The Cadillac Converj, a sleek angular luxury concept plug-in hybrid, was introduced at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.
After the $4 gas price spike in mid-2008, global car companies quickly adopted the near unanimous goal of producing greener more fuel-efficient cars for the masses. But opinions about how exactly to drive down the inherent cost of hybrids, electric cars, and clean diesel vehicles—to make these technologies affordable and commonplace—have broken down into two camps.
Hybrid stalwarts Honda and Toyota are making a move to capitalize on their early investment in gas-electric technology by increasing production numbers, lowering costs, and offering hybrids for around $20,000. Electric car and plug-in hybrid startups, Tesla and Fisker, are hoping to enter the market with exotic green machines in the neighborhood of six figures—and then to demonstrate profitability, and slowly work toward follow-up models at $50,000 or below. General Motors is somewhere stuck in the middle when it comes to its plug-in hybrids, like the Chevrolet Volt.
The Volt likely will carry a sticker price around $40,000—steep for a Chevrolet product—and still not turn a profit for years. Bob Lutz, GM’s product czar, said, "In terms of recovering the cost from the technology, doing it in a Cadillac would have made it financially easier to do.” We don’t have to wonder what a luxury version of the Volt would look like. The company unveiled the Cadillac Converj concept vehicle at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.
SOURCE: hybridcars
