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Johan de Nysschen on the Future of the ELR

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Johan de Nysschen on the Future of the ELR

Johan de Nysschen recently spoke on the future of the ELR.
©GM

Since the Cadillac ELR hit the market, it has witnessed incredibly lackluster sales. In fact, Cadillac had only moved 1,037 units of the luxury EV through October of this year. The project was green-lighted—and the product released—much before current Cadillac President, Johan de Nysschen, took the reins this summer, so we can’t know for sure what would have come of the ELR had he stepped into the position five years, two years, or even one year sooner.


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Johan de Nysschen on the Future of the ELR

Johan de Nysschen, President of Cadillac
©GM

But now, courtesy of Auto World News, we do have some insight from de Nysschen on the Cadillac ELR and, even more importantly, the future of the ELR. De Nysschen sat down with the folks there at the Los Angeles Auto Show last month to speak openly about the ELR, which, we noticed was absent at the show.

Many believe that the price of the ELR ($75,000 before EV incentives) has been its downfall, but de Nysschen offered this key thought: “…if we were to reprice ELR, to the point where somehow we found a point that people would buy it buy the thousands, then all we would achieve is, the more cars you sell, the more money you lose. There’s no point in that. It is where it is.”

There is a reason it is priced so high. “It’s priced as a luxury car. It’s a Cadillac. There’s a lot of technology and equipment in that car, by the way, that you won’t find in a Tesla. There’s 30 grand worth of value right there. All of that, combined, you have a very small segment of buyers remaining.”

So the eventual goal for the ELR will be to speak more clearly and loudly to the small but precise target demographic. And it won’t just be the lonesome ELR, either. De Nysschen believes that Cadillac needs more than just a successor to the current ELR; it also needs more EVs on the same level of the ELR. It’s just not a top priority today, or tomorrow. Maybe not even next year, but eventually.

“The team and I will get around to working on ELR,” de Nysschen promised, “but it is clearly going to be a niche car.”


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News Source: Auto World News