General Motors is making a really big push for electrified vehicles in the
next coming years and not just Chevrolet mass-market at caño hatches we're
talking about things like this this is the 2017 ct6 plug-in hybrid from
Cadillac and this thing might be a little bit more unique than you might
expect you see it's the only Cadillac that you can buy in North America that
isn't made in North America the big market for car like this is China where
the government is really pushing hard for electrified vehicles to try and
overcome some of the horrible air pollution that they have to deal with
now we're starting to see some of that sentiment creep into the United States
as well particularly in California and with the popularity of luxury cars like
Tesla taking off Cadillacs decided to test the waters
themselves with something just like this a leather lined luxury land yacht that
you can plug into a wall now bear with me for a moment because we're going to
get a little bit technical up in here see the ct6 plug-in hybrid is powered by
a 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that's made it up to a hybrid
electric transmission that incorporates two 100 horsepower electric motors and a
planetary gearset and the whole thing meshes together to produce 335
horsepower and 432 pound-feet of torque which is nothing to slouch at Cadillac
says that the ct-6 plugin can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.2 seconds
which is pretty quick for a car this size the hybrid powertrain is powered by
an 18 point 4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that they've sandwiched in
between the backseat passengers and the trunk now it eats up about half of your
trunk space unfortunately but there's still enough room in here for a couple
of large suitcases so you'll get everything you need to get to the
airport without a problem it takes about four and a half hours to
recharge it on a 240 volt level to electric vehicle charger or if you've
just plugged it into the hundred and twenty volts socket in your house we
figure it'll take about overnight all that energy is good enough to propel
this car for about 31 miles of electric range and then the gas engine kicks in
you can go over 400 miles more at about 26 miles per gallon in total total range
for this thing is about 440 miles before you need to either
charge or fill the gas tank again driving the Cadillac ct-6 plug-in hybrid
is a little unusual it's dead silent in here there really isn't a lot of noise
at all coming from the powertrain so aside from the odd clunker thunk earth
gear whine you really don't hear much of anything happening until the gas engine
kicks in and then it gets a little unusual you see it'll keep the car in
electric mode as much as possible but if you accelerate and push that pedal past
fifty percent that's when the gas engine will kick in some power as well and it
it hesitates a little bit it hiccups before it does it so the moment you
really want as much power as you can get it stutters for a second and then takes
off so a little unnerving but that's really the only blemish in terms of the
powertrain you've got three drive modes in the ct6 plugin tour which is the
normal mode which keeps it in electric mode pretty much all the time until the
battery runs out you've got sport which gives things a bit more of an aggressive
feel and actually does feel a little bit more responsive and you've got hold now
what hold does is it keeps the battery charged at the level it's at so right
now I've got 16 miles of battery range I push hold and it'll use the gas engine
to do most of my driving and power and keeps the range at 16 miles now this
is good for when you're driving unlike the highway where gasoline engines are
really more efficient than electric motors but it allows you to then have
your 16 miles of range when you get to a city that's useful in some cities that
are now starting to require electric only operation downtown unless you want
to pay a tax that's increasingly common in China it's common in places like
London as well and don't be surprised if we start seeing that start to show up
here in the US as well so the powertrain is smooth it's comfortable it's quiet
really no complaints at all about the power the only issue I really have is
with the brakes they feel a little artificial as most vehicles that are
hybrid or Evie do feel a little artificial I haven't yet driven a hybrid
or a TV that has brakes that make me go wow these are fantastic ct-6 plug-in
really Alma not all that different it's still kind of hard to modulate but
overall they work just fine they'll haul you down without a problem so
I think it's something that you just have to get used to if you choose one of
these things now if you want to maximize your electric range there's a couple of
things you can do it has some different settings for the regenerative brake
system and that can help sometimes especially in urban stop-and-go traffic
like this you can select these regen modes either through the paddles or in
the gearshift selector on the center console you've got four options you've
got em one through four now m4 is your standard regen braking which is not very
much at all but if you start playing with it m1 is
the most aggressive and you can almost do this as one pedal driving on/off like
you would in a Chevy bolt or a Nissan Leaf and whichever one you're
comfortable with it's gonna take some experimentation to see which one really
is is the best for you now the interior on the ct6 plugin is big car comfy
there's plenty of room up front the Beltline is fairly low you can see out
without a problem but mice long hood presents this really cool view for you
the interior materials kind of a mixed bag I'm not a huge fan of the cinnamon
leather which to me looks a little too pumpkin spice basic but it is available
in some other colors as well there's a lot of materials on the - you've got
leather you've got piano black you've got chrome you've got brushed satin and
you've got carbon fiber which to me not all that luxurious if they could tone
this down a little bit put some nice wood on here which is available in some
other trim levels I think it would go a long way towards making the ct-6 a
proper flagship luxury sedan now in terms of electronics we've got Cadillac
Q and the multimedia system which is actually working very well these days
plus you've got much larger buttons on this much larger screen which I think
works really quite well the gauges are all digital in the ct-6 plug-in and
they're not the greatest I think if you really want good digital gauges you have
to look to like mercedes-benz or even Volvo because they add a little bit of
artistry in with just the basic information presentation while driving
the ct-6 plug-in is a perfectly pleasant experience riding back here is equally
nice there's tons of space you've got legroom you've got amenities galore
you've got plenty of USB plugs you've got video screens in the seat back
pockets there's tons of Headroom despite the fact that you've got a panoramic
Rufe this really is a pleasant area to be and it had better be pleasant for how
much this thing costs you see the ct-6 plug-in hybrid only comes one way and
that's pretty much loaded it starts at seventy-six thousand dollars just to
take over that but that's still considerably less than its main
competitor the BMW 740i II can't go nearly as far on an electric charge
doesn't come with all the standard safety equipment and multimedia stuff
that this thing does and it costs $15,000 more before you add any of that
stuff in there so if you're looking to upgrade from your Chevy Volt to your
Nissan Leaf and you still want to go mostly gas free on your commute to work
of about being 30 miles or so this might be something that you'd want to check
out see how the details of the new 17 Cadillac ct-6 plug-in hybrid at cars.com
you