In this articleGMFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTThe “Saarinen Lobby” inside General Motors’ global design headquarters on the campus of its Warren Technology Center outside of Detroit, Michigan.GMWARREN, Mich. — Walking into General Motors’ global design headquarters is like taking a step back in time. Much of the midcentury-modern architecture and designs have remained untouched since the space opened in the 1950s.The massive tech campus was built during a time when the Detroit automaker reigned supreme. It was GM’s so-called “Golden Era,” with its luxury Cadillac brand leading the way as “the standard of the world” — before decades of U.S. market share declines amid increased competition from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and others.GM President Mark Reuss wasn’t alive to witness that, but he’s harkened back to it as he and his teams have methodically overseen a product renaissance for Cadillac, which wants to regain its prominence as the American luxury brand.”There isn’t a lot of American luxury brands. There just isn’t. I think it’s time, and I’m deeply passionate about that, for GM and Cadillac to show the world what we can do,” Reuss told CNBC from his second-story office adjacent to the lobby.Cadillac’s domestic competition has historically been Ford Motor’s Lincoln luxury brand, which sells roughly a third of the vehicles in the U.S. as its GM competitor. Other luxury brands from Germany, Japan and, more recently, South Korea have entered the market as well. All-electric vehicle competitors Tesla and Lucid Group are also in the mix.The luxury vehicle market is crucial for automakers. The vehicles have higher profit margins than their mainstream counterparts and cater to a more affluent customer that views them as much as a status symbol as a mode of transportation.GM President Mark Reuss during the reveal of the all-electric 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ on Aug. 9, 2023 in New York City.Michael Wayland / CNBCReuss’ responsibilities as president include overseeing all the automaker’s products and brands, but he has always taken a special interest in Cadillac, which is on its fourth leader since 2015.Those involved with the brand have described Reuss as a protector, vanguard and even spiritual leader of sorts for Cadillac.While not everything has gone perfectly to plan — there have been issues with sales in China and electric vehicle production and adoption — Cadillac has largely stayed true to a plan that the company undertook to bolster the luxury brand a decade ago. It’s a not-so-easy accomplishment amid regulatory uncertainty and budget cuts in an automaker the size of GM.”If you would have looked at Cadillac’s financials and portfolio, it was not delivering,” Reuss said. “It’s been a long road taking a 150-year-old brand from where it was, which was not healthy. It was not ‘the standard of the world.’ Still isn’t. We’ve got work to do, but the vision is there and it’s pretty clear.”That vision currently relies heavily on all-electric vehicles, sporty sedans and the brand’s flagship Escalade — one of GM’s longest-standing and most prominent nameplates — to bring Cadillac back to prominence.It’s a race Cadillac executives describe as having a never-ending finish line.Resurrecting CadillacIn the summer of 2018 …
