GM in Talks With Secret Service to Build Chevy Suburban HD Successor as an Escalade

General Motors has a storied history of government contracts. Worldwide, really. But in the U.S., Cadillac has been the go-to brand for presidential state cars since the 1980s. However, recent news suggests the U.S. Secret Service might do a rebadge, replacing its standard heavy-duty Suburbans with Cadillac variants.

Through official social channels, the Secret Service shared an image of what appears to be an armored Escalade fashioned after the GM Defense’s Suburban Shield, a Chevrolet Suburban HD with a lot of “commercial-off-the-shelf components.”  This is notable because although the current presidential state car is “The Beast,” a specially built Cadillac riding on a heavy-duty truck chassis, support vehicles used by the agency for the protection of the president and foreign officials have been Suburbans. 

“As threats evolve, we continue to explore emerging technologies to ensure our armored vehicles provide the highest level of safety for our protectees,” said the Secret Service. “This week, Secret Service Director Sean Curran met with GM executives to discuss advancements that could benefit the next generation of armored SUVs.”

According to Reuters, the meeting was held at the GM Global Design Center in Warren, Michigan. The news agency also said the automaker was awarded a $14.8-million contract from Homeland Security Department and Secret Service to produce a new version of “The Beast.” 

Reuters noted that this new contract hadn’t been previously reported. But as vehicle development times go, this won’t happen overnight, or this year, or maybe even during this administration’s term.

“We are too far out to speak to any specific costs or dates,” 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.”

Unless you count the fleet-only 3500HD blip, a Suburban HD hasn’t been available to the public for more than a decade when the 2500HD was discontinued after the 2014 model. And, well, that’s still going to be the case. As for an Escalade HD, that model has never existed, period. True, Escalades have some heavy-duty capabilities, but none have worn official “HD” badging.

However, with the contracts signed and the monies confirmed, we’ll see one eventually, right? And maybe, just maybe, that vehicle will trickle down to a consumer version. Eh, prolly not. But you could always buy an Escalade ESV and go aftermarket for the military-grade protections.

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