The lead designer and head engineer of the Cadillac ELR stop by Jay Leno’s garage to show him the new car. The ELR is GM taking the technology Volt and moving it into a premium market. The powertrain is based off of the one in the Volt but is recalibrated for a little more performance. Most importantly, the chassis of the ELR is larger and is no longer an obvious tie-in to the Chevy Cruze like the Volt is. Cadillac’s very successful angular design language is also present on the ELR. I find it interesting that the car technically didn’t need a front grill but they added one purely to keep the styling coherent. I think the ELR is a very encouraging sign for the electric vehicle market. It’s a start to shedding some of the styling, luxury and performance compromises that people are not willing to make to drive EV’s.