Cadillac's Surprisingly Quick ELR Is An EV We Actually Want To Buy

When we had our first glimpse of the Cadillac ELR earlier this year, we liked what we saw. Cadillac has now released performance figures for the car, and this pretty electric vehicle actually has some decent poke to go with the looks.

The car gets a fettled version of the Chevy Volt/Vauxhall Ampera's plug-in hybrid powertrain. Two motors power the front wheels, giving healthy figures of 207bhp and 295 lb/ft. That's enough for a respectable 0-60mph time of 7.8 seconds, and a top speed of 106mph.

If you run it on the battery alone, you'll run out of juice after 37 miles. Use the 1.4-litre petrol engine, which acts as a generator, and the range jumps to 375 miles. All sounds very tempting, but like most electric cars, it's not what you'd call cheap. At $75,995 (£47,000), it's in direct competition with the heroically strong Tesla Model S.