Cadillac has long been the best-selling luxury brand from Detroit’s Big Three, but it has been overtaken by another General Motors company, GMC.

Figures from GM and the Automotive News Data Center reveal that Denali and AT4-branded vehicles alone from GMC are outselling Cadillac models in the United States this year. This comes despite the recession and the coronavirus pandemic, with Denali and AT4 models accounting for 40 per cent of GMC’s retail sales in 2020.

GMC has a key advantage over Cadillac, because it exclusively builds light trucks and SUVs, whereas Cadillac only recently expanded its range to include three crossovers. Unsurprisingly, GMC sales have experienced a decline in the first nine months of 2020, falling by 16 per cent to 353,221 units. However, that fall isn’t as significant as the 17 per cent decline experienced by Chevrolet and the 25 per cent decline of Cadillac and Buick.

Read Also: Driven – 2021 GMC Yukon AT4 Combines Rugged Looks With A Comfortable Ride

According to vice president of global Buick and GMC, Duncan Aldred, Denali and AT4 models could soon account for as much as 50 per cent of GMC’s retail sales. These sub-brands have provided GMC with its highest retail market share since 2005 in the first half of the year, and with an average transaction price 30 per cent higher than the industry average, Auto News reports.

“In its own right, [Denali] would be a very, very successful luxury brand,” Aldred recently told the media. “We’re not doing this by discounting or trying to go to the lower end. We’re staying true to the vision of being the only premium brand that occupies this space.”

President of the Americas operation and global forecasting at LMC Automotive, Jeff Schuster, added that GMC has morphed into a “stealth luxury brand” in recent years.

“Having the luxury features and content in a brand that isn’t necessarily thought of as luxury is appealing to some buyers,” Schuster said. “It’s addressing part of the market that wasn’t getting fully addressed previously. Consumers are gravitating toward these sub-brands.”

GMC’s range will receive a further boost next year when the all-electric GMC Hummer pickup truck hits the market.