This year’s slide in fuel prices has led to a big surge in sales of utility vehicles, whether conventional sport-utes or the newer, car-based crossovers. And General Motors plans to take advantage of that shift away from conventional sedans and coupes by adding an assortment of new utes to its line-up.

They range from downsized models, such as the soon-to-debut Buick Envision, to the big Cadillac XT5. And GM’s four U.S. brands plan to fill in as much white space as possible with either all-new utility vehicles or variants such as the GMC Acadia Denali.

 

“We keep expanding the plan.” Johan de Nysschen, the president of the Cadillac brand, told TheDetroitBureau.com following the official unveiling of the new XT5 at the Los Angeles Auto Show last month.

The XT5 serves as the replacement for the old Caddy SRX, and targets such critical competitors as the BMW X5 and newly renamed Mercedes-Benz GLE. The crossover-based SRX and traditional truck-based Escalade have been the only utes in the Cadillac line-up until now. But that will soon change.

Detroit Bureau

Very interesting, while I am excited and hope they bring back a few white fill autos like the following:

 

Chevy Trailblazer and Trailblazer SS

 

GMC Typhoon

 

GMC Syclone - Yes it is a truck.

 

Over all I also hope they put the VOLT powertrain into a CUV.

I could see some good times in a Denali-spec Canyon packing AWD and an ATS-V drivetrain. Even better: stuff a smallblock in there. If it can fit in a DeLorean...