Cadillac ELR (Converj)

[ggies07]

hahaha. OMG! That was flippin great.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Awesome. Awesome. Just...perfect.

Ford Ad Is Perfect

But is it? I think it would have been a whole lot better with the Ford Focus EV.

 

[mknox]

Awesome. Awesome. Just...perfect.

Ford Ad Is Perfect

Wow. I thought that was absolutely HORRIBLE and clearly Ford does not want to sell a lot of EVs. This ad is squarely aimed at the self-righteous, holier-than-thou eco-weenie, and if that's the sliver of the market Ford is aiming for, good for them but they'll be forever limited in the number of EVs they sell. I've always contended that if EVs are ever going to be mainstream, the manufacturers have got to start marketing outside of this crowd that by and large is already convinced. At least Cadillac took a shot at that. Even Tesla recognizes that they have to build "the best car that just happens to be electric" for this to happen.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Yes, agree with mknox on who the ad was pandering to and why that's not productive. But, loved the whole dig at the Caddy ad though.

 

[JST]

Wow. I thought that was absolutely HORRIBLE and clearly Ford does not want to sell a lot of EVs. This ad is squarely aimed at the self-righteous, holier-than-thou eco-weenie, and if that's the sliver of the market Ford is aiming for, good for them but they'll be forever limited in the number of EVs they sell. I've always contended that if EVs are ever going to be mainstream, the manufacturers have got to start marketing outside of this crowd that by and large is already convinced. At least Cadillac took a shot at that. Even Tesla recognizes that they have to build "the best car that just happens to be electric" for this to happen.

This isn't an ad they are running during the Olympics. It's an online ad that's a straight-up parody of a competitor's ad. We can debate about whether it is a good idea to parody competitor's ads, but it's pretty clear that this isn't Ford's flagship branding strategy.

I thought it was fantastic a) as parody, b) as demonstrating a commitment to appealing to a diverse audience, and c) by implication, drawing a line under the fact that Cadillacs are normally thought of as cars driven by old white guys.

 

[mknox]

I thought it was fantastic a) as parody, b) as demonstrating a commitment to appealing to a diverse audience, and c) by implication, drawing a line under the fact that Cadillacs are normally thought of as cars driven by old white guys.

I'm unclear how you get "diverse" out of that. I thought it had an extremely narrow audience focus. I don't think Cadillacs have been "old white guy" cars for some time now. That certainly doesn't come to mind when I picture an Escalade, or a CTS-V for that matter.

 

[JST]

I'm unclear how you get "diverse" out of that.

The African American woman who was the central focus of the ad.

 

[mknox]

The African American woman who was the central focus of the ad.

To be honest, I'd have to go back and look for that. All I noticed was the very narrow focus on all the eco stuff. I was thinking "diverse" in the sense of audience tastes and inclinations, not race.

 

[ntam]

ELR Recall: Cadillac ELR Recall - 656 ELRs Recalled For Electronic Stability Control System Issue

 

[ecarfan]

From the article: "At fault is an issue with the programming for the ELR’s electronic stability control system. It seems some software tweaking will be necessary to fix the problem, which at present prevents the system from alerting the driver that ESC has been partially or fully disabled."

So the cars have to actually be brought to a dealer to fix a software issue. What a strange concept, and how inconvenient for the owners.

 

[Gear]

So the cars have to actually be brought to a dealer to fix a software issue. What a strange concept, and how inconvenient for the owners.

Love it!

 

[Blastphemy]

So the cars have to actually be brought to a dealer to fix a software issue. What a strange concept, and how inconvenient for the owners.

Starting with the 2015 model year (released in the second half of 2014), all Cadillacs will have On*Star 4G LTE connectivity, which will enable to the car to download software updates like the Model S and avoid inconvenient trips to the dealership.

Here's a related announcement that features the ATS:
http://www.autoconnectedcar.com/2014/03/most-connected-car-cadillac-with-siri-eyes-free-on-star-lte/

Looks like the first year will be free, and then whatever On*Star wants to charge after that. So no four years of free data connectivity, Internet radio, and map updates like Tesla provides, but it's still a step in the right direction...if you can wait until December to buy your ELR!

ELR Recall: Cadillac ELR Recall - 656 ELRs Recalled For Electronic Stability Control System Issue

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/...ecalled-for-faulty-stability-control-software

It's because the car is partially out of compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 126, "Electronic Stability Control Systems" because the car’s electronic stability control (ESC) system may inhibit certain ESC diagnostics, which in turn may cause the system to fail in alerting the driver when the ESC is either partially or fully disabled.

So nothing dangerously wrong with the car, other than it might not tell you when stability control is disabled.

 

[pgiralt]

I wonder if dealers will be up in arms about the 2015 feature because the manufacturer will be able to "service" the cars themselves by pushing down software updates without the dealer's involvement, taking away that service revenue for the dealer. I'm sure when you go to the dealer to get the software update today, the dealer charges GM for that time.

 

[Blastphemy]

As it is, the Chevy Volt and Cadillac ELR normally require so few service visits (usually just 1 or 2 per year for tire rotation, and then 1 every two years for an oil change) that the dealership service departments are probably losing money on them from an economist's point of view (i.e., loss of potential income due to lack of required service, so every Volt/ELR sold means fewer service appointments per unit, hence lower amortized income over the life of the car).

 

[EarlyAdopter]

How much do you want to bet we start seeing legislation slipped in that forbids manufacturers from servicing their own vehicles, including over-the-air updates. Queue the automobile dealer association lobbyists in 3... 2... 1...

 

[Blastphemy]

81 ELRs sold in March 2014. Total of 186 since inception.

So this month it outsold the Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Porsche PanameraS-E, and Toyota Rav4 EV.

 

[RubberToe]

ELR sales:
January 2014: 41
February 2014: 58
March 2014: 81

It will be interesting to see going forward how long GM will continue to manufacture and sell this car. Especially if the sales plateau somewhere around the 200-300 per month level.

RT

 

[RobStark]

More from http://insideevs.com/march-2014-plug-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/

As for inventory, even more ELRs showed up as GM wound down full scale production of the luxury plug-in coupe in February. Heading into April, about 1,100 are ready to be bought…provided you have $75,995 in cash lying around; although we like the looks of their recently announced $699/month lease deal a lot better.

It looks like the ELR will remain very "exclusive."

 

[dsm363]

81 ELRs sold in March 2014. Total of 186 since inception.

So this month it outsold the Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Chevy Spark EV, Porsche PanameraS-E, and Toyota Rav4 EV.

That's still pretty bad numbers.

 

[RobStark]

2014 Monthly Sales Chart For The Major Plug-In Automakers *Estimated Tesla US Sales Numbers (Precise quarterly results updated during Tesla’s Q1 report due mid-May) *Fiat 500e estimated based on available data.



In March Spark beat ELR.

And for the Quarter 500e and RAV4 EV beat ELR too.