Putting the pieces together: Cadillac SRX program likely to use “canceled” two-mode plug-in powertrain
All right, so maybe what sounded like a clear statement the other day isn’t all that clear. We’re talking about this post, when a General Motors engineer, while talking about the Chevy Volt, told AutoblogGreen that, “We’ve got another plug-in coming, which is the 166, the SRX, which is the same basic technology.”
The “same basic technology,” huh? So, does that mean the Cadillac SRX crossover will get a 35-ish-mile electric-only range from a Voltec powerplant like what’s in the Volt? Not really. A source with GM told us that:
As for the SRX, just to be clear, if such a program were to exist (and nothing has been announced to that effect) it probably wouldn’t be using the Voltec powertrain as implied by your lead.
As chief engineer Lyndon Schnieder told us in 2009 when the SRX came to the Detroit Auto Show, “there is no architectural reason the Two-Mode hybrid won’t fit [in the SRX].” Sure, the plug-in Two-Mode program was officially canceled after that, but we think we can smell the pieces here for a two-mode PHEV (perhaps with an 8 kWh battery pack?) that is still being worked on within GM. After all, the hints were there all along, weren’t they? Think so.
[Source: GM]
