The Curious Case of the Cadillac Converj

Back in January this year, GM announced, loud, proud and unofficially, that the Cadillac Converj will enter production sometimes in 2012, to give luxury consumers a taste of the Voltec powertrain developd by the carmaker. The announcement, made by Bob Lutz, came after almost a year of uncertainty over the project.

Now, the same GM, but in a more official note, wrote the obituary of the plug-in limousine, somehow blaming the media for blowing the topic out of proportions.

"It has always been a concept," Cadillac spokesman Nick Twork was quoted as saying by Autonews. "It was never announced officially that we were going to do the Converj. We never issued a press release."

GM however did issue a press release regarding the departure of Bob Lutz, the man who was there to drive the Converj project (as well as others) forward. The press release, issued a week ago, announced Lutz's retirement. And that, we reckon, is the main reason the Converj will no longer be.

Lutz himself kept a decent note on the topic, in a text message cited by Autonews.

"Simply, other priorities and the conviction that the Volt and Ampera will use all available capacity for years to come."

Of course (if we are to judge the matter as Nick Twork does), we would have to wait, probably, for an official press release from GM, saying the Converj has been killed, before believing anything.

At least, the scrapping of the Converj will put on end to the "what's its point ?" debate stirred by the plug-in Caddy. An overpriced Volt would have probably served no one anyway...