Electric vehicles and the $350K Celestiq: How Cadillac is trying to win back customers

Electric vehicles and the 0K Celestiq: How Cadillac is trying to win back customers
Cadillac

(NEW YORK) — General Motors is “very serious about making Cadillac a premium brand again,” Michael Simcoe — the company’s senior vice president of global design — told ABC News in an interview about the “engineering and design tour de force” that is the new Celestiq.

The interview below has been edited for clarity.

Q: A huge trend in the industry now is customization, coachbuilding, bespoke vehicles. Why is Cadillac going in that direction and what has the response been like? And are you trying to appeal to customers who have Bentleys and Rolls-Royces?

A: With the Celestiq, we’re offering customers the ability to truly customize everything. The tyranny of choices is there and we try to help them. Customers have the ability to touch every color and finish on the exterior and interior of the car to give it their own personality. Yes, there are a few competitors, but people at this level are looking for something very unique and very specific to them.

Q: How long does it take to build a Celestiq?

A: We can build two a day. We are building cars right now and a number of people have gone through the design process and selected their interior, their exterior with our designers. So their cars are now in line to be built.

Q: How many orders have you received?

A: I can’t tell you that.

Q: Are customers coming to the Cadillac House in Michigan or are your designers flying all over the world to meet with clients?

A: They have a choice. We can do it online with them, they can come to Cadillac House and go through the samples with us. Or we’ll send designers to customers if we need to.

Q: When did Cadillac make the decision to go ultra luxe and offer a product that starts at $350,000?

A: Cadillac has tried a number of times to reestablish its position. It was and is becoming again the standard of the world. That’s the way we have always thought about it. Certainly for our customers we haven’t delivered that, at least delivered what they expected. We have tried a number of times to through vision products and concept flagships to spark a rebirth of Cadillac.

The only way to prove internally and externally that we were very serious about making Cadillac a premium brand again was to do a vehicle like the Celestiq. It’s an engineering and design tour de force and it’s hand built. It’s proof we can actually can take Cadillac back to the position it had in the past.

The Celestiq is new and represents the current generation. We really are predicting and showing people where we are going and I think that’s very important. Cadillac will no longer be something static that people get a chance to ignore and forget. We will be out there with beautiful designs and vehicles that people fall in love with.

Q: Celestiq, Lyriq, Optiq, Escalade IQ — why do all Cadillac EVs end in IQ?

A: We could have gone with our venerable names from the past, but that didn’t seem right when we were moving the brand to an all EV-based architecture. It was a signal that these vehicles were our new generation of Cadillacs.

Q: When you were overseeing the design of these new EVs, particularly the Celestiq, what was important to include?

A: We wanted a vehicle that was different to some of the high-end competition. We feel like we did our own thing in proportion to the vehicle. It still has a long hood. It has a hint of Cadillac heritage in the way the interior was designed. These long, horizontal architecture lines with metallic finishes and detail inside the car — that hints back to Cadillacs in the early 60s and 70s.

Q: Are customers actually going to drive the Celestiq or is it a vehicle to be chauffeured in?

A: This won’t be their daily driver but it could be. It has 300-ish miles of range, lots of power, lots of performance. It’s a very easy car to drive and control. It has four-wheel steering, so it drives like a small car. It has ride control and air suspension and all of the technical marvels like a large screen.

It is a spirited drive and it feels good. Jay Leno drove it and I think he enjoyed himself. But you can sit back here, in the second row, and it’s a premium experience as well. We’re not dictating where you should be.

Q: I want to ask about the CT5-V Blackwing and CT4-V Blackwing, two high-performance sedans that have received top praise from the enthusiast community. Are they going away now that the brand’s direction is electric? What’s the future for them?

A: I can’t tell you in detail but they’ll be around. We recognize the value of the cars so they”ll be around.

 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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Harris-Trump debate: Economists assess attacks over inflation, tariffs
Harris-Trump debate: Economists assess attacks over inflation, tariffs
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Tuesday opened with a fiery exchange about the economy, an issue that often ranks as the top priority for voters.

The two candidates exchanged sharp barbs over the nation’s recent bout of inflation, Trump’s plan for an escalation of tariffs, and the economic proposals put forward by Harris.

Economists who spoke to ABC News offered an assessment of the attacks leveled by the two candidates, fact-checking major claims and providing context for a full evaluation of their implications.

Here’s what to know about what economists thought of key claims made during the debate:

Harris: “My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month.”

Harris deploys the phrase “Trump sales tax” in reference to Trump’s plan for additional tariffs in a potential second term.

Trump told Fox Business last year that a tax on all imported goods could land at 10%. In April, he proposed a higher tariff of at least 60% on Chinese goods.

Economists who spoke to ABC News confirmed that tariffs are widely thought to raise prices for consumers in the importing country. That’s because foreign producers typically pass along some or all of the tax burden to consumers in the form of higher prices, they said.

“This is generally accepted in economics,” said Stephan Weiler, a professor of economics at Colorado State University and a former Fed research officer.

Economists couldn’t verify the estimate put forward by Harris of a 20% increase on the prices of goods, in part because it’s difficult to predict exactly how foreign manufacturers might respond to tariffs.

In theory, foreign producers that control a given market could offset higher taxes by pushing the costs onto consumers with price increases, Yeva Nersisyan, a professor of economics at Franklin & Marshall College, told ABC News. However, Nersisyan added, companies in competitive industries may face more difficulty doing so.

“It’s hard to say whether that 20% number is accurate,” Nersisyan said.

Trump: “We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation’s history.”

Economists who spoke to ABC News rejected the assertion that the nation’s bout of inflation marks its worst ever, noting that the U.S. endured higher price increases as recently as the 1980s.

In addition, economists said Trump overstated the extent to which the Biden administration caused the rapid rise in prices, though they acknowledged that a stimulus measure enacted by Biden may have contributed to some of the inflation.

Like many economic problems, inflation emerged due to an imbalance between supply and demand, economists said.

Hundreds of millions of people across the globe who endured pandemic-era lockdowns replaced restaurant expenditures with online orders of couches and exercise bikes. But the demand for goods and labor far outpaced supply, as COVID-19-related bottlenecks slowed delivery times and infection fears kept production workers on the sidelines.

“The number-one cause of the inflation was a supply adjustment to the COVID shock, particularly coming out of isolation,” Jeffrey Frankel, an economist at Harvard University, told ABC News.

Pandemic-era spending measures enacted by Trump and Biden may also have contributed to the price spike, economists said.

Jason Furman, a professor at Harvard University and former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, estimated that Biden’s American Rescue Plan added between 1 and 4 percentage points to the inflation rate in 2021, Roll Call reported. Michael Strain, of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, estimated that the legislation added 3 percentage points to inflation.

“One could argue that the COVID-related policies helped heat and possibly overheat the economy,” Weiler said.

Harris: “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression … what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

The economy had already emerged from the pandemic-induced recession and begun to recover by the time Biden took office, economists said.

However, the U.S. remained well below pre-pandemic levels in some key measures of economic health, including employment. In turn, economists said, Biden inherited an economy in need of significant rejuvenation.

The unemployment rate peaked at 14.8% in April 2020 when Trump was in office – which was indeed the highest level since the Great Depression, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But unemployment rapidly declined to 6.4% in January 2021 by the time Trump left office, as the economy started to rebalance.

The effort to blame Trump for the spike in unemployment is misleading, since it resulted from a once-in-a-century pandemic, economists said.

“COVID is the tidal wave that overwhelmed the whole story,” Weiler said. “The politics of this is hyperbole.”

The COVID-induced recession lasted two months in the spring of 2020, the shortest U.S. recession ever recorded, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-profit organization that serves as the recognized authority on economic downturns. The speedy recovery was owed in part to trillions in economic stimulus enacted by Trump that March.

“It was very quick and very, very big,” Nersisyan said.

Still, the economy suffered a dearth of jobs and persistent supply blockages when Biden took office, economists said. Over the course of the Biden administration, the labor market expanded at a rapid pace while economic growth quickened. By 2022, the economy had recovered all of the jobs that were lost during the pandemic.

“The recovery from the recession had already begun when Biden took office, but it hadn’t gotten that far,” Frankel said.

Trump: “She doesn’t have a plan. She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s, like, four sentences, like, run-Spot-run. Four sentences that are just, oh, we’ll try and lower taxes.”

Trump sharply criticized Harris for a perceived lack of detailed economic proposals.

Some economists who spoke to ABC News agreed that there was an absence of a complete economic plans from Harris. However, they added, Trump has also failed to provide a detailed set of policy proposals on economic issues.

“I would like to see more detailed policy proposals from both candidates,” Anne Villamil, a professor of economics at the University of Iowa, told ABC News.

“For Harris, I would like to know how her policies would differ from current policies,” Villamil added. “For Trump, I would like to know how his policies would differ from the policies of his previous administration.”

Last month, Harris unveiled economic plans intended to ease inflation, fix the housing market, and slash taxes for middle-income families. The plans include eye-catching proposals such as a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers and a ban on grocery price gouging, the latter of which had not been put forward by Biden.

Harris has also proposed a 28% tax on long-term capital gains, which clocks in well below the 39.6% tax rate for such income put forward by Biden.

Trump has said he would renew his signature tax-cut measure, which eased taxes for individuals and corporations, while vowing to do away with taxes on tips and Social Security benefits.

“Trump is not one who has a lot of detailed policies himself,” Nersisyan said. “This is not a policy election.”

ABC News’ Jon Haworth contributed to this report.

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Instagram introduces mandatory ‘Teen Accounts’ with built-in limits, parental controls
Instagram introduces mandatory ‘Teen Accounts’ with built-in limits, parental controls
Meta

(NEW YORK) — For the first time in its history, Instagram on Tuesday announced the launch of accounts designed specifically for teenage users with built-in privacy protections.

The new accounts, called “Teen Accounts,” will be automatic for all Instagram users under the age of 18, both for teens already using the app and for those signing up.

By default, Instagram users younger than 16 will need a parent’s permission to change their account settings.

The changes — expected to impact tens of millions of users — were announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri in a live interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America.

“They’re an automatic set of protections for teens that try to proactively address the top concerns that we’ve heard from parents about teens online,” Mosseri said on GMA. “Things like who can contact them, what content they see and how much time they spend on their device … all without requiring any involvement from the parent.”

Mosseri said the rollout of Teen Accounts starts Tuesday with new users signing up for the app, while existing teen users will see their accounts switch to the new Teen Accounts model within 60 days.

Among the changes put in place by Instagram include a new privacy setting that, by default, places all teen users in private accounts. In order to switch to a public account, teens under age 16 will need a parent’s permission.

Under the private account setting, teens will need to accept new followers and only people whom they accept as followers can see their content and interact with them.

In addition, teen users will now automatically only be able to message with people they follow, or are already connected to, and parents will have a new tool in their settings that allows them to see with whom their teen has recently been messaging.

With the new accounts, teens will have the power to choose the age-appropriate topics they want to see more of on Instagram, like sports or art, and parents will also be able to see the topics their teens choose.

In order to limit the amount of time spent on Instagram, all Teen Accounts will be placed in “sleep mode” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., while parents can also adjust their child’s time settings — including limiting access completely overnight — in the parental supervision tool.

Another change for Teen Accounts is that they will automatically be placed in more restrictive content settings, which will limit the content they see in search functions like Reels or Explore from accounts they don’t follow, according to Instagram.

Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of safety for Meta, the parent company of Instagram, told GMA the company is also implementing new ways to verify users’ ages.

“We are building technology to try to identify if you’ve lied about your age and then move you into those stricter settings,” Davis said. “This is a challenging area for industry, which is why, on top of building that technology that will try to identify age liars and put them into those protective settings, we also will have moments where, if we get a strong signal, we will ask you to age verify.”

Davis said that parents will be able to monitor their teens’ account and adjust their settings from their own Instagram accounts.

“The idea is to really make it simpler, so they [parents] have their own center that they can go and look and see what the privacy setting is for their teen,” she said.

Changes spurred by parents and teens

The changes for teen Instagram users come amid mounting evidence showing the dangers of social media for young users.

Social media use is linked with symptoms of depression and anxiety, body image issues, and lower life satisfaction for some teens and adolescents, research shows. Heavy social media use around the time adolescents go through puberty is linked with lower life satisfaction one year later, one large study found.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who previously issued an advisory highlighting a crisis in youth mental health, has said he believes being on social media “does a disservice” to kids early in their teen years. Noting the crisis among kids, the American Psychological Association last year issued the first guidance of its kind to help teens use social media safely.

In January, while testifying at a Senate hearing, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, publicly apologized to parents, caregivers and loved ones of young people who they say were harmed due to social media use, telling them, “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”

In his apology, Zuckerberg also emphasized Meta’s efforts on safety, adding, “This is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”

Davis said the newly-announced changes to Instagram for teen users came after conversations with parents and teenagers around the world.

She said the company focused on making it simpler for parents to know how, when, and with whom their teens are engaging on Instagram.

“We’ve had these incremental changes along the way as we’ve been working back and forth with parents and experts,” Davis said of previous safety changes for teen users. “What we’re really trying to do here is standardize a lot of this approach.”

She added of the new features, “There are these broad protections that we have in place, and if your teen wants to change them, and they’re under the age of 16, they have to come to you for permission, they’ve got to invite you in. It’s just a different way of thinking about things.”

Parents and caregivers as well as teens can learn more about Teen Accounts by visiting Instagram.com/teenaccounts.

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Slowing but steady job market reported in August
Slowing but steady job market reported in August
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Concerns about inflation have increasingly turned to concerns about the job market. Last month’s weaker than expected jobs report led to turmoil in stocks.

The U.S. added 142,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Friday. The figure was lower than expectations.

The reports showed a slowing but steady job market. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2%.

Jobs were added in construction and health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. July and June numbers were revised to show 86,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

While these numbers are lower than expected, and do show a weakening job market, for now, this is still an economy that is adding a decent number of jobs. Given this latest data, the Fed is still on track to cut interest rates at its next meeting on Sept. 18.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell last month said “the time has come” to lower interest rates.

Powell indicated the Fed would soon bring interest rates down from a 23-year high. The shift could lower borrowing costs for everything from credit cards to auto loans to mortgages.

While the unemployment rate remains historically low, it ticked up to 3.8% last month. A sharp downward revision of job growth estimates in June and July lowered those totals by a combined 110,000 jobs.

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