With 500 banner waving GM staff in attendance, the welcome for Cadillac's Detroit surprise reveal was a noisy one - quite unlike the concept's propulsion system, as the Cadillac Converj concept is silently powered by GM's Voltic electric transmission. Described by GM's Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, Bob Lutz as a "logical extension of GM's plan to reinvent the automobile", the Converj's 'Art and Science' sculpted two-door shape clothes a T-shaped electric lithium-ion battery, an electric motor and a four-cylinder engine-generator that Lutz claims removes the 'range anxiety' of conventional electric vehicles.

Three hours charging gives the Converj concept an electric-only range of 40-miles, the engine-generator providing electricity to the electric motor to increase that distance when a plug-in electric recharge isn't possible. With a top speed of 100mph and 273lb.ft of torque Lutz promises a quick launch, though he failed to mention whether it will ever actually make production. We think it will.

Kyle Fortune - 11 Jan 2009