Don’t put any money down for a high-end electric car just yet.
General Motors has no current plans to make the Cadillac Converj (right), a luxury concept of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car that was introduced at the Detroit auto show, said Mark McNabb, North American vice president of Cadillac/Premium Brands.
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said during the show the Volt remains on track to launch by the end of 2010. Showing off the Converj, Lutz said GM is confident enough about the Volt technology that the company can start looking at Volt derivatives.
The Volt, which is being designed to run for 40 miles on battery power alone, will not be profitable until battery costs drop and one way to do that is to increase volume on the model. Offering the Converj would help, while also attracting higher profit margins.
However, if the U.S. automaker decides to move ahead on the well-received Converj, a production version could look close to the concept, McNabb said.
“It was done more to measure a little bit how the luxury market would assess ‘green.’ It is what it is. It’s just really an exploration into green versus luxury - can it be done and all that.”
McNabb pointed out the Converj is based on existing technology.
“It’s not like a pie-in-the-sky concept where you can’t build it or it’s years and years before you could. It’s more a concept of ‘let’s measure how luxury will accept this type of vehicle.’”
(Photo/Reuters)
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Posted by: Ben Klayman
Tags: 1, Detroit Auto Show, General Motors, Global Investing, North American International Auto Show
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With the fiscal crisis staring them in the face GM is still pandering to automotive writers with “Concept Cars” and that is a deeply disturbing sign that all the ‘bail-out’ efforts are ill fated.
Statements like “Offering the Converj would help, while also attracting higher profit margins.” are so removed from the economic reality that is about to drown most American consumers that it is not laughable …. but instead rather pathetic!
- Posted by Tom Eastwood