Cadillac lauching new flagship from Detroit in 2015

This hasn't been the best of years for Cadillac. Between the gunfight among German luxury brands for every last buyer, General Motors recall fiasco and Cadillac's demand for higher prices and smaller discounts on its new models, sales have fallen even as the rest of the industry has grown. And the star of its one breakthrough ad has sold fewer than 1,000 copies to date.

But Cadillac has kept at it. First, it hired Johan de Nysschen away from Infiniti; the former Audi U.S. chief had been spearheading a plan to make Nissan's luxury brand a global player. Today, it revealed a long-rumored next step, confirming it would build a new, unnamed Cadillac at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant that would serve as the top of the Cadillac line — and put it squarely against the kingpin sedans from Mercedes, BMW and Audi.