"Those romantic names have little relevance to a millennial premium shopper in China, for instance, where the reality is that alphanumeric nomenclature is a deeply entrenched industrywide practice," de Nysschen wrote. "The obvious emotional appeal of historical subbrand names such as Eldorado, Fleetwood, etc. should be balanced against the fact that those names resonate more with baby boomers and are U.S.-centric. Cadillac must go global."

When you’re a mainstream brand, then you’ve got to have very stringent criteria for the financial performance of each individual product. In the high-volume business, margins are razor-thin. If you don’t manage your project before the process of conception, you’ll lose your pants. For Cadillac, some cars have to make volume for us, some cars have to make money, and some cars have to make image. And sometimes you are fortunate enough that one car does all of those. But if you were to apply these very stringent financial criteria to individual projects you’ll probably never do the halo cars. The way to measure it properly is to say, “Well, how did they help the pricing power on the rest of the cars?”—that’s their contribution.

(Reuters) - Cadillac's new boss believes General Motors' premium brand could eventually sell ultra-luxury cars that retail for a quarter-million dollars by 2029.

"It is too early today for a $250,000 Cadillac," said Johann de Nysschen, in an interview on Wednesday at the annual auto show here. "Fifteen years from now, it won't be."

Cadillac's current flagship car, the XTS sedan, tops out at around $70,000 which is tens of thousands of dollars less than the range-topping models of such German competitors as BMW and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz.

De Nysschen, a former import executive who was named Cadillac president in August, is overseeing a product blitz that will cost GM an estimated $2.5 billion over the next six years, he told Reuters.

As part of that brand overhaul, Cadillac is readying the launch next year of a new high-end sedan, the CT-6, followed by an even larger, more expensive model by 2020.

De Nysschen hinted the CT-6 will be priced "in the 70s," or just above the XTS.

He also said Cadillac is looking at a smaller model positioned below the ATS, one that might compete with the Mercedes-Benz CLA.

"We quite clearly have in the passenger car line an opportunity below where ATS is positioned today," de Nysschen said. "There is a whole new category for compact premium sedans."

Cadillac may also get more crossover models to supplement the SRX, he said.

"The Germans have so many you can't keep track. An obvious, obvious shortcoming in our lineup."

Cadillac may also get more crossover models to supplement the SRX, he said.

Johan de Nysschen has big plans for Cadillac. He's moved the brand from Detroit to New York, revamped its model nomenclature, and planning a raft of new models for the near future – including a $250,000 luxury sedan to take on the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. But the veteran executive of luxury automakers has some more performance-oriented machinery in mind, too.

Speaking with Car and Driver at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week, de Nysschen suggested Cadillac could be ready to launch a flagship sports car sometime in the next decade. The halo model would take aim at the Porsche 911 and do for Cadillac what Audi did with the R8, Mercedes is doing with the AMG GT and Acura once did (and is aiming to do again) with the NSX.

Just what form it would take remains a big unknown, but de Nysschen indicated that the brand would need to be built up further before the sports car would be launched, lest it emerge too detached from Cadillac's image. The last time Cadillac delved into that territory was with the Corvette-based XLR, of which it sold only 15,000 or so examples – far below initial targets.

The 911 rival isn't the only performance model de Nysschen has in mind, however. He plans to further expand the V series into a more substantial sub-brand to include a crossover to take on the likes of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, BMW X5 M and all those many AMG-tuned Mercedes utilities.

The idea of an entry-level model to slot in below the ATS was mooted as well. A range of diesel engines are slated to help Cadillac break into overseas markets in similar fashion to how Maserati has expanded its market reach with oil-burning versions of the Ghibli and Quattroporte. And we wouldn't be surprised to see Cadillac get in on a new flagship SUV being launched by Opel in Europe, either.