.

That position if accurate poleaxes performance sedans like the CT5 Blackwing but opens the door to three battery-dedicated sports utilities that are ultimately more important to Caddy’s future.

These are the Lyriq (top) and Escalade IQ (above), which have been officially revealed in the United States, and the Optiq. All are developed atop the Ultium platform, a flexible architecture GM has developed for a wide range of electric cars, from everyday passenger models to hefty commercials, plus SUVs including one already in production, the GMC Hummer EV. 

The latter is a sub-Lyric model coming to the boil, recently photographed (above) without disguise. Optiq is expected to make its official world debut in the second half of the year in China, where the market launch is likely to take place before the end of the year. 

The Optiq will be built in China under a joint venture between GM and SAIC, formerly called Shanghai Automotive. It’s China’s largest car maker.

Australia’s Wheels magazine says GM filed a trademark application for the Lyriq name in Australia in December 2022 and a right-hand-drive Lyriq prototype was spotted testing earlier this year.

In July, it says, GM also filed Aussie trademarks for the Optiq and Escalade IQ. The last is the electric version of the make’s largest and grandest luxury sports utility, based on the Ultimo 

Adding further fuel to the speculation was that GM’s senior vice president and president of GM International, Shilpan Amin, visited  Australia recently, ostensibly to check out the the Chevrolet Silverado assembly line in Melbourne. 

Cadillac represented in NZ is the early part of last century and was an one-and-off presence until 1969.

It re-emerged on the NZ scene in 2007 with the second-generation CTS, but not in official capacity. That car was represented as a grey import, being sold by a Holden dealer who had bought a job lot of right-hand-drive examples that were originally destined to sell in Australia, only for the plug to be pulled at the last minute.