A 4-Cylinder Honda Beats It
When you have to resort to paying people to buy something, it ought to tell you something about the value of the thing you’re trying to “sell.”
Such thoughts apparently haven’t occurred to GM, which continues to describe the Volt-based (and twice-as pricey) Cadillac ELR electric car as a “combination of leading technology with stunningly attractive design” that is “is unlike any other coupe in the luxury segment.” So says Cadillac jefe Johan de Nysschen.
Poor dude.
He has to put on a brave face. It’s his job, after all. Like the captain of a sinking liner, he must calm the passengers so that a panic does not erupt.
GM ought to be be panicking about now.
The ELR is a belly flop of such magnificence that it makes the Volt on which it’s based look like a 9.8 (out of 10) on the Olympic high dive scorecard.
Yes, it’s that bad.
Sales last year (if you want to use that word) amounted to barely half (1,310) what GM’s own internal projections (2,200) had hoped for. It is not especially difficult to fathom why this happened.
The ELR – last year – stickered for $75,995. This is a lot of money. It is in fact sufficient money to purchase, say, a Mercedes E-Class coupe ($61,350) with a twin-turbo V6 and have something like $14k left jangling around in your pocket for gas money. Granted, the electric Cadillac does not require any gas money at all. But given it can’t outrun a V6 Accord or similar (which costs less than half what Cadillac expects people to pay for the ELR) much less a car like the Benz E coupe, the “savings” has the same appeal as paying $300 for a night at Motel6.
Mind, this is the “updated” 2016 version.
The original (last year’s) ELR could not outrun the four-cylinder versions of cars like the Accord.
Also, it’s not true that the ELR won’t cost you anything to feed beyond whatever the going rate is for electricity. Like the Volt, the ELR is really a hybrid – like the Toyota Prius. It carries around a 1.4 liter gas burning engine that kicks on when the electric batteries begin to get ED… which happens after about 40 miles of driving. The gas engine operates like a portable Briggs & Stratton generator, burning gas to make electricity, to keep the car moving. At this point, the efficiency of the ELR (if you wish to use that word) declines to less than that of many current mid-sized sedans with no batteries or electric motors that cost less than half what GM expects people to pay for an ELR.
You can expect to average mid-low 30s in the ELR once the batteries have croaked – until you can get the thing home for a plug-in session.
Meanwhile, the ’15 Nissan Altima I recently test drove (review here) is capable of 40 on the highway with its standard four-cylinder engine. A VW Passat diesel will give you 45 or more – for less than $30k. And the Toyota Prius – which constantly cycles between its gas engine and its electric motor rather than sucking the batteries dry and then running exclusively on the motive force generated by the gas engine – will give you 50 or more, for about $24k, if you’re careful about the options.
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