2014 Cadillac Xts Base on 2040-cars

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Cadillac will kill the plug-in ELR

Johan de Nysschen, president of General Motors' Cadillac division, says Caddy's ELR extended-range plug-in won't have any future generations, Automotive News (subs. req.) says. The publication previously reported that the car would be around for another couple of years, but even that's questionable, and the model could be yanked even sooner. Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell confirmed that there won't be a second-generation ELR. "Subsequent generations of the car will not be developed," he wrote in an e-mail to Autoblog. "It's available currently as a 2016 model, and there's no change to that status." The model debuted in late 2013 and used a version of the powertrain in the Chevrolet Volt. The main problem, of course, was that the car had a $76,000 price tag that proved too much for most automobile buyers to stomach. Last year, GM sold 1,024 ELRs, down 22 percent from 2014's totals. By comparison, the Chevy Volt moved more than 15,000 units, and that itself was still down 18 percent from year-earlier figures. The merciful end to the ELR shouldn't be much of a surprise, as Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus went on the record in December of essentially calling the model a dud. It's a far cry from the excitement, though, that the concept model of what was then called the Converj was unveiled to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in 2009. For those feeling misty-eyed or nostalgic, though, check here for Autoblog's First Drive impressions of the extended-range plug-in. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2014 Cadillac ELR Review View 48 Photos News Source: Automotive News-sub.req. Green Cadillac GM Hybrid elr extended-range plug-in

Autoblog Podcast #318

Toyota back on top, Barrett Jackson, Crowdsourcing your Dodge Dart payments, Nissan and Toyota double down on pickups
Episode #318 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Zach Bowman and Michael Harley talk about Toyota regaining the No. 1 sales crown, getting your friends and family to buy you a Dodge Dart, Barrett-Jackson, and Toyota and Nissan remaining committed to their pickup trucs. We wrap with your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #318:

GM admits Cadillac ELR no real competition for Tesla Model S

Last year, then-CEO of General Motors, Dan Akerson, made it clear that the company lookouts at the Ren Cen had California automaker Tesla in their sights. "If you want to compete head-to-head with Tesla, and we ultimately will, you want to do it with a Cadillac," he said. So, given the fact that the Cadillac ELR has a plug and sells for roughly the same price at the Tesla Model S ($75,000 vs $69,900, before incentives) and that Cadillac doesn't have any other electric vehicle on the horizon, you'd be forgiven if you thought that the way that Akerson wanted to challenge Tesla's EV success was with the ELR. Well, you'd apparently be wrong. "The ELR is a different car, it's a different price point. It's way-different technology." - GM's Mark Reuss Speaking yesterday in Detroit, GM's head of global product development, Mark Reuss, admitted that the ELR is not the Tesla competitor that Akerson promised. "People like to say the ELR is [competition for the Model S], but it's really not. It's a different car, it's a different price point. It's way-different technology." So, if we follow that logic to conclusion with Akerson's quote from last year, then the only way that Cadillac can eventually compete with Tesla is with a pure electric car, and that seems an outside chance, at best, for the foreseeable future. Through the end of July, Cadillac has sold 578 ELRs since it went on sale earlier this year. Tesla doesn't break out monthly US sales, but has sold 15,114 Model S EVs around the world in the first six months of 2014. For his part, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has already said that GM is headed down the wrong path with plug-in hybrids like the ELR or the Chevy Volt. Speaking about the Volt last year, Musk said, Chevy "sort of created something that's a bit of amphibian," which resulted in a car that's, "Okay but not great."