Automotive News is reporting that General Motors will begin to manufacture Cadillac vehicles outside of North America by the end of next year. Dan Akerson, GM CEO, says the move is part of an overall strategy to make the Wreath and Crest a truly global brand. Right now, Cadillac vehicles are manufactured only in U.S. and Mexican facilities, despite the fact that the models are sold all over the world. Expanding production outside of those two countries would help protect Cadillac from currency fluctuations and help the company better manage its supply chain, Akerson said.

As of right now, there’s no indication as to where the new plants will be located, but we wouldn’t be shocked if it turned out to be China.

Akerson also said that GM wants to make Cadillac the company’s global luxury brand just as Chevrolet is its current global value brand. The General hopes that doing so will allow the automaker to emulate the success that Toyota has had with Lexus.

Cadillac has experimented with production outside of North America in the past with lackluster results. The unloved Saab 9-3 -based BLS sedan and wagon (above) was produced in Sweden from 2005-2009 and Russia from 2009-2010.

The Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, an extremely capable family hauler and performance car. By anyone’s standards, it’s out-of-this-world quick, but when you consider it weighs nearly 4,400 pounds, its supercar-embarrassing acceleration and grip are that much more amazing.

So, it feels fast and will haul a load of groceries with the best of them, but how does it stack up in the pantheon of performance? The Smoking Tire decided to find out, taking a CTS-V Wagon and a Chevrolet Corvette to El Mirage. The big Caddy got put to the test, running to its top end (or at least very close to it) along a three-mile course, and going head-to-head with the ‘Vette in a dead sprint. To see how the long roof luxury barge fared, check out the video after the jump.

Your smug neighbors clean their clothes with Method laundry detergent, they’ve laid down cork flooring on their first floor and they have organic cotton shower curtains hanging in all four of their bathrooms. Driveways around the country are filled with neighbors swapping prideful mile-per-gallon figures instead of Junior’s latest little league stats. Yet we fear that the term “green” gets tossed around far too easily these days. We see hybrids and electrics all around us, but most aren’t designed to compete against the green yardstick that is the Toyota Prius.

The 2011 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, for example, relies on similar tech, yet it’s effectively the Toyota’s polar opposite. Possessing the elegant style of a fashionable fat kid, the Escalade Hybrid manages to produce brutish noises and surprising bursts of speed. An expensive eight-passenger luxury barge, this full-size hybrid SUV could easily be dismissed as an overpriced dinosaur – especially as it has been getting a bit long-in-the-tooth while the competition has continued to evolve. GM knows this, and it’s recently committed to investing a bundle into the Arlington, Texas plant that churns out the cash cow GMT900 platform this Caddy rides upon.

A replacement may be on the way for 2014, but we still couldn’t help but feel that there’s something compelling about this generation’s sharp fenders, large rolling stock and singular swagger that’s worth revisiting. Not wanting to mess about with anything less than full kingpin spec, we requested a week with the hybrid Platinum model seen here. Click past the jump to see if this baller still has game.

In December, 2010 there were reports that a Cadillac SRX plug-in hybrid electric vehicle was in some pipeline somewhere, and that it would eventually plop into some sort of consumer reality. The same outlet that reported that story, Reuters, now cites six GM Deep Throats as saying General Motors has killed the SRX PHEV program.

Overlapping timetables were apparently the problem – by the time the vehicle was ready, the Theta platform that supports it would be at the end of its life. And it didn’t help that the SRX PHEV was expected to lose money. That made GM’s decision to cancel it, in spite of having spent money to develop the powertrain for three different vehicles so far, a little easier. On top of that, the program was never officially made public, so it’s not like GM has anything to apologize for.

The suggestion in the Reuters report, though, is that GM isn’t walking away from it altogether. A spokesman said, “I’m not going to comment on specific products or timing for applications, but we still see promise in the technology,” and it is known that GM CEO Dan Akerson wants to get Chevrolet Volt range-extending tech into other models, pronto. But after Saturn, Buick and Cadillac haven’t made the cut, what’s next?

The list of vehicles with an available manual transmission may become a bit smaller for 2012, as Inside Line is reporting that certain 2012 Cadillac CTS models will lose the ability to specify a third pedal. IL cites sources from within General Motors who say that models equipped with the 3.6-liter V6 will only be offered with an automatic transmission next year. The high-performance CTS-V sedan, coupe and wagon will still be offered with a manual transmission, as will CTS variants equipped with the torque-deprived 3.0-liter V6.

The General wouldn’t specify why the 3.6-liter-equipped models would lose the manual option, but we’re thinking that a low take rate at the dealership had something to do with the decision. And while we never like to see that owners lose out on the manual-equipped version of any vehicle, at least the CTS-V will retain row-your-own ability.