See the jump for a much better picture of the ELR.
General Motors has released this photograph of a Cadillac ELR hybrid electric vehicle, which will be revealed with nicer paint at the 2013 North American International Auto Show next week. GM said ELR was photographed driving through the mountains of Southern California during development testing.
The ELR will be built at the GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant alongside the Chevrolet Volt it is derived from. The styling of the Cadillac is based on the Converj concept first shown at the 2009 North American International Auto Show as General Motors was hurtling toward a bankruptcy reorganization. Converj, err now ELR, will be GM’s second hybrid after the Chevrolet Volt/ Holden Volt/ Opel Ampera when it appears late in 2013 as a 2014 model. (Cadillac Rejoins Electric Vehicle Parade with Converj Concept)
“Cadillac customers are going to enjoy the unique features ELR will bring to the market. We’re going to change the way people think about luxury and electrification,” claimed Chris Thomason, ELR chief engineer, with little data publicly available so far to back him up.
Switched on again! Cadillac ELR hybrid is based on the Chevy Volt and will be built alongside it.
Cadillac ELR will have an electric drive system made up of a T-shaped lithium ion battery pack, an electric drive unit, and a four-cylinder engine-generator. It uses electricity as its primary source to drive the car for short distances without using gasoline or producing tailpipe emissions, if you do not account for how the electricity used to charge the batteries is generated. When the battery’s energy is low, the ELR switches to extended-range mode – ala Volt – to enable driving for hundreds of additional miles due to the superior power density of the gasoline fuel on board.
“The ELR will be in a class by itself, further proof of our commitment to electric vehicles and advanced technology,” said General Motors North America President Mark Reuss during a speech at the SAE Convergence Conference in Detroit last October. GM said it represented an additional $35 million investment in the sprawling assembly complex that last built a two-door coupe – the 1999 Cadillac Eldorado.
Detroit-Hamtramck is the only U.S. automotive manufacturing plant that mass produces what GM calls extended-range electric vehicles, which are really hybrids with large battery packs. GM hybrids or extended-range electric vehicles – take your pick – are exported to 21 countries from the plant.
