Melissa Burden

The Detroit News

General Motors Co. said Wednesday that Cadillac's top-of-the-range car being introduced next year will be called the Cadillac CT6. The brand confirmed it is the start of a "simplified" way it will name cars in the future.

GM said the CT6 name comes from Cadillac using the CTS as the center of its car lineup. Cadillac will use the letters "CT" for all its cars, with a number after indicating size and position.

Last week, GM announced the new Cadillac will be built at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant beginning late next year. GM CEO Mary Barra said Friday naming the sedan would be up to Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen. He came from Infiniti Motor Co. Ltd. where he renamed that luxury brand's lineup, each beginning with Q or QX.

"This will be an evolutionary process — we will only change a product's name when the product itself is redesigned or an all-new model is created, as in this instance," Uwe Ellinghaus, Cadillac's global chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

The ATS, CTS and XTS likely won't be renamed for a few years.

AutoTrader.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs said changing vehicle names can be confusing and it's hard to say if it will sell more cars. "This is not going to have any immediate impact on sales and I think it's questionable whether it will make any impact on brand perception," she said.

The Detroit News reported Tuesday that Cadillac would open a headquarters in New York early next year.

Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell said a new naming system will be coming for crossovers, but offered no details. The company will build a next-generation SRX, which Cadillac said will be shown in fall 2015. He said the Escalade name will stay.