Spying: Cadillac ELR Sweating Out In The Desert

Wow, did they dumb-down that, or what?!

With the crazy disguise paint can't really tell much about what it looks like...

Looks like the same front end as the Volt, but with vertical headlights rather than horizontal. My fear is it will have the same powertrain as the Volt, and we saw how Lexus bombed when putting the Prius powertrain into a CT200h or that HS250h thing (that was Camry hybrid system I think). And the Prius is a sales success, the Volt is not. Unless the ELR has a big performance or range improvement over the Volt I can't see people buying it. If they sell 20k Volts per year, how many $60k Cadillacs with the same performance and a less practical 2-door style will sell?

I would not get too excited yet. I see most of the major body lines are still there.

The major changes are the addition of mirrors, the lower part of the grill has changed a little but they are still doing hot weather testing so it will remain in flux. Also the car will not be show car low and the wheels will lose an inch or two. Real world and show cars have two realities and they have different goals.

I do see the windows are pretty much the same the hard body line from the rear tail light forward is in tact and the over all shape is similar. They may have had to add a inch of head room so someone over 5 foot 4 can get in with out hitting their head.

I just wish they could give it some real performance but I expect it may just have a little more than the Volt.

I do expect that this will have the improved motors and electronics the Volt has not yet gotten. I would think of this car as being a Volt drive line 2.0.

It's pretty close. Like the difference between the Camaro concept and the production version. No freak outs, please.

Doesn't look dumbed down to me; just camouflaged... Still hope GM will differentiate it performance-wise from the Volt.

the only thing I wish they would not do here is set any kind of sales expectations. They keep making crazy numbers for the Volt and when it fails to meet them people think it has failes when the car was never expected to meet high numbers out of the gate by those who built it.

Let it sell and let the numbers fall where they may and keep working to lower cost and raise the range. The goal was just to create the segment and improve it from there.

It would be better if the Volt were $30,000 MSRP and the future ELR be about $50,000. High entry prices are why the Volt has 84 days in dealer inventory.

hybrid cimarron

It would be better if the Volt were $30,000 MSRP and the future ELR be about $50,000. High entry prices are why the Volt has 84 days in dealer inventory.

With the Volt at around $40k, I wonder if the ELR will be $50-60k, or higher--making it a flagship of sorts...

hybrid cimarron

I agree, it is another compact slow Chevy turned Cadillac. The only difference is 2 door not 4 and the interior should be more of a step up than what the Cimarron had over the Cavalier. The ELR might have CTS-V price tag and Chevy Sonic performance. Perhaps the ELR is more Allante than Cimarron, a high price flop could be coming.

I see another case of Premature Prediction.

Are you going to complain about the 70% complete interior too.

A smart observer would at least let them finish the car and look at the finished product before passing judgment to be fair.

In this case I don't think I need to see the finished product, we've already seen the Volt. There is no way the ELR is going to be $20,000 better than an ATS.

See that is what you have it wrong as it is not going to be an ATS since Cadillac already has one.

This is a car that will compete in the new class luxry cars car use less gas or in this case very little gas. All Luxury MFG will have them in the future.

Also it would be a mistake to think of this car as nothing as a rebadged Volt as it will have things the Volt did not ger. #1 expect a more advanced driveline with improvments the Volt has not seen. #2 Also expect styling not offered on the Volt. #3 expect Luxury level of options the Volt does not offer.

Cadillac is going for a well balanced approch to car where not everything they offer will be a sports V series sedan.

The key to this car is to establish a base market and grow it as they are doing with the Volt. Electric cars are not going to dominate the market over night or even in 10 years. But if GM sits and does nothing they will have nothing as the other makers continue to grow their segments.

My hope is they do not come out and make overly high sales goals like they did with the Volt. From now on GM should work at selling the car and not make any public claims as it is a now win claim for them since this will continue to be a low volume segment for a while longer. The 10,000 volts sold this year to me is a good start and it will continue to grow.

At this point you statments show little insight as you are condemeing a car you really have little clue about. Once the car is here and you want to hate it fine but at least know what you are hating.

There were those who condemed the idea of Cadillac building a small Turbo 4 cylinder car and today many experts feel it is the best Cadillac they have built in decades.

It is not so much what you know but what you don't know that comes back and bites you in the ass. At GM today there is a lot most of us don't know since they are very quiet about any info anymore till about 12 months out.

eMpg is going to be the performance measure for this class of car, I believe.

eMpg is going to be the performance measure for this class of car, I believe.

If not here it will be in Europe.

We watch too much Top Gear here and think everyone in Europe is like Carkson and Richard. The fact is money is tight and gas and diesel is high priced there MPG are getting to be more important than HP.

Hm, for $50K I'd get a base Model S instead.

But ELR has the potential to be something truly great if Cadillac tries hard enough. The concept had supercar proportions (almost Gallardo-like). If they make the production model a very style-conscious, "boutique" car like the Range Rover Evoque, where it's expensive not because of its mechanicals but rather its exclusivity, features, and design, they could be on to something.

The issue is a car like this is not a Lambo or a tuner car where people will put up with hitting their head on the door sill or scrapping the front air dam on every driveway approach.

This car has to live with real people on their every day drive as this is not some kind of weekend play car. Show cars are neat and cool but in the real world they would generally flop if people had to put up with a lot of crap just to drive it.

Good example is the SSR. While it was cool it had many ergo issues and if it were not so much a specialty car it would have had issues. Just imagine if you had to open the door every time you wanted to adjust the seats etc. I think prople would grow tired soon on that.

In this car they need better good head room and while the larger wheels look cool the extra 2-5 miles on a charge would hold more appeal to people who would be interested in this car.

GM is creating a segment here with a 2 door electric luxury car and it will be interesting to see how they play it out. This is not going to just be a Volt 2 door. I just hope they pop some more powerful motors in it and a 2.5 engine.

Cadillac needs to save the fun show car tricks for a real sports car that is limited production and has a real gas performance engine in it.

If the final product is true-to-concept, this car will do just fine.

The Converj was beautiful in a way electrics rarely are.

The Tesla Model S has far more practicality too and is in a way an intriguing prospect. But to get the good range and acceleration you need to option up to the really expensive model. I just don't see a big market for electric luxury cars, let alone luxury coupes. Usually people buy a coupe because it is a fast sports car, not because it is slow and can go 40 miles on electric.

This is also the type of thing that keeps Mercedes and BMW on top, and the rest chasing. Cadillac, Lexus, Lincoln, Acura, whoever all default back to turning a Chevy/Toyota/Ford/Honda into a luxury car and it comes out half baked, because at the end of the day, that ES350 is still a Camry, the MKS still a Taurus, the ELR still a Volt, Escalade a Tahoe, etc. Mercedes and BMW are purpose built for the class on a clean slate, not modified from the parts bin.

The Tesla Model S has far more practicality too and is in a way an intriguing prospect. But to get the good range and acceleration you need to option up to the really expensive model. I just don't see a big market for electric luxury cars, let alone luxury coupes. Usually people buy a coupe because it is a fast sports car, not because it is slow and can go 40 miles on electric.

This is also the type of thing that keeps Mercedes and BMW on top, and the rest chasing. Cadillac, Lexus, Lincoln, Acura, whoever all default back to turning a Chevy/Toyota/Ford/Honda into a luxury car and it comes out half baked, because at the end of the day, that ES350 is still a Camry, the MKS still a Taurus, the ELR still a Volt, Escalade a Tahoe, etc. Mercedes and BMW are purpose built for the class on a clean slate, not modified from the parts bin.

Then the Omega should be a winner being purpose built for Cadillac...

Then the Omega should be a winner being purpose built for Cadillac...

Yes it should be, unless they botch it. But I like that the car is being built with the purpose of being a world class luxury car in mind, rather than adding chrome and leather to an Impala or something.