Rhonda Wheeler
Selling electrics with a little sizzle
While everyone was in awe of the new Corvette at the recent North American Auto Show in Detroit, something strange happened. A Cadillac scooped the Chevy to take the coveted “Eyes On Design” award for the best new production car.
That’s pretty hard to believe considering the crowds that gathered around the new seventh-generation Corvette. Was it a mistake or a fluke?
Actually, no. The judges for that award are active and retired design heads of auto companies, and also transportation design chairs from top art schools. There are even designers from other fields. Winning is a big deal, and it’s even a bigger deal when you consider what drives the upcoming Cadillac ELR: the Chevrolet Volt.
If you have it in your head that the ELR is merely a dolled-up Chevy, you could easily be forgiven considering the “badge engineering” that has gone on over the years. But those days thankfully appear to be behind us. Consider the ELR a brand new car that just happens to be powered by the Volt’s electric drivetrain.
The ELR — a spitting image of the 2009 Converj show car that parent General Motors said it wasn’t going to build — is really the exact opposite of the Volt simply because it’s all about selling the dream as opposed to mere transportation.
The Volt is about being practical and “green,” which seems to have been the motto for most automakers since the financial crash more than four years ago — go small, save money, pollute less. It sure seems like the perfect trifecta except that, at some point, more style had to find its way into the mix.
Just to be clear, I’m a fan of the Volt’s technology. Plug it in overnight, drive it the next day for 65 kilometres or so and then the gasoline four-cylinder seamlessly cuts in to generate electricity. In the event you never go more than 65 kilometres in the run of day, you might never use gasoline again.
The Volt takes the one key pain out of driving an electric car: range anxiety. Instant electricity is as close as the nearest gas pump, which means you can jump in and drive across the country without having to plan in lengthy recharge stops along the way, or be worried about running out of juice in the middle of nowhere, with no outlet to plug into.
Until charge times are shortened and battery capacity is dramatically lengthened, the Volt is a good bridge technology to pure electrics.
The only real snag with that seems to be charging more money for it. People spend extra cash on all kinds of non-practical purchases, from motorcycles to ultra-expensive home-theatre systems. I don’t see how those same people can say the Volt costs too much for what it is or does.
We pay extra for new technology all the time (just how many “smart” phones have you gone through in the last few years?). Yet, people still try to rationalize the purchase against the fuel they’ll save. Of course the math doesn’t work, which might have you looking at a new Mazda6 or Nissan Altima for less money. But if you’re only looking at total cost of operation, you’ve got it all wrong about the Volt, which is why the ELR should win an award as far as I’m concerned.
Rather than people weighing the purchase on the powertrain, which is the same as the Volt’s, the ELR appeals to buyers because it’s quite simply a gorgeous machine.
The ELR appeals to our gotta-have-it senses the same way the new Corvette does, or a Harley Davidson or big home-theatre system. And it will not only be worth the price of a Volt, but likely $15,000-$20,000 more.
The lesson that everyone who builds electric cars can take away from the ELR is that while it might be tough to sell electric technology at a premium price, sizzle always sells, so wrap that new technology in a beautiful design.