Do you remember when General Motors’ Executive Vice President Mark Reuss was asked about the possibility of a high performance version of the ELR plug-in hybrid? The long-time exec said putting Magnetic Ride on the car isn’t feasible because that would take away from the car’s range, but he noted that there is room to “expand the tuning envelope” of the plug-in hybrid if they wanted to.
At first it sounded like typical PR speak with not much to it, but new spy shots from Autoblog indicate that Cadillac may indeed be working on a performance version of the ELR. The model spotted is fitted with sportier black wheels which appear to have been installed in order to accommodate a larger set of brakes that Autoblog believes were lifted from the Regal GS.
Hiding under the camouflaged front end is a new grille, possibly one which incorporates Cadillac’s new wreathless emblem, which rounds off the obvious indicators of this being a higher performance ELR.
According to Autoblog, the car was spotted testing alongside the Tesla Model S. This, even more so than the brakes and wheels, is the biggest indication that Cadillac is looking at enhancing the performance of the ELR. The Model S is available in a performance ‘P85’ version, which gives it the equivalent of 416 horsepower and enough juice to embarrass a BMW M5 in the quarter mile, so if this is actually a performance-focused ELR, it’s in good company.
Will it be a full-on ‘V’ like Reuss was asked in Detroit? Probably not. This could just be a mild refresh to make some small improvements and to change the front bumper to accommodate Caddy’s new emblem, though we’d love to see a performance plug-in hybrid from the brand.
Check out the photos here and let us know what you think this prototype may be in the comments.
Comments
ELR-V?
I do not think is necessary, the ELR will sell for what he represents, is a unique luxury car; it goes to the man with money who want a car that stands by itself.
This car does not need to prove anything, shows what has already, personality, originality, luxury and comfort
Regards from Spain
My guess it has to do with introduction of i8 and soon the audi plugin hybrid. A lot of manufacturers are looking into plugin hybrids so they need to stay competitive to be in the game.
@Jonathan: “…the ELR will sell for what he represents”. Well, you got that right. It is my understanding that since the December launch, less than 300 ELR’s have been sold worldwide. If so, this is a testament to how truly pathetic GM leadership is. I thought that the initial Volt marketing fiasco, where GM touted the Volt as an “Electric car” (vs. a truly unique hybrid – sans range anxiety), was leadership incompetence. But I see GM Execs have double downed on their welfare-queen, bail-out mentality driven arrogance with respect to the ELR. GM engineering, design, and manufacturing have been doing an exceptional job, too bad these talented folks can’t also decide pricing and marketing strategy. Those “that could”, would be embarrassed to drive an ELR, because they would know everyone else is thinking them a fool for paying what they paid. The solution to the ELR’s woes (other than replacing every GM VP on up, as well as the industry media shills who use the term “possibly in a headline”) is simple; chop $20,000 off of the MSRP, and you’re now well outside of Tesla territory with a great product that has an entire price bracket to itself, and no comparable competition. Situated between the BMW i3 and the Tesla Model S, the Cadillac ELR could do quite well. I would trade my 2012 Volt for an ELR in a heartbeat if that happened.
Actually, no I am not embarrassed about what I paid for my ELR. You can mouth off all you want but it is a really nice coupe. Do I think Cadillac has done a poor job marketing the vehicle, yes! Is it worth the money, yes! I could have bought a Tesla, a Porsche, another BMW or another Mercedes, but I like the looks of the ELR. They need to market the car better, in markets like mine where Maserati, lotus, and rolls Royce are very common place. Any of those car manufactures know their cars could sell more if they were cheaper, but that isn’t the point.
@Greg- I’m open minded here. Please explain why you feel that the ELR is worth the money…compared to similar priced competition in the marketplace? We both agree on the beauty of the ELR styling – which it shares in large part with its ICE CTS sister. It’s clear the ELR price is tiered with the Tesla, and arguably with the Porsche Panamera hybrid…as well as new models coming to market. I have driven all three. If you think that the ELR is in a performance league with the S, or Panamera…we may not have much to rationally discuss. I’m just not seeing the logic of the price point, and I may not be alone based on ELR sales volume. Keep in mind I am a Volt owner, and feel the Voltec drive is by far the best -application specific- engineering that has ever been brought to mass production by ANY manufacture, ever.
@Grawdaddy – MSRP squarely places the ELR in the Tesla S class. That was my point. An $80K VW Jetta PHEV would raise the same concerns. “…and there is no such thing as affordable luxury. ” Seriously?? Luxury, by definition, is relative. 40 years ago, only “luxury” cars came standard with air conditioning, power windows, power this, that, and the other. Now its hard to find ANY car that doesn’t have what once was considered luxury as standard equipment. I submit this thought that luxury as a value is outdated as well. **Exclusivity**, both in design and engineering (not luxury), is why a discerning buyer will pay a premium for a automobile. The ELR has the design, but unfortunately comes up short with its competitors in terms of engineering … which in reality underscores the issue; it IS a Volt roadster.
Glad to hear your open minded and happy that you own a volt. While I really do not like the interior or exterior of the volt, it’s drive train makes sense to me given our existing transportation infrastructure. I looked at the volt originally and really did not care for its looks both inside and out. When Chevrolet lowered the price of the volt, I looked at it again. And left saying even at the lower price I did not like its looks. And You are right the ELR is no sports car, it’s a darn good looking coupe with a very nice interior that is a joy to be in. Considering my commute is 60 miles round trip and we have charging stations at my office, limited electric mileage is not a big priority but comfort is. It’s the same argument for buying a pair of jeans at Macy’s for $45 and a very similar looking pair at Neiman Marcus for $295. However the pair from Neiman is soft and comfortable and the pair from Macy’s is hard and uncomfortable. It’s really just marketing, comfort and a willingness to pay for it. So lowering the price may move you into the ELR today but building an exclusive market for the product will serve a longer term profit. Now that’s me speaking, let’s see if the management at Cadillac can actually pull it off. If not, that’s ok, because I’ll have a car that looks like art. And the beauty and value of that art is in the eye of the beholder. Good thing about opinions, we can both have different ones.
@Greg – I will concede to your point. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Our Volt (wife drives a 52 Mile round trip commute), went almost 14 Months, almost 18,000 miles, without a drop of petrol. My frustration is that I waited for the ELR, expecting a $55K base. I even went with a larger Solar array, in expectation of a 2nd vehicle to charge. I suffer from range anxiety, even though I don’t do a lot of driving typically. But I just can’t value-justify the ELR…right now. I’m not alone, GM has a tick under 2,000 ELR’s in inventory – which at the rate they are selling right now, would last 33 Months (I guess Stephan Meier thinks the “business plan” includes this scenario as ‘A Good thing). By end of summer, if GM doesn’t see the reality, I will likely drop for the PanameraS-E, or … or get a bargain basement Fisker Karma and hope … or sit it out for a year and see if the ELR resale depreciation approaches 30%.
The ELR was never in Model S territory to being with, as the ELR is a compact coupe and the Model S is a full-size sedan. You’d have a case if Tesla offered a compact and Cadillac offered a full-size car.
Even if the ELR sells only 300 units, it’s shares nothing but the powertrain with the Volt; there is no Volt coupe. To that end, as a luxury product, exclusivity and product is what matters Gross unit sales don’t matter as we have had decades and decades of inferior products form GM that were badged as Cadillacs. That was when GM was solely concerned with unit sales and not with product. The ELR priced as is does harm only to those who have pangs for it.
That, and there is no such thing as affordable luxury. Slashing $20K of an ELR will do nothing for Cadillac or GM, as there is no reason for Cadillac to emulate Lincoln with that kind of approach.
I think that while price elasticity increases for the ‘extreme luxury’ category the ELR is definitely suffering from being priced too high for what it is. Even the affluent look at ‘value’ when purchasing, for example even if they can afford to spend $100K on a 911 but can get a new Stringray for $50K which matches/exceeds the stats AND has comparable build quality/luxury interior/etc they will happily save the $50K. Now that is not true for ALL the affluent, some just believe in the Porsche label and will buy it regardless, some prefer the styling and are willing to pay for that, and some may even want to spend more just to show they can (even if in private they actually prefer the Corvette…)
However that latter category is only a small fraction of the total ‘affluent’ — many so called ‘affluent’ are folks who are stretching to buy the car of their dreams, and that set certainly cares about price/value but are willing to pay more. There are really 4 buckets: people who are on a budget vs not on a budget and those who care about image/brand vs those who are first and foremost ‘car people’ who just want the best vehicle. If you assume an even split then you’d get 25% in each bucket (I’m sure someone can dig up some market research here to better classify the breakdown). The ELR currently rules out all the on a budget folks, and almost all of the ‘car people’ are going to reject it because of the VOLT underpinnings… You are left with that fraction of the brand/image people not on a budget who like the Cadillac brand and ecological image and want a coupe, which is a pretty small market 🙁
Bottom line, I claim both making the price competitive and improving the performance would bring in a lot more folks.
I just love the critics of this car that truly do not have all the information let alone the full business plan of where this is all going.
The idea of the Volt and ELR is not so much to build massive volume from the start it was generally just to establish a market. Once the market is established then you can work to reduce cost and advance the technology.
This segment is one that when GM started had few suppliers or companies that were involved or wanting to get involves with out some sign GM was committed long term to producing these kinds of cars.
This deal is not about immediate profits but to establish a market to convince suppliers to invest in products they believe they can sell. This segment will take several generations to grow as it is not one that is going to rocket out of the gate.
Also I would not be surprised if this mule could be something under the body meant for another car. It may look like a ELR but it could be a drivetrain for another car since it was being benchmarked with the S model.
While Elon Musk has everyone fooled into thinking he will sell what 250,000 car in the next year or two the reality is slow but steady growth will be for this segment. Elon I just saw killed off the key car for his company the E model.
I would recommend reading Mark Vaughns story of the realities at Tesla. The story brings in the realties many leave out when it comes to the electric markets and Tesla.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140403/CARNEWS/140329864
You might not like the bashing of the ELR, but that is no reason to go attacking Tesla with complete nonsense.
First of all, Musk never said that they will sell 250,000 cars in a year or 2. They said they expect doubling in the next year or 2 but that doesn’t add up to 250,000 just yet. They will probably only hit 250,000 cars a year when the Gen 3 is released.
And no, Tesla did not cancel the Model E. Ford challenged Tesla’s trademark for the name “Model E” so Tesla decided to give it up. The Gen 3 Bluestar(the internal code name for the car) is still on track and will be shown off in First quarter of next year.
And Mark Vaughns story is complete nonsense, I can quickly answer all his statements if you wish:
1) Musk blamed the media for over-blowing the issue. Which they did.
2) Tesla had a recall for 1300 cars, that was a recall. The thing Musk said was not a recall was them doing a OTA software update to all cars. Strickland, the NHTSA director agreed with Tesla that it should not really be considered a recall.
3) Tesla actually did post profits and most people see it as profits. Though more important the stock price is always based on speculations for all companies. When you exceed expectations, prices go up.
4) The car will cost 35k actually, and he didn’t give it any new name gigafactory stands for the production of the factory as being gwh per year.
5) The competition list for the Gen 3 is a joke, it will have 2x the range of those cars and cost cheaper then some of them. RAV 4 EV is also being discontinued.
6) Tesla did not get their factory free of charge, they paid it in 50 million in stock. Considering the cost of Tesla stock at the time and today, Toyota got a very good deal on their factory.
7) As far as charging free for life is not an issue. Most people will charge at home, sueprchargers are for long distance charging. The cost is built into the car and includes solar panels and battery backup. Which means the energy generation is paid for upfront. Doesn’t cost them anything.
8) And yes, Tesla can easily guarantee the resale value, because most people will not use it. The resale value is on par with that of the industry. And so far Tesla cars had some of the highest resale values.
All those answers could have easily been gotten with a bit of research.
Not bashing it is just the truth.
What is false in the Vaughn story? And prove it not just with your opinion. Tesla faces some real challenges that they may or may not overcome.
I do not want Tesla to fail as it would set back everyone including the GM program. But the realties are there and challenges are still to be met. It will take more than a bunch or media blitz and big dreams to overcome them. While they still can the road will become even more challenging as they go. Even Elons pockets are not that deep.
Tesla has avoided several issues well but one major issue could sink them on the stock market. Building a company is not easy and with new technology even more of a challenge. It takes a lot of hard work but also a lot of luck too no matter who the company is.
I agree with you that the ELR is an expensive product, and will have a slow sales growth for its 2 particular things:
1) The electricity market is a market that still is gaining confidence in the people, is still commanded by Car Market combustion, therefore, is soon to find out if Tesla or GM / Voltec have a market segment insured
2) The design and practicality of the car; Volt Coupé just 4 seats , which in my country call “to give the appearance and luxury status”, the ELR is charming but ……..
What would have happened if I had this Cadillac ELR 5 doors, good trunk load, and a nice way to luxury sedan?
Now many more sales would, that was the way to get into the electric luxury competition
First; the sedan 5-door Cadillac convenient and practicity with style, and then goes after the Coupé variant posh and had entered the market strongly and more solid
Regards from Spain