Report: Cadillac’s CMO even admits the ELR was a “big disappointment”

Remember the Cadillac ELR? The overpriced, redesigned version of the Chevrolet Volt for Cadillac that also came with an astronomical price tag? So do we, and we don’t remember much about it because, well, it was hardly a hot topic and perhaps one of the slowest selling goods since the last failed “As Seen on TV” invention pitch.

But it was so bad, that even Cadillac’s own Chief Marketing Officer, Uwe Ellinghaus, admitted the car was a flop and even a “big disappointment.”

Ellinghaus doesn’t exactly hate the ELR with all his guts entirely, since he still thinks its a representation of Cadillac’s progression towards “electromobility,” so he resorted to calling the car an exercise.

It was a double whammy with the press’s reception as well, with CARandDRIVER calling it a $75,995 Chevrolet Volt, which is exactly what it basically was. It was a Chevy Volt with a body from Cadillac on it and all of Cadillac’s latest and fanciest gizmos. It also had a nice Cadillac interior.

But altogether, it was hard to get over the fact that they wanted $75,995 for what was essentially a glorified Volt. Thus, that stigmatized the car’s rep, leading to such poor sales, some dealers offered insane incentives to just get them off of the lot. Cadillac even later lowered the price to $65,000, which is a little easier to manage, but still a bit high.

Cadillac is not all and done with the idea of an ELR though, but Ellinghaus reassures Cadillac learned their lessons and will make the ELR less of a “niche within a niche” car.

EVs and plug-in hybrids are still a hot topic these days so it’s also still important for Cadillac to continue offering competitors in the electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid, and standard hybrid markets.

America’s top brass so far is on schedule with their first new hybrid, the CT6 plug-in hybrid sedan. Future hybridization possibilities include Cadillac’s new XT5 crossover replacement for the SRX, and more.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: Automobile Magazine

Source: egmCarTech http://bit.ly/1mdqnBN