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Exclusive: Johan de Nysschen Talks ELR and its Future

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#1 ·
Exclusive: Cadillac boss de Nysschen gives us his take on the hybrid luxury coupe and its future.
Auto World News
By: Jeff Jablansky
November 25, 2014


Since Johan de Nysschen was named as president of Cadillac in July 2014, the South African-born executive—formerly of Audi and Infiniti—has toiled to begin a total repositioning of the American luxury brand. In turn, de Nysschen has to bear the brunt of decisions made toward that end. He's made news for his defense of the brand headquarters' upcoming move to New York, a full-scale renaming of the product line, and his vision for Cadillac's competitive set.
But de Nysschen has remained cautiously quiet about the ELR, Cadillac's first foray into the plug-in hybrid market that has failed to deliver particularly strong sales. Critics chide the ELR for being priced out of the realm of affordability in the hybrid market-even among most luxury cars-with a starting price of $75,000 before electric vehicle incentives. As of October 2014, Cadillac only managed to sell 1037 ELR plug-in hybrids.

At the Los Angeles auto show, we sat down with de Nysschen for his direct take on the ELR, its future, and the dealer network charged with its success.

Full article available at link.
 
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#2 ·
On the future of plug-in hybrids in the Cadillac lineup: "I absolutely believe that we need not only a successor to ELR but more vehicles of that caliber and they will be part of our future. We must not give up on the car. I cannot have 50 priorities at the same time. The team and I will get around to working on ELR, but it is clearly going to be a niche car."
I liked this answer. It tells me that they're dedicated not only to the ELR, but to other future electric Cadillac vehicles.

I'd love to see Cadillac integrate Voltec 2.0 into its lineup. ATS, CTS, SRX, and even Escalade should all get a Voltec option IMHO.
 
#8 ·
I test drove the voltec ELR and it's a fantastic luxury coupe....still.with zero to 60 in around 8 seconds and coupe rear seat space.....it's a nog
Go even heavily discounted..

Should be quicker and be an S7 like four door coupe.

Jmo
 
#9 ·
GM knew this would be a very low volume car. The car is sold for the pure value of statement - both of buyers and GM as the seller.

Given that, they should have used it to their advantage and boutique'd the entire purchasing process. Make the nicest, largest urban dealerships keep a car on hand for test drives but only sell cars via order sheet. And make the order sheet process worth it - offer a HUGE array of colors, lots of options, different leathers, different wheels, etc.

It's gonna be exclusive anyways, might as well make take advantage of it and raise the cache of your brand along the way.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I really like this guy because he agrees with me on just about every point. If the ELR came out before the Volt the price would not be an issue. It is priced just fine and matches or beats similar gas powered cars in quality and price for that matter. Cadillac as he said before has to leave a lot of the previous customers behind. You see them here on the board often. They are the people that want Cadillac to be a bargain basement car company. Sell less and make a profit off of what you sale then over time younger buyers will have a different view of you. Those of a certain age are cooked they will never change their minds.

Also Cadillac does need to drop a lot of their dealers because many of then are really bad. Finally the BMW 6 Series, Benz SL, etc are all car that are just way over priced and what worse is Cadillac reps never defended the car properly they just let the media frame the message and sat quietly. Didn't help that the ELR also got political hate because of it's connection to the Volt from political entities. Just sad all around so I am glad he is fighting for the car.
 
#13 ·
i like the idea of the ELR. my problem is the price for a car with a solid beam rear axle. for the price it should be fully independent suspension with the magnetic shocks that caddy uses on some models. its a compact 2 door car. if it was 4 doors more people would be interested as well, it would make it more practical.
 
#17 ·
Baloo is absolutely right about the price being too high. If you're going to price it like a boutique luxury product, you need to deliver. If costs are too high to slow or change the production line and incorporate the options availability, then ELR should have either never been built or should have been priced where it is now from the onset.
 
#26 ·
The 5ET50 transmission to be used in the 2016 Volt will be a parallel hybrid like the Prius. Unlike the Prius and other hybrids this transmission will be able to operate its electric motors at high speeds. Thus, the car will still feel like it does today, the smooth liquid drive characteristics will be retained at all speeds, it will not feel like an underpowered checkbox.

I'm betting the 5ET50 will also be used in the ELR and the plug-in C6 as well, but with a couple of significant differences that would be suitable for such high priced platforms. The first is the electric motors will be allowed to produce full power during heavy acceleration. That means about 225 electric horsepower. The second change is the wimpy 1.5 Ecotec ICE will be swapped with something more appropriate, like a 410 HP twin turbo 3.6 liter V6. Since the 5ET50 is a parallel hybrid, the power output of its electric motors can be added to whatever the ICE is putting out. That should make the ELR pretty quick if it wants to, but driven easily it could still should provide the economy of the Volt.
 
#29 · (Edited)
The 5ET50 transmission to be used in the 2016 Volt will be a parallel hybrid like the Prius. Unlike the Prius and other hybrids this transmission will be able to operate its electric motors at high speeds. Thus, the car will still feel like it does today, the smooth liquid drive characteristics will be retained at all speeds, it will not feel like an underpowered checkbox.
The current Volt 4ET50 has 4 modes of operation
EV 1 motor operation
EV 2 motor operation
Hybrid Series operation
Hybrid Parallel operation

The 5ET50 is supposed to function very similar to the current 4ET50 except a 5th mode is apparently being introduced which is also a pure EV mode. It's supposed to apparently have a "performance" 2 motor operation mode for better more responsive acceleration.

In the current Volt MGB has twice the power output of MGA. For maximum power the Volt needs to default to using MGB in a single motor operation. Apparently (note full details have not be released) the new two motor setup in the 5ET50 will be connected differently so that they can be used for both performance and efficiency.

For maximum power the current Volt/ELR 4ET50 is power limited by the battery and not the electric motors. So if GM is going to push more EV power for larger vehicle applications they will need a battery configuration that can support higher power outputs.

The only reason the Prius gets better gas only fuel economy is because it weighs 900lbs less than the Volt (2900 lbs vs 3800 lbs). Considering the Volt weighs closer to that of a mini-van it's fuel economy is nothing short of amazing.

I'm guessing the Gen II Volt will be ~3500lbs and GM has stated the powertrain is up to 12% more efficient than Gen I.
 
#35 ·
The ELR has a lot of issues, but none of them comes down to the price. First of all, it needs more exclusivity, paying this much for a Volt wearing an expensive tuxedo may not be justifiable to some. Besides that, it is somehow underpowered. if it were over 300hp, this price tag would be more acceptable. Finally, FWD for such a car sounds ridiculous, and people are fascinated by AWD these days, so it would undeniably work if GM took advantage of it for the ELR.
 
#36 ·
Considering the car is a little over 4,000 and adding AWD, which itself is 150 bls. will make the car slower and less fuel efficient.

The ELR is a fantastic car and I test drove it a few months ago and loved it. If I was in the market, I would not buy it for $75,000 but will for $60,000. Performance is more than adequate IMO and will satisfy most people day by day as a luxury personal EREV coupe.
 
#47 ·
actually (imho)
#1 Buick Electra (exactly what the Volt was/is with somewhat diff styling/graphics)
#2&3 Cadillac CTSe & ATSe with proven gen1 Voltec
#4 Buick Electra with gen2 Voltec
#5 a Chevy using gen1 Voltec (diff petrol engine)
#6&7+ CTSe & ATSe mce's (& all other Cadillac models) with proven gen2 Voltec
 
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