All those Cadillac fanatics eagerly awaiting the company’s latest production, the Cadillac ELR, to arrive on the scene have another pleasant surprise coming. It turns out the ELR will be sporting the OnStar technology and will also be Smart Grid ready. The mechanism is bound to save a significant amount of energy as thanks to its extended range electric vehicle technology bolstered by the cloud based connection of OnStar, the ELR will miraculously be able to connect with the electric grid.
The OnStar sports four Smart Grid Application Programming Interfaces (APIs); demand response, time-of-use rates, charging data, as well as a provision of aggregate services. Major utilities and various companies can coordinate with these interfaces to generate real time solutions for the ELR users. Even renewable energy can be utilised in a guided, efficient way via signals from the electric grid. There are also various other services that ELR owners will be able to enjoy, including Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Hands-Free Calling, Vehicle Diagnostics, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Assistance.
The basic framework of the technology is that ELR owners will be able to access the OnStar RemoteLink mobile app. The app, being EV-tailored, will be able to demonstrate to the driver certain conditions of the vehicle. These include the vehicle’s driven electric miles, eMPG, state of charge, and electric range. To compensate for therelatively high cost of the vehicle, the company is offering the premium directions and connections package for one year as part of the starting cost to get the drivers hooked.
