ELR

Make
Cadillac
Segment
Coupe

The Chevrolet Volt costs about $40,000 before a federal tax credit, which brings that price down to just over $32k. It's not a horrible price to pay for a state-of-the-art plug-in hybrid, but at the end of the day it's still just a Chevy and not a luxury automobile. GM hopes its luxurious and altogether more appealing new Cadillac ELR will justify a higher price tag, and aims to separate it from the Volt with which it shares its technonogy.

A new report from Ward's Auto states that Cadillac's chief engineer, Chris Tomason, has made clear that future advancements of GM's range-extending technology will be implemented on the ELR first, not the Volt. Tomason made this quite explicit by stating that "Part of being a luxury brand is exclusivity, so that means advances aren't going to the Volt." Also unlike the Volt, the ELR will debut on a national level, whereas the Chevy was rolled out one region at a time. Tomason didn't give an exact ELR production number, and pricing has yet to be finalized, but we're expecting something in the neighborhood of $55-60k before incentives.