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Cadillac ELR regen on demand brakes win 2014 Green Car Technology award

Just like the Oscars, Green Car Journal decided a few years ago to up the number of nominees for its annual award. For the annual "Green Car of the Year" award, given out at the Los Angeles Auto Show each year, there are five finalists. For the "Green Car Technology" award, there are a fantastic ten. At the 2014 Washington Auto Show today, the Cadillac ELR and its regen on demand brakes managed to beat out the nine other finalists to claim the second annual "Green Car Technology" award. What is the purpose of the "Green Car Technology" award? Green Car Journal says it wants to reward "technologies that enable significantly improved environmental performance in vehicles today," which is why only fuel-saving technologies that were "in use on American highways during the award year" can be considered. The Caddy's brakes beat out the Acura Sport Hybrid SH-AWD powertrain, the Audi 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine, the BMW carbon-fiber passenger shell from the i3, the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine used by Ford, the plug-in hybrid powertrain in the Honda Accord, Hyundai's hydrogen fuel cell technology, the regenerative brakes in the Mazda i-ELOOP, the plug-in hybrid powertrain used in some Porsche models and, finally, the Ram 3.0-Liter EcoDiesel engine. Last year, Green Car Journal gave Mazda's Skyactiv technology the inaugural Green Car Technology award. Cadillac ELR Regen On Demand Wins 2014 Green Car Technology Award Green Car Journal Lauds Cadillac's Electric Car Tech at Washington Auto Show WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadillac's innovative Regen on Demand technology has taken top honors as the winner of Green Car Journal's 2014 Green Car Technology Award™. The prestigious award was presented at a Green Car Journal press conference during the Washington Auto Show's second Policy Day. "Cadillac has cleverly evolved a common electric-drive efficiency system into an intriguing feature that adds a new dimension to the driving experience," said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal and CarsOfChange.com. "Ever-increasing efficiency is crucial to our driving future, yet efficiency itself is not an attraction for a great many car buyers.

Cadillac still planning for big things in China

Despite some hiccups, China remains the auto industry's great hope for new vehicle sales, with significant sales gains and a huge upside. Nowhere is that hope more fervent than at General Motors, which offers eight different marques in the Asian nation. China has been GM's single biggest market the last three years running, and is unlikely to give up that title anytime soon. Yet its premiere brand, Cadillac, has remained essentially stagnant, selling just 30,000 units in China last year. That's in a segment where sales of luxury vehicles has outpaced that of the larger Chinese market. So what gives?
According to Cadillac officials Autoblog spoke with in China this week at the Shanghai Motor Show, it's been a problem of product - they haven't had the right ones. Displacement taxation issues, import tariffs and currency fluctuations have all conspired to make the brand's products less appealing than they might otherwise have been. But GM is stepping on the gas with Cadillac, and executives are eyeballing 100,000 sales by 2016 - more than triple the Wreath and Crest's current volume. And the expectations for the brand only get more ambitious from there - they're shooting for 10 percent of the luxury market by 2020. Bob Socia, President of GM China, promises that there will be a new Caddy launched in the market each year from now through 2016 and most will be built in China. Characterizing the company's efforts to revive the brand's fortunes as a "relaunch" of sorts, Cadillac also figures to gain dealers as GM expands its sales outlet footprint westward.
New products like a made-in-China XTS sedan (with a market-specific 2.0-liter four-cylinder to avoid heavy displacement taxes) will help, and Socia hinted that the ATS sport sedan could be next in line for in-country production. The SRX crossover - currently the brand's best-selling model in China - will also likely get a long look for future local production when the next-generation model is introduced. In the meantime, Cadillac unveiled the Escalade ESV Hybrid (shown above) as its latest model addition to capitalize on the market's white-hot luxury SUV segment.

Cadillac may not build Elmiraj coupe

Despite the fact that most everyone who has laid eyes on the Cadillac Elmiraj concept coupe loves it, General Motors insiders are still trying to prove the business case to build the car. And it's certainly not a guarantee.
"I want to see this car go into production badly. Very badly," Ed Welburn, GM's Global Head of Design, told Autoblog. But the Cadillac design studio is busier than it's ever been before, and the company is working on prioritizing which cars deserve to get the billion-dollar price tag needed to research and develop a new model.
No matter what happens, Welburn says the car has made its mark on Cadillac