Cadillac ELR Interior Spied
The new ELR, set to debut in a little under a year, is in full on test mode now. Based on the Chevrolet Volt, the ELR is a 2-door model that shares no exterior parts. Now we can see, courtesy of Automobile that the interior is similarly all Cadillac. Center stack design apes that in the most recent ATS and XTS as well as the refreshed 2013 SRX with a large CUE system screen. One added piece of tech not present in the Volt that suggests that ELR will not go without Cadillac's new suite of safety technologies is a button to the left of the CUE screen that suggests a lane departure feature. In front of the driver, where the Volt carries a small, rectangular screen that gives a high-tech if simple view into the vehicle operation (speed, fuel, battery capacity, driver info center, and a 'how am I driving' bouncing ball) - the ELR is aiming for a still futuristic but more familiar display with a computer generated gauge that mimics a dial with needle (though it is difficult to see for sure if this is actually a full display or if there is a real gauge to the right with a center, circular driver info center and then flanked on the left with a non-rectangular auxiliary display for battery capacity and a more futuristic rendition of the 'how am I driving' display - this time using a glowing spot instead of Volts animated ball). Also more conventional is the leather-wrapped 'shifter' with the drive mode button located aft of the stick (Volt has this up high next to the capacitive climate and entertainment controls). Overall, this lends the ELR a much more luxury-themed interior that Cadillac buyers should enjoy - even the ones that they expect will buy the car independent of its green credentials. A, potential, additional scoop is we get to see the battery state of charge and it's projected remaining range. 'Potential' because the range vs change is a dynamic number generated based on recent driving conditions. However, in this ELR, we see something close to 70% charge (the dotted green line on the left) equating to 24 miles of remaining electric range (you see this bottom-center). Without more information we can't be sure, but we would now bet the ELR is going to have similar range numbers to the Volt - currently 38 miles on the EPA cycle. 70% of 38 would be 26.6 miles - close enough to suggest to us that the battery capacity/kWh per mile ratio is at least very close in the ELR to its Volt cousin. Source: Automobile Magazine