I have been long wanting an affordable i8, because in my use case, a PHEV is the best of both electric drive for short range, and stop-&-go traffic, and gas generation and cruise for range in the wide expanses of the Midwest, with gas stations far more common than charging stations.
i8s are depreciating, but still quite a bit of money for a work-a-day wage earner.
Cadillac ELR is however, half the i8's price when new, and way less than that now.
But ELR is commonly derided for being slow, and far more economy minded than the Converj-based looks suggest, much like i8's criticism of lower power, compared to it’s Vision Dynamics concept looks and 6-figure pricetag, but it’s real-world performance is actually good, just not supercar-good.
The question is: can ELR be modified now that it may be more affordable as a used car, than when it was quite significantly overpriced.
For instance, can the 2016 ELR, with it’s updates over the previous years... be updated with the better Voltec2 drivetrain, and even perhaps add a Chevy Bolt electric axle to the REAR axle of the ELR for AWD and torque vectoring between the front and rear axles.
Arguably the car should have been built that way... but it wasn’t.
And nobody else seems to be chomping at the bit to build something affordable in Parallel/Series Plug-In Hybrid performance and high-style segment, either.
But is this a case where the system is too integrated and complex to modify, and thus relegate the issue to begging, waiting, and being disappointed that no manufactures will do it?
Or will there be options to adapt things that the manufacturers didn’t do, to make something better after the fact?