Sporty Volt SS Possible, Cadillac Converj Gets Green Light
In recent years, GM stuck the SS badge on more cars than it didn’t. For a long time the Super Sport moniker meant something, but sticking it on a turbocharged HHR delivery wagon did nothing to improve the General’s image. In a bit of an acknowledgment that maybe they went too far with the SS badge, GM has dumped many of these mistakes recently; currently the only vehicle with an SS badge is the Camaro.
So what does any of this have to do with Gas 2.0? GM’s vice-chairman, Bob Lutz, did not rule out the possibility of a Volt SS. Furthermore, the rumor mill is reporting that GM has given the green light to the Volt-based Cadillac Converj, a concept car that debuted earlier this year.
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This report comes from, of all places, Fox News. But when Bob was directly asked about a possible Volt SS, he said “I would not discount that possibility.” As I’ve said over and over again, electric cars hold a lot of possibility when it comes to performance, delivering instantaneous torque off the line. The Volt is said to reach 60 MPH from a stop in around 9 seconds. Not exactly record breaking, but the Prius takes about ten seconds to make the 0-60 sprint.
The Volt certainly looks sporty for a plug-in electric car. Give it a few years to mature, and an SS model might start to make more sense. Since GM doesn’t plan to have a Volt brand, but still wants to spread the Voltec technology around, Lutz might be referring to the Cadillac Converj, which will probably be heading into production shortly after the Volt.
The Converj just makes sense. As Fisker and Tesla are showing, there is an affluent market interested in electric vehicles. Rebadging the Volt as an even sleeker Cadillac would make it upmarket. Right now GM’s greatest enemy is cost. For the Volt to succeed, it needs to be a affordable. Before tax breaks, the Volt will be around $40,000 and GM will still have a hard time making money on it (they have supposedly sunk over $1 billion into developing the Volt thus far).
Cadillacs cost a lot more so GM could just load down the Converj with luxury features (leather, 30-way power driver seat, 800 speakers, etc., etc.) and make a lot more money. Plus, it just looks sharp.
Cadillac Converj or Chevy Volt SS? What do you guys think? Is there a market for these cars?
Source: GM-Volt | Images: GM
I’m a Mac Pro kind of guy, so I don’t mind spending money on high quality products. The Converj looks very cool. If it’s high quality all around, then it’s the kind of car I would consider buying, if I drove a car (which I don’t, so my entire post is kind of pointless).
The converj looks great, but so did the Volt when it was a concept car. Once they retooled it for production they basically turned it into a Camry/Accord/Malibu combination. The Caddy will probably has the soul taken out of it to by the time it goes to production.
Fuck GM. They had an electric car years ago that worked and was popular (EV1?) and they pulled the plug (pun intended) on that project. The electric car will not become popular in GM’s hands mark my words.
Will there be a booming market for upscale/luxury, performance electric vehicles? Absolutely. Will it be soon? Probably not. But you gotta start somewhere.
I have to disagree with knocking the HHR SS though. The fact that it’s certainly a niche vehicle and probably not GM’s best business decision shouldn’t take away from the fact that it is quite a lot of vehicle for the money. 2.0L TC Ecotec making 260hp stock, 290 with the available *warrantied* GMPP sensor and ECU upgrade while maintaining reasonable gas mileage and tons of functionality? Sounds good to me. More practical and on-par if not better performance compared to Mazdaspeed3, Civic SI, GTI while coming it at around $25k? Not bad either. Just sayin.
Same powerplant in the Cobalt SS is just as good. I’m not a huge fan of “sportified” SUV’s and pickups a-la the Ram SRT10 or Cherokee SRT8, but the Trailblazer SS was no slouch either. I’m curious if an Equinox SS was ever conceptualized. And the Impala SS, if it’d been done right (like the G8 GXP) would have been a helluva car.
And just for reference, the original SS badging designated a trim level for the first five years of its use. Nothing performance related until ‘65, so you can’t tell me “tradition” dictates that the SS badge has to go on a muscle car of some sort.
I really don’t know why people say the Cobalt or HHr SS don’t deserve the SS badge. The fact is that the Cobalt SS would beat 75% of 60’s and early 70’s SS’s in a 1/4 mile drag race …..even more with the GM stage 1 kit. And dominate nearly all of them in turning and braking performance.
It broke the FWD record around the nurburgring and set the mark so high that Renault had to build a limited production (450 cars) race car to beat it. If anything these cars carry on the tradition of the SS badge ….not tarnish it.
Here are some ring times to put it in perspective .
8:10 Chrysler Viper GTS 1997
8:22.85 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Turbo 2008
8:40 Chevrolet Corvette C5 1997
8:43.52 Chevrolet HHR SS 2008
8:49 Volkswagen Golf R32 2006
What the writer of this article does not realize and the reason he should not write about cars is that the SS started as an appearence package and too some degree is today. As an HHR SS owner he really needs to drive the SS based off that engine to appreciate it. I have the GM tuner upgrade and achieve awesome acceleration times while maintaining a 24MPG average fuel rating in mostly city driving. Hard to beat that kind of performance/fuel economy ratio.