The U.S. Secret Service Wants More Luxurious Cadillacs And A New Beast

General Motors executives met with the U.S. Secret Service agency this week in Michigan to discuss the next generation of the Presidential state limousine and its support vehicles.

The current so-called Beast limo is based on a GM heavy-duty truck chassis but is otherwise bespoke and heavily armored, and the support vehicle of choice has typically been variations of GM’s Chevrolet Suburban SUV, but that could be about to change.

The Secret Service confirmed the meeting with GM in a post on X.com (embedded at the bottom of this article), with images showing off an early look at a next-gen armored Cadillac Escalade SUV along with Secret Service Director Sean Curran on hand to inspect.

The reveal that the agency is looking at Cadillac instead of Chevrolet is a bit of a surprise, but it makes plenty of sense for the next-generation security vehicles.

Why Cadillac Makes Sense For Everyone Involved

By aligning the badge on the SUV support vehicles with the badge on the Presidential Beast, it’s a streamlined image and likely ultimately a better branding deal for GM, which owns both Cadillac and Chevrolet. It also elevates the image of the agency and its operatives both at home and on the world stage by using a luxury marque over the more humble Chevrolet branding.

In addition, the Escalade is perhaps the most versatile SUV GM currently offers, with standard, long wheelbase, and EV versions of both of those on offer, plus now armored versions.

Related

The World’s Fastest Armored Car Only Weighs 300 LBS More Than A New M5

This $475,000 armored EV can protect from guns, poison gas, and even cyberattacks.

It’s very likely, given the popularity of all of GM and GM Defense’s armored products, that the automaker will continue to develop and produce a next-gen armored Chevy Suburban SUV for commercial sale, and plus, the base model shares plenty of components with the base Cadillac Escalade.

It’s not clear if armoring will come to the entire Escalade lineup in some form eventually, or if the Secret Service is ordering just one particular spec, and it’s not immediately clear from the teaser concept which exact trim the armored version we see in the images will be based on. Still, it’s easy to imagine GM is thinking of the potential of expanding its armoring lineup, and it has the platforms to do it.

​​​​​​

It Could Take Years For New Wheels To Reach The Secret Service

Reuters reports there’s no clear timetable for when the next-generation Beast vehicle will be introduced, nor its armored Escalade counterpart. A Secret Service spokesperson told Reuters: “Our engineering, protective operations and technical security teams work for years to develop the state-of-the-art framework that is used to produce these highly advanced vehicles.”

Related

BMW Bulletproof Department You’ve Never Heard Of Is 45 Years Old

For almost half a century, BMW has produced armored cars for the world’s wealthiest and most important indivduals around the world.

What is newly mentioned is that GM’s new Secret Service contract is worth $14.8 million, and could grow to more than $40.8 million through the end of the decade. This will be the second time President Trump has had direct involvement in the development or implementation of a new presidential limousine, which was last majorly updated in 2018.

Sources: Reuters, usaspending.gov