Cadillac ELR Quietly Bites the Electric Dust
Rarer than an albino squirrel, the slow-selling Cadillac ELR was apparently shuffled into the afterlife three months ago.
Cadillac confirmed to Automotive News that the Chevrolet Volt-based luxury coupe ended production at GM’s Hamtramck facility earlier this year, with remaining units now dwindling from dealer lots.
Tell this news to any random person on the street, and you’ll very likely hear back, “What’s a Cadillac ELR?”
Despite a drop in price and a bump in power last year, the ELR never took off with the buying public, saddled initially with a sticker price double that of its Volt cousin. It’s been known for some time that a second generation wasn’t planned, but until now, no one checked to see whether it was still rolling off the assembly line.
Probably because — much like the buying public — everyone had forgotten about the ELR altogether.
Cadillac frames the ELR saga as an experiment in electrification — a dabbling in futuristic technology that will pave the way for innovative products in the future.
“Cadillac remains committed to delivering new technology, including advanced propulsion,” the automaker told Automotive News.
In the ELR’s heyday, if you can call it that, U.S. dealers were lucky to see 100 people a month wander by who were willing to slap nearly 80 grand down on a edgier-looking Volt.
Though its production life was very short (it only appeared in December 2013), anyone who secretly lusted after the model is in luck. As you light an electric birthday cake candle in memory of the ELR tonight, just know that 2016 models are already listing in the mid-$30,000 range on wholesale dealer auction sites.
[Image: General Motors]
More by Steph Willems
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If this was available in the UK, I'd possibly have bought one. The Volt was on sale here (along with it's Vauxhall Ampera badge twin) and the idea of an edgier, Cadillac version would have been appealing...
Shame that, I predicted the ELR was going to bite it and bite it, it did. Typical GM product mismanagement. Smacks of pricing to suit the Cadillac badge rather than actual cost price plus some more to make a margin. I've only sat in an ELR at a motor show or two, but I reckon there's a lot of shared parts with other Caddys, meaning there was probably room in the economies of scale to launch at a considerably lower price, which (you'd think) would've brought more success in the showroom, perhaps leading to a stay of execution. You'd like to think live and learn, but GM appear incapable of following this simple adage.
The ELR is little. Everyone knows Cadillacs shouldn't be little. That's a primal turnoff like a breastless woman, leaving one with the feeling "if only..." The only Cadillacs that still sell are big.
I'd pay 30k for one of these IF I could get a V8-6-4 installed ...just sayin .