Cadillac ELR – a Chevy Volt in posh clothes – confirmed

The Cadillac Converj is going in to production as the Cadillac ELR

When GM revealed the Cadillac Converj Concept at Detroit in 2009 it all looked very promising. But it came to nothing, despite rumours it was going in to production. But now it is going in to production, as the Cadillac ELR.

We don’t know why Cadillac has picked ELR as the moniker of choice for the production Converj, except perhaps that Cadillac always use three letters for their model designations, and we assume the ‘E’ stand for electric (ELR is best known here as East Lancs Railway – but we don’t think that’s Cadillac’s intention).

For the Cadillac ELR is in fact a Chevy Volt in posh clothes; a range-extender electric car with a small 4-pot lump to cut in and charge the battery when the plug-in electrickery is all used up – which really doesn’t take all that long.

That said, if people are prepared to pay through the nose for electric cars that are inferior in almost every way to a regular car, then at least the range-extender setup is the best way to go. And wrapped up inside the very appealing Cadillac ELR body makes it rather appealing.

But whether a sexy body will be enough to drag buyers in to the ELR is debatable, but if daft governments keep offering baseless tax breaks for drivers of electric company cars they will sell some.

But what the price of the Cadillac ELR will be when the Volt/Ampera will cost north of £40k we dread to think. You’ve got to be looking at the wrong side of £50k. Why not instead stick a decent turbo diesel in the Converj Concept and bring it to Europe at around £30k?

That could really sell.

By Cars UK