Cadillac Hopes To Grow In California With Upcoming ELR
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Cadillac has been doing a great job changing its silver-haired image of yore, and has certainly drawn in new crowds with products like the CTS-V family and ATS sedan. The 2014 ELR coupe seems to be on track to build on that momentum, as well. It’s a sleek, sexy, efficient coupe that we can’t wait to get our hands on, and believe it or not, looks even better in person.
With new crowds in mind, Cadillac hopes that the plug-in coupe will help the brand grow in California, where alternative-energy vehicles seem to be the most popular.
“We see the ELR as part of our strategy for coming back to ascendancy in California,” said Melody Lee, director of brand reputation and strategy at Cadillac in a PlugInCars.com report. “We know the electric vehicle is maybe more important here than anywhere in the U.S.”
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I know GM is going as fast as they can, but they’re ta least a year behind the market with this car. The Model S totally dominated 2013, and will continue to do well going forward, while the ELR is slowly getting out of the gate in January 2014 (which means you won’t see it in any numbers until mid-2014).
That story you linked to quotes a range of $55 – $75,000, and if Cadillac wants to make any impact at all, they better be towards the low end, ($60,000 sounds good). This car–which is a looker, inside and out–does not have the sportiness that other luxury cars do (electric or otherwise), so they can’t expect a big premium for it. GM needs to get Cadillac out there, in numbers, as fast they can at this point. They can’t continue to get crushed in the US’s biggest car market, California.
What would be interesting is to see GM do a Tesla type car. Lets face it the Tesla is really nothing that special as any other electric car other than it is a luxury car vs. a little box on wheels.
GM could take the ELR and make it all electric very easily and do just the same thing and I expect they could do it for even less.
From the other story there are enough nut jobs in California that will buy them.
The key to the Tesla’s success is how it has been marketed on the web. Lets face it of all the people clamoring about it few have ever driven one let alone even seen one. Yet they declare all the virtue in the world of it and Elon.
Elon know promotion and marketing and how to use the web to grow business and that are the keys here. If Fiskar had done their web work as well they would also not be Chapter 11.
Lets face it the Volt would be doing better with stronger marketing for the Volt. For a while we heard a lot and now it is like it dropped off the earth.
GM need to sell the Volt every day not just month or two at a time. Keep a steady flow of updates and changes and market the hell out of it.
“Lets face it” occurred three times in your post.
That, and saying the Model S is “nothing that special as any other electric car other than it is a luxury car vs. a little box on wheels.” is like trying to cast the Model s and the iMiEV into the same mould. They both have different EV powertrains, but both are most definitely not aimed at the same consumer.
I suppose the same can be said of other cars that are ICE powered, especially if they are going to be seen as the same thing based on powertrains alone.
A similar statement can be made of the Mercedes E-class and the Chrysler 200, as they are both just mid-size luxury cars and that the E-class is “nothing that special as any other gas-powered car other than it is a luxury car vs. a little box on wheels.”
You just have to face it! Push me and I will use it in ever sentence.
The Volt is new technology vs. all the others plain and simple. The Tesla is just an expensive all electric car and the only difference is it is a luxury car not a box. The technology that runs it is really not all that different.
It is competing in a class no one has tried an electric and most figured no one would buy in.
The Chrysler 200 is not in the same luxury class. It is more trailer park luxury.