2014 Cadillac ELR Readies For Battle In The Luxury Segment - Does It Stand A Chance?

The 2014 Cadillac ELR will be an entirely new kind of Cadillac: not only a compact personal coupe, but the first-ever plug-in model for the luxury brand. It's a high-style, premium range-extended electric car, with a likely battery range of perhaps 35 miles and then a range-extending gasoline engine that kicks on to generate electricity for unlimited miles thereafter.

If that sounds suspiciously like the rather less glamorous or luxurious Chevrolet Volt, there's a reason for that: The two cars share underpinnings. Cadillac promises, however, that the driving characteristics of the ELR electric coupe will be different and distinct, to befit the luxury brand that's making a serious effort to take on the German trio of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. None of those makes have anything like the ELR on the drawing board, though the BMW i3 electric urban car may approach the ELR in price once it's fully optioned up.

thetruth01 - 8/1/2013 1:36:34 PM

+1 Boost

i3 or ELR? Only a fanboi with a hardon for roundels would choose the i3. If Cadillac can make enough of them and price them right, this will be a home run.

nguyenvuminh - 8/1/2013 1:51:09 PM

+2 Boost

I personally am so impressed with this design. It still has that Cadillac industrial-design theme while being very different/unique from the rest of Cadillac as well as other luxury models. I don't know anything about its driving dynamics but from a design standpoint, I think it looks so much better than so many other cars out there. I do hope its driving dynamics to be stellar and its quality to befit its design.

randy3023 - 8/1/2013 1:52:13 PM

-1 Boost

No mention of price anywhere in this or the original article.

This thing will be a flop before it even hits the showrooms.

The excitement over the Volt platform evaporated long ago. This clunker must now fare with the rest of the generic hybrid crowd.

In short, there will be about as much excitement for this as there is for a Hybrid Tahoe.

Sciros - 8/1/2013 1:54:51 PM

+1 Boost

Pretty attractive looking car. Certainly no comparison in that sense to the i3. Performance-wise, we'll see I suppose. And if the average income of a Volt owner is $170000 as claimed by GM, then those people definitely have something to trade up to heh.

vdiv - 8/2/2013 12:12:50 PM

+1 Boost

Volt owners with an income of $170,000+ do have something to trade up to, it's called a Tesla Model S :)

cidflekken - 8/1/2013 2:52:22 PM

0 Boost

Have to agree that this is definitely an attractive car. I was afraid that it might just be a Volt in a tuxedo (which, technically, it is), but it doesn't look like it. This also might be the best Cadillac interior in a very, very long time (the poop-colored seats on this example, notwithstanding).
The only fear I'd have is its reliability. The Volt hasn't proven to be the most reliable.

Stuart22 - 8/4/2013 11:24:31 AM

+2 Boost

The Volt HAS proven to be very reliable. You don't top JD Powers customer satisfaction lists for three straight years by being unreliable. Going on the second year with my Volt with zero downtime.

The ELR drivetrain may be taken from the Volt, but so what.... the Volt should have been made a Cadillac from the get-go, it's that good. The engineering behind it is genius and the design execution has been superb. Any dismissive statements as to Cadillac using Chevrolet underpinnings comes from snobbish thinking.