Three Popular GM Names Could Be Electric Vehicle Sub-Brands

Will GM change the course of its branding strategy to follow what Hyundai did with Genesis or make a huge mistake with some new electric vehicle sub-brands?

Since it arrived in the late 1990s, the Cadillac Escalade has been a large, imposing, iconic luxury SUV that has been one of the most impressive and useful vehicles in its class. The same can be said of two other GM icons, the Chevrolet Corvette and Chevrolet Camaro. These three iconic names could be used to usher in a new era of EVs, which are the future of the automotive marketplace.

Will GM Find Personality in These New brands?

GM, like other automakers, is moving to an entirely electric lineup to give us everything we expect for the future of driving. It hasn’t been that long since GM was chastised for turning its back on sedans and small cars in favor of SUVs. Have you noticed the same is true of the other Detroit-based automakers as well? Can the largest automaker in the world bring us a lineup of electric vehicles that will make sense to our new automotive world, or should these EVs be offered in addition to gasoline-powered vehicles?

What Should the Escalade Include?

It’s important that these three new electric vehicle sub-brands offer the expected personality from each original vehicle, but GM might be heading in the wrong direction. The Escalade is a massive luxury SUV. An electric version should maintain some of the presence and prowess that makes this big brute respected as one of the top luxury SUVs offered. Can this happen if the entire lineup from GM is comprised of electric SUVs? This is a question for GM to answer in the future, but it’s also something that reminds us a little of the GM we knew in the 1980s and early 1990s.

How can the Chevy Camaro transition to an EV SUV sub-brand?

What would you expect when offered an electric SUV that wears the Camaro name? You want a powerful machine that’s both affordable and fun to drive. GM could easily hit the right notes with the Camaro by following the same formula Ford used to bring us the new Mustang Mach-E, which is an electric SUV with plenty of power and performance. The electric Mustang has been a hit; it should be easy enough for GM to create an electric Camaro to compete.

An Electric Corvette Might be a More Challenging Venture

Considering the incredible shape and style of the recently-created C8 Corvette, it seems hard to fathom taking this beautiful machine and making a sedan or crossover with an electric powertrain out of it. Pushing a Corvette electric vehicle sub-brand could give us an EV SUV from GM that takes on the new lineup of Porsche models coming to us with electric powertrains. The Porsche Cayenne is expected to become an electric SUV, and a new Corvette EV SUV might be the right name and offer the platform to challenge the Porsche SUV.

Could We See the Return of Sedans from GM?

One of the reasons given for deleting sedans from the GM brands was the need to make room for the development of future electric vehicles. It might soon be time for a rush of electric sedans with GM brand names on them. As the new Cadillac Escalade electric nameplates hit the market, a new all-electric carlike crossover might become part of what we see. This means offering a car that sits higher off the ground, with a ton of off-road prowess for those willing to take a luxury SUV out on the trails for some fun.

While this change doesn’t sound much like a real sedan, it could be as close as we get in these new electric vehicle sub-brands. The new Escalade using an electric platform might be a three-row electric crossover instead of a full-size SUV. This would put it below the traditional Escalade in terms of size while still offering three rows of seats with room for seven passengers in the cabin. This new seven-seat crossover could challenge the new Porsche K1, which will also be an electric three-row crossover.

The Escalade Will be Easy, Not So Much for the Other Nameplates

The greatest challenge GM will face with these new models are the changes being made to the Camaro and Corvette. It might not be terribly difficult to use the Escalade name to build an electric three-row SUV; both of the other two are sports cars. The new Camaro only needs to follow the Mustang path by becoming a fully electric 2 + 2 seater coupe-like SUV that could be a truly sporty SUV. Could the Camaro become the sportiest model in the GM electric SUV lineup in the future?

Moving toward the new electric Corvette, we might get more turned off than changing the Camaro. An early rendering from GM Authority allows the electric Corvette to look more like the Porsche Taycan, with fewer sharp lines and creases than we see in the current C8 model. Additional renderings show a crossover SUV that might also wear the Corvette name. Could we truly see the Corvette become several vehicles under one of the new electric vehicle sub-brands? This new Corvette EV could incorporate the Ultium battery system with an 800-volt electrical system and 350-kW charging capabilities. We could see an impressive two-speed transmission, four-wheel steering, and a torque vectoring system.

Will We Lose the Traditional Escalade, Camaro, and Corvette?

Currently, most EVs offered wearing the same name as some of our gas-powered vehicles are sold alongside them. We see what Ford has done with the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E and expect GM will begin by doing the same with the Escalade, Camaro, and Corvette. In the future, we probably will lose all of the traditional ICE models from the market as the entire auto market transitions to electric vehicles. That said, this will probably be a gradual change and a movement back to a General Motors brand family that is much larger than only four brand names.