Many of us were impressed by the XTS Platinum Concept that was unveiled by Cadillac at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. And while we had a pretty good inclination that the XTS concept was a big par of GM's future plans, as the Cadillac Converj has taught us, nothing's final until we hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

After months of speculation, we can finally confirm it: the XTS will get the green light and will be launched as a 2012 model.

The new XTS model will replace both DTS and STS and, according to the latest rumors, will stay faithful to the concept - both in and out. Under its hood, the XTS will combine a 3.6-liter gas direct-injection V-6 with the plug-in system originally developed for the Saturn Vue. In addition to the 3.6-liter V6, the XTS will also likely come with a twin-turbo V8 and a V8 variant.

Drawing inspiration from the Cadillac Sixteen concept, the XTS concept’s exterior is highlighted by Cadillac’s Art and Science design language with features like vertical headlamps and taillights packed with LEDs and integrated light pipes that make for rich detail without being overbearing despite sitting on a set of 20-inch eleven spoke rims. We will just need to wait and see how many of these elements will make it to production version.

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