Cars.com's Joe Wiesenfelder takes a look at the Cadillac Converj at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show.
Transcript
(upbeat music) (car door slamming) Hi, I am Joe Wiesenfelder from cars.com. With special access, so special, we don't even have badges or anything to the 2009 Chicago Auto Show.
I'm here to show you the Cadillac Converj, Converj with a J, which is a little bit odd. It is basically what would happen if Cadillac did a version of the Chevy Volt, which is scheduled to come out at the end of 2010. As you can see, there's a cord. This car is basically a plug-in hybrid concept. You plug it in overnight for about eight hours, charges up. If you plug it into 240 volts, it does it in about three hours, and that gives you 40 miles of range, which is not that bad. There's a range-extending gas power generator on board. Again, a lot like the Chevy Volt, the system they're calling it is now Voltec. A couple of interesting things about it. You may have seen, back in the day, Chrysler's classic, Chrysler's had tailfins. This one actually kinda sticks up. It's peaked a little bit like the Cadillac SRX, which is the actual model, not just a concept. Now there's a solar panel on the roof. You could not drive a big heavy car like this with solar power alone, but it does keep the battery topped off. Can also be used to run ventilation when the car is parked. We have rear view mirrors on the side and inside there're actually cameras instead of mirrors, you have monitors inside. That's been around for years in concept cars, and even though there've been backup cameras in real vehicles that you can buy, that still hasn't come. To that end, same thing as the story, kinda with this concept, this general shape has been shown many times, the radical shape in concepts from Cadillac, and they just haven't built it, and I wish they would either go ahead and build it or move on. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other, go to cars.com and our blog KickingTires.
