Cadillac ELR Is Walking Dead (But May Be Great, Rare Used Car)

You almost have to pity the Cadillac ELR range-extended electric coupe: It's a very pretty car with luxurious appointments, but no one wants to buy it.

And if the rumors that now-departed General Motors CEO Dan Akerson personally set its initial price at $75,000 are true, you have to wonder how it might have done if launched at a considerably lower price.

Regardless, the ELR is now a product on Death Row, and it will likely vanish sooner than later--making it even rarer than the Chevrolet Spark EV among GM electric cars.

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Over more than two years of sales, from December 2013 through last month, exactly 2,407 copies of the ELR have been sold.

That compares to expectations of 5,000 or more units a year when the car launched as a 2014 model.

The bulk of the ELRs sold to date are 2014 models, which use a slightly uprated version of the Chevrolet Volt powertrain and the 17.1-kilowatt-hour battery pack used in the 2015 Volt.

A small number are likely to be the updated 2016 model, which featured better performance, an electric range boosted from 37 to 40 miles, more standard equipment, and a price cut of $10,000. (There was no 2015 model year.)

But the current ELR will also be the last.

As industry trade journal Automotive News noted in an interview last week with Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen, there will be no second-generation ELR.

ALSO SEE: Cadillac ELR A 'Disappointment,' Plug-In Hybrids For Most Models: Marketing Chief

The ELR dates back to the well-received Cadillac Converj concept shown at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

After a tortured off-again, on-again history through GM's bankruptcy and government-backed restructuring, it was approved for production in August 2011.