Cadillac will call its new flagship the CT6, while it begins to adopt a new naming plan for future products.

Cadillac is adding a significant detail to the various headlines it has made over the last two weeks, announcing that its planned flagship sedan will be emblazoned with the name, CT6 – not to be confused with the midrange Cadillac CTS.

The latest news follows up on Caddy’s confirmation it will be moving its headquarters to NYC in the near future as part of an effort to come in closer contact with the sort of luxury car buyers it hopes to win over to the struggling brand. Word of the flagship sedan was first revealed by General Motors CEO Mary Barra earlier this month. But, as TheDetroitBureau.com reported this week, new Cadillac brand boss Johan de Nysschen is giving strong consideration to a model that would rise even higher into the luxury spectrum.

As for the CT6, “This Cadillac will be the lightest and most agile car in the class of top-level large luxury sedans,” said Travis Hester, the project’s executive chief engineer. “Using the lessons learned from our dynamic ATS and CTS product lines, we have developed an entirely new vehicle architecture for the CT6. It will employ a mixed material philosophy that combines the best and most efficient components optimized for each area of this new top-of-the-range car.”

(For more on Cadillac’s move to the Big Apple, Click Here.)

Among other things, the new flagship is expected to introduce Cadillac’s new Super Drive technology, a near-autonomous system that will allow hands-free driving will on a limited-access highway. Caddy is also working up a vehicle-to-vehicle communications system for its midrange CTS. Both technologies are set to come to market in 2017.

The decision to adopt the CT6 name is part of a new naming structure that shifts just slightly away from alpha-based designations – such as ATS and CTS – Cadillac currently uses. Apparently, the brand will use CT and a subsequent number to indicate where in the line-up the model belongs – somewhat like the approach at Infiniti, where de Nysschen worked until recently. There, passenger car models began with a Q followed by two numbers. Trucks and crossovers used QX.

Cadillac is hoping that makes things a little easy to understand, apparently, than the current approach, with no clear way for customers to understand the difference between an ATS, CTS, XTS or the old DTS and STS nameplates.

“As we expand the portfolio, we can assist consumers in placing the cars within a structure, as they compare cars both within our showroom and across the market generally,” said Uwe Ellinghaus, Cadillac chief marketing officer. “However, 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.”

In fact, there will be plenty of new products coming down the assembly line between now and decade’s end, de Nysschen revealed during an exclusive interview with TheDetroitBureau.com.

The coming flagship model will be rear-wheel-drive-based land above the current, front-drive XTS model expected to go away or be replaced later in the decade. But de Nysschen confided that Cadillac is looking to push even higher into the luxury market, saying, “I quite readily envision a Cadillac positioned above the car we’ll be launching next year.”

Meanwhile, the current line-up of two utility vehicles could grow to five or more by decade’s end, with new coupes, crossovers, convertibles and performance models under study, as well.

(Click Here for more on Cadillac’s ambitious product plans.)

The new CT6 and other products will underpin a dramatic shift in Cadillac’s overall strategy. Not only is the brand looking to grow its portfolio but it also aims to expand its geographic presence. In fact, de Nysschen said U.S. sales could dip over the next several years as Caddy prices rise. But it hopes to offset that by boosting sales in China and other overseas markets.

To that extent, expect to see the new CT6 and other future Cadillac products designed to reflect global tastes, rather than just the needs of American motorists.

(Cadillac building momentum in China. Click Here for the full story.)