Cadillac Volt Rumored To Be Available In 2011

wired.com:

Motor Trend, citing an unnamed "well-placed source," says GM brass have approved the project and want it on the road by the end of 2011, assuming the company turns its finances around. But Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell tells Wired.com that Motor Trend is wrong.

"We're pleased that reaction to the Cadillac Converj concept is strongly positive," he said. "But there is no change in its status -- it's a concept under consideration, and that remains the case."

Read the whole story: wired.com

Comments

[riverrat20009]

Who cares. Detroit isn't even part of the game.

Toyota and Honda are fighting it out.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a003hu3I9JYY&refer=japan

[slithers]

Awesome!!!! A coal burning car. Thanks environmentalists, you cause our pollution problems!!!!

[sarabono]

With the Chevy version to be priced not lower than $35,000 to $40,000, the Cadillac version would have to be priced at least $5,000 higher. Way out of the main stream American's budget, that is for sure.

The other thing that bothers me is that electric rates are projected to increase by at least 40% within three years if BO's "Tax" and Trade scheme is implemented. This means that one would have to happy with an expensive car that can carry four, that can only run only 200 miles on battery before the gas motor has to kick in and when you plug it in, it only cost you more for a recharge.

I think I'll pass for at least the next five years. A much more sensible vehicle for today is the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid that will get 41 MPG in town and 39 MPG highway and it is priced well under $30,000 and is being delivered today!

[KPinSEA]

The Fusion does seem to be the best the domestic market has to offer at the moment ... I'm a little leery of first-year release of new car tech, but I'll be interested to see where the Fusion goes, especially in terms of plug-in and extended EV range options in the future.

[StanlyManly]

A $13,000 Hyundai will get 35+ mpg. Its also well under $30,000.

[KPinSEA]

Clever leak by G.M. ... they need to start associating the word 'Cadillac' with 'Volt' now that they've failed to keep the price point in 'Chevy' range. If it's going to be priced like a Caddy, they might as well call it one.

[BBackSoon]

It does make sence.

[LADawson]

Might make sense price-wise, but not business-wise. Right now, GM needs to make a car with mass-market appeal. Shuffling the Volt off to the Cadillac division would be a death sentence for it. I think they're hoping the next time around they can reduce their production costs and use the technology to make a cheaper model for Chevy. It's truly sad how long it seems to take GM to get anything to market though.

[rf-hawaii]

The simplicity of electric drive is going to cause them to sweep the marketplace once a little momentum is gained.

Retrofitting to electric is very easy and simple.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Retrofitting to electric is very easy and simple."

Indeed, the hard part is carrying the hundred mile long extension chord around with you.

:-)

[KillTheMessenger]

Yawn. Another non news.

[LADawson]

What would be news is actually seeing a Volt in a showroom, instead of them just babbling about how wonderful their technology is, without actually producing it. :)

[Weathermaker]

I'm looking forward to see the VW Golf TDI Hybrid:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/03/04/geneva-2008-miserly-vw-golf-tdi-hybrid-concept-uses-1-2l-3-cyli/

"The Golf TDI hybrid pairs a 74 hp/132 lb-ft 1.2L 3-cylinder diesel (not the 1.4L used in the Polo BlueMotion, as had been speculated) with a 26.6 hp/103 lb-ft electric motor. At low speeds, the car will run in EV-only mode, with the TDI joining in if/when necessary. The tandem should be good for for 69 US mpg and 89 g/km of CO2 emissions in the EU combined cycle."

Got that, GM? 69 US mpg. A slightly more powerful TDI Hybrid (1.5L/4cyl) on a Jetta might be able to get around 55mpg or so. With Diesel available everywhere, this might be the best spec for the US market.

[frantaylor]

The Germans are going to go very far with their nifty new diesels.

It's too bad Americans think they are only for trucks.

[KillTheMessenger]

German car companies have a long history developing (at least experimental) high efficiency diesel engines. VW had a close to 100mpg diesel hybrid a long time ago, if I remember correctly. The concept car was so "weak", though, that they saw no way of commercializing it. Most of all consumers who were given the car for a test drive complained "it doesn't sound right" (because of the electrical engine making no engine noise!). Sometimes a great invention can come too early...

[rf-hawaii]

Even diesel doesn't have much of a future.

[PSM42]

Don't hold your breath - VW already nixed it. But others _will_ implement it. Roll on the day ... :-).

See Andy Frank - on Youtube - for a nifty EV plus small engine (diesel?). A UC Davis professor, his calculations show that a combination _is_ optimal (counter-i­ntuitive?)­.

Cost is only one or two thousand over a regular car. Vs tens of thousands of dollars for a pure EV with large range.

Fascinating stuff - very, very clever - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_A._Frank

[sarabono]

For some reason, the America EPA and the California Resources Board don't like the European Diesel Emission Standards. It is clear they want Diesel to be more expensive than Gas because they increased the Federal Tax on Diesel.

I like theVW TDI and the Mercedes Diesel. But for our market, they will remain fringe products.

Detroit won't go into small car Diesel's with this headwind from the Federal Government.

[PSM42]

Having waited ten years for a TDI, and then seen the rise of EVs displace that goal, my money says that the CARB verdict was a scam to protect the US Big 3. Just like all the other scams that Big 01l and the Big 3 have pulled.

Which is ironic because Big 01l's control of the Big 3, via Wall St. investment trusts has destroyed the Big 3. It would be funny if they didn't look like having a fair shot at destroying the country's industrial base as they go.

See Doug Korthof - Liveoilfree Youtube channel for Big 01l, Big 3 scam details -

http://www.youtube.com/liveoilfree

[Angelus2007]

No wonder GM is going down. Cadillac has a small group of buyers compared to Chevy. The more reasonably priced Chevy's greatly outsell Cadillac. An electric car is going to be more expensive anyway, why put it outside most peoples price range.

[frantaylor]

Maybe it doesn't occur to you that GM wants to break into this business with a high-end vehicle. It makes good profits for the company and you get rich people to pay for your R&D.

Maybe you don't remember that computers used to cost millions of dollars. Why are they so cheap now? Because rich people bought expensive computers, the profits were poured into R&D, and the costs went way down.

It's how manufacturing works. Figure it out.

[PSM42]

OR, ft, if you watch Doug Korthof of WKTEC fame on youtube, _you_ may work out that, while you would be correct in an honest world, 'other factors' are at play with EVs.

'Other factors' like perfidious Big Oil, and Chevron owning and sitting on Ovshinsky's EV NiMH battery patents.

Why on earth would they do that??? Wally Rippel "There is a $100 T (T as in Trillion) worth of business still to be done." (Oil in the ground). The same reason that gave us 1raq. SO. No surprise there, then!

Doug Korthof - Liveoilfree Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/liveoilfree

[Angelus2007]

The R&D cost is not in the cost of the Cadillac, it is in the extra price charged above and beyond the price of standard model. If that Cadillac is say $45,000 for arguments sake, and they charge $55,000 the $10,000 difference is the cost of R&D. Take a $14,000 Cobalt and throw $10,000 on it and sell it for $24,000. Many people would buy the electric Cobalt. You are making your R&D back either way. This is a new technology for the drive train, not the entire design. If we were designing an entirely new form of transportation, I could see that. But we aren't

[StanlyManly]

You make a fatal flaw in your argument. You assume there are no other options that provide the same results at a lower cost.

A $55,000 electric car would be good, except for the fact that you can still buy a $13,000 car to do the same thing (or even less).

[rf-hawaii]

It's easy to make a high performance electric vehicle. Which probably explains why Jaguar is rumored to be building one too.

[frantaylor]

Finally some sense.

It's been standard operating procedure for years in the computer business to get high-end customers to fund R&D.

Let the rich people pay for the engineering effort to get these things working right.

It's much smarter than trying to break into this on the low end.

[Virgil Kane]

Kind of looks like the Bat Mobile.

[RegularEinstein]

By 2011 the Chinese and Tesla will be driving their all-electric cars in circles around GM and it's half-baked Volt, thus making the Cadillac Converj, and possibly GM irrelevant.