That the Cadillac ELR has been steadily beating the marketing drums, since going on sale in late December the luxury plug-in hybrid has sold just 105 units. A combination of factors have no doubt hurt the ELR’s launch, but there’s still hope for GM to salvage the ELR.
The past two months as a whole have been hard on the auto industry, with sales down as a whole versus last year. The cold and snowy weather has also hampered car sales, making the past two months possibly the worst time to launch a new car at any point in the past year. In other words, the Cadillac ELR has terrible timing. With just 6 sales in December, 41 in January, and 58 in February for a grand total of 105 units, the ELR isn’t breaking any sales records, that’s for sure, though GM has said that deliveries will begin in earnest in March.
The ultra-American marketing campaign for the ELR tells us exactly nothing about the car, and only about half of Cadillac’s dealer network will carry the ELR. By far the biggest problem however is the $75,995 MSRP, which puts the ELR in direct competition with the Tesla Model S. While the ELR has its fans, Consumer Reports thinks you’re better off with the Tesla, and most buyers are more willing to wait three months for a Tesla than opt for the ELR.
The solution to the ELR’s woes is simple; chop $20,000 off of the MSRP, and you’re now well outside of Tesla territory with a great product that has an entire price bracket to itself, and no comparable competition. Situated between the BMW i3 and the Tesla Model S, the Cadillac ELR could do quite well.
Until that price cut happens however, I feel like the Cadillac ELR.
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