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(Mon 12 Jan 09) Cadillac has used the Detroit Show to demonstrate how far up the motoring food chain it believes electric power can be relevant.
The Converj is a luxury four-seater which uses GM's Voltec electric propulsion system. It can run on battery power only for 40 miles, and for longer journeys the battery (consisting of more than 200 lithium-ion cells) is recharged using a four-cylinder flex-fuel engine. The battery can also be charged when the car is plugged into the mains, a process which takes around three hours on a 240v system and eight hours on 120v. GM isn't saying that the Converj will definitely go on sale, instead describing it as having "production substance". "It’s a logical extension of our plan to reinvent the automobile," says Bob Lutz, GM's Vice Chairman of Global Product Development. "It clearly shows what a Cadillac electric vehicle could look like, and clearly indicates that global luxury customers can have a car that has both strong design and electric propulsion with a total range of hundreds of anxiety-free miles." |
