Cadillac Announces ELR, an extended-range electric vehicle

August 17, 2011 By Mike Dunn

Cadillac announces plans to produce the ELR, a new two door extended-range electric vehicle.

Cadillac has decided to produce a car in a new shade of green. General Motors announced today that it will produce an extended-range electric Cadillac. This is the same technology that is currently in use in Chevy’s Volt. Exact details about the car are very scarce at this point as it is in the very initial planning stages.

The car will be named the Cadillac ELR, where the E stands for electric of course. The press release was very tight lipped about the power train of the vehicle. We know that it will function in the same way as the Volt in that it will be a purely electric drive train, and when power gets low the gas generator will kick in to help charge the batteries. It is unknown if the Caddy will share the exact same engine components as the Volt. We sure hope that for something that looks as aggressive as the ELR that it will be a little more performance minded.

Speaking of aggressive, this car looks very sexy. It clearly looks like a modern day Caddy with its angular shape and lines. The ELR looks like a high performance two door coupe, so let’s hope that it doesn’t have a 0-60 time that flirts with double digits.

A recent study showed that consumers are still wary of electric cars, but the ELR won’t be a pure electric car so it might get a pass with consumers. The Chevy Volt is currently not selling as well as GM had hoped, and is falling behind the Nissan Leaf in recent sale comparisons. The ELR will most likely have a slightly different target audience, so it might fair better than it’s Chevy counterpart.

Showing 3 comments

Dan Gaul at 9:08pm 17th August 2011 Good looking car. I'm not wary of an electric other than the price. I feel right now they cost too much for what you get.
1. Mike Dunn at 8:04am 18th August 2011 I still see them as a 2nd car for people. I'd love to have one for my tiny commute, but if I have to drive down to LA for some reason I wouldn't be able to take an electric car (the ELR would work cause of the gas generator) due to range and recharge time, unless I wanted to charge up a couple of nights along the way down.
  1. Dan Gaul at 5:12pm 18th August 2011 True. But I think most people near a city drive 80% of the time within the range of an electric. You could rent a car for those times when you need to drive a longer distance and it would probably still be cheaper.