The Cadillac Converj Concept Electric Vehicle
When talking about General Motors and electric cars, the name likely to come up is the Chevrolet Volt. If the wayward automaker can get past its current financial woes, the Volt is likely to hit dealer showrooms in the next year or two. The Volt isn’t the only electric vehicle that GM has planned, however. The Volt’s big brother, the Cadillac Converj, is currently in concept stages and is poised to take the eco-friendly electric car to the luxury level.
The main purpose of the Cadillac Converj at this point is to prove that eco-friendly cars can be very stylish and luxurious. The current eco-friendly king, the Toyota Prius, doesn’t exhibit styling that is attractive to some buyers. There are those that greatly enjoy the Prius, but there are also those who yearn for a green car that looks sleek. The Converj definitely manages that.
Eschewing the traditional sedan configuration of most hybrids and electric vehicles, the Converj is a four-seater luxury coupe. The front wheels are 21-inches and the rear wheels are 22-inches, giving the car a forward and aggressive stance. The all-glass roof seems like a decadent option, but that glass is laced with solar panels that will provide power to interior accessories while driving, and a full belly-pan underneath and minimal grille openings make the Converj very aerodynamic.
The Voltec propulsion system relies entirely on electric motors. The Converj does have a gas tank, but that gas is used to power an internal-combustion generator that recharges the batteries and feeds power to the elctric motors. Currently, the Converj is capable of a 40 mile purely-electric range. The range is greatly increased when the generator kicks on. Lithium-ion battery cells provide he intial power, and they can be fully recharged in under three hours when hooked up to a 220-volt outlet, and in about 8 hours when connected to a traditional 110-volt outlet.
So will the Converj ever be built as a production model? The answer is both yes and no. Assuming GM can get their finances in order and are able to release the Chevrolet Volt, a luxury version electric car is likely to follow shortly afterward. Because the concept model Converj has already illustrated it’s production viability, that luxury version will probably be the Converj, or some future iteration of it’s design. At this point, though, speculation as to the car’s future is dependent entirely on one thing: whether or not the Volt proves to be successful when it is finally released.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
[...] Converj concept vehicle, which has been making appearances at autoshows and which we detailed last month has gottent the production go-ahead according to inside sources at GM. While the Converj that [...]