Cadillac was established on August 22, 1902, from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company after Henry Ford departed following a dispute with his investors. Engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing persuaded the company's backers to continue automobile production using his proven single-cylinder engine. The new company was named after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the French explorer who founded Detroit in 1701.
The first Cadillac automobiles, the Runabout and Tonneau, were completed in October 1902. Powered by a 10 hp single-cylinder engine, they attracted over 2,000 firm orders when displayed at the New York Auto Show in January 1903. Cadillac's founding philosophy centred on precision manufacturing and reliability. In 1908, the company participated in an interchangeability test in the United Kingdom that demonstrated the complete precision of its component parts, earning it the Royal Automobile Club's Dewar Trophy — the first American car to win the honour. The feat gave rise to the brand's enduring slogan. Cadillac won the Dewar Trophy again in 1912 for incorporating a combined electric starting, ignition, and lighting system into a production automobile.
On July 29, 1909, General Motors purchased Cadillac and made it the prestige division of the conglomerate, positioned above Buick, Oldsmobile, and eventually Chevrolet.
Cadillac was responsible for several automotive firsts across the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1915, it introduced a 90-degree flathead V8 engine producing 70 horsepower, enough to propel the car to 65 mph. The brand pioneered the dual-plane V8 crankshaft in 1918 and introduced the first clashless Synchro-Mesh manual transmission in 1928. In 1930, Cadillac fielded the first V-16 engine for an American production car — a 452 cubic inch unit with 165 horsepower that was among the most powerful and quietest of its day. A subsequent overhead-valve V8, introduced in 1949 and lauded as Motor Trend's first Car of the Year, set the standard for the entire American automotive industry.
The brand was also first to offer a fully enclosed production car in volume in 1906, introduced the steel "turret top" roof in place of fabric-covered wood frames, and installed shatter-resistant glass in 1926. In 1928, Cadillac recruited automobile stylist Harley Earl, who went on to head GM's Art and Color division and shaped the tailfin era of the 1950s.
The Great Depression cut Cadillac sales by 84 percent between 1928 and 1933, falling to 6,736 vehicles. The brand's recovery was catalysed by Nick Dreystadt, the head of Cadillac service, who successfully lobbied to end a company policy discouraging sales to African Americans. Sales rose 70 percent in 1934, and Dreystadt was promoted to lead the division. By 1940, sales had grown tenfold from the 1934 nadir.
Post-war Cadillac vehicles became synonymous with the dominant American styling of the late 1940s and 1950s. Under styling chief Harley Earl, Cadillac pioneered tailfins, wraparound windshields, and extensive chrome detailing. Tailfins appeared first in 1948 and reached their peak on the 1959 models. On November 25, 1949, Cadillac produced its one-millionth car.
Cadillac's competition history spans several eras. In the early 1950s, Cadillac-powered Kurtis Kraft cars were entered at the Indianapolis 500 when that race counted toward the FIA World Championship of Drivers, though neither the 1952 entry of Johnny Fedricks nor the 1953 entry of Bill Homeier qualified for the field.
In 2000, Cadillac launched the Northstar LMP programme in the American Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, using twin-turbocharged derivatives of the production Northstar V8. The programme ran through 2002 before General Motors cancelled it to focus on the Chevrolet Corvette effort. Cadillac returned to prototype racing in 2017 with the DPi-V.R in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and expanded to the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023 with the V-Series.R, fielded in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing and customer teams.
The most significant motorsport development came in 2026, when Cadillac debuted as the eleventh team on the Formula One grid — the first new independent constructor since Haas in 2016. The Formula One project was announced in January 2023 through a partnership with Andretti Global, restructured in late 2024 under TWG Motorsports, and received final FIA and Formula One Management approval in March 2025 after General Motors paid a US$450 million expansion fee.
GM positions Cadillac as the premium tier of its vehicle portfolio, above the mainstream Chevrolet and the premium Buick and GMC marques. In 2019, Cadillac sold 390,458 vehicles worldwide, a record for the brand. While historically the leading American luxury nameplate, Cadillac has faced sustained competition from European luxury brands including BMW and Mercedes-Benz since the 2000s. The brand's ongoing push into Formula One and endurance racing represents part of a broader effort to restore global prestige.
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