Consumers and members of the media have claimed Cadillac’s $75,000 price tag for the ELR was too high since it was announced, but now the automaker itself is acknowledging the sticker on the plug-in hybrid EV was too high.
Cadillac marketing boss Uwe Ellinghaus recently admitted to Bloomberg the ELR’s steep $75K price tag was “indeed, a mouthful.” He said Cadillac priced the hybrid in a way that would highlight its array of standard equipment and technologies, but most consumers didn’t take this into account anyway.
“We overestimated that customers would realize our competitors were naked at that price,” Ellinghaus said.
In the last 18 months, Cadillac has sold just 1,835 ELRs, many at a price that is well under the steep asking price. As a result, the automaker went back to the drawing board for 2016, lowering then updated model’s price by nearly $10,000 before tax incentives and upping the power of the electric motor with software revision.
All-in-all, Ellinghaus says the ELR was a “great learning exercise.” A next-generation ELR may not be on the cards, but thanks to the ELR’s pricing blunder, Cadillac may be more careful when pricing out a future hybrid or electric model.
Comments
The ELR pricing ‘was indeed a pantsful’ is probably more accurate.
I find myself wondering if GM studios will renew the Johan and Uwe Comedy Hour for a second season.
This car demonstrates how completely out of touch some people at GM are and that the old GM is still in the house. Anybody with a basic knowledge of the auto industry could clearly see that this car would be a complete BOMB right at introduction. What a complete waste of capital!
GM Execs:
‘We overestimated our customers would be smart enough to realize this was a good deal’.
These idiots! GM execs are so out of touch they make my head spin.
You design a fugly hatchback that looks reminiscent of your models from 10 years ago, slap some leather seats in it, and just because you glued a “Cadillac” logo onto its bulging rear end it’s somehow worth EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?
What freaking morons. The other commenter is correct, GM should fire everybody at Cadillac in charge of this program and start over.
The only people likely dumb enough to overpay for this debacle, yet somehow managing to earn or save the requisite income to afford it, are GM’s own OVERPAID, idiotic execs. I don’t think that is an “overestimation”, Uwe.
Wow, Ellinghaus doesn’t get it. … Why did you think an impractical, expensive Cadillac Coupe would sell? The risk reward ratio was huge there, yet you guys didn’t see it… Should have made it a hatch so it would be competitive with practicality to the lovely Volt, which has a big fan following.
And, with some of the front seats in the 2016 ELR, they do not recline all the way! The battery splits the seats in the front and in the back, so you can’t easily make out there, and the front seat(s) not reclining all the way, idiotic! I thought Cadillacs were easy to make out in… The 2014s, the front seats do recline all the way, but the car is not much quicker than a Volt. 2016 is faster.