Transportation

Cadillac Lyriq Ushers In New Era For A Storied Brand–Eventually


In January 2019, General Motors
GM
announced that Cadillac would be the lead brand for its transition to full electrification. Since Henry Leland started Cadillac in 1902, the brand has only produced one plug-in vehicle, the ELR which was, to say the least, a commercial failure. This time around, the fully electric Lyriq crossover appears to be much better positioned, and if GM can execute, stands a much better chance of succeeding. 

Way back before the world fell apart, we got our first idea of what to expect when Cadillac president Steve Carlisle revealed a teaser image during the event to unveil the conventional, gas-fueled XT6 crossover. At the EV day that GM hosted for media and analysts in early March of this year, we got to see the Lyriq in physical form ahead of its planned unveiling in Los Angeles in early April. 

Unfortunately, within days of that event, the pandemic shutdown began and the LA event was cancelled. GM still isn’t ready to invite the California glitterati to an in-person showing, so the Lyriq is instead being unveiled online as every other new vehicle in recent months has been. 

After two decades of trying to directly challenge the premium German brands with cars that were in many ways excellent, but have found only a limited audience, Cadillac is now turning its gaze upon the vehicles now being built in a factory originally opened by GM in 1965 in Fremont, California. The Lyriq represents a new era of design and technology for the brand once known as the Standard of the World. 

A New Bespoke Suit for Electric Cadillacs

As Cadillac moves into its electric future, it’s evolving its design language both inside and out. With far less cooling needed to support the battery than for an internal combustion engine, the face has been reconfigured. A small cooling air opening remains at the bottom, but the grille area is now solid. 

While it retains the five-sided shield shape of other current Cadillac grilles, there is no mesh or bars. Instead, there are pinstripes that angle outward and down from the central crease against a dark background. The central grille area actually stands out from the perimeter and the pinstripes along  continue around the beveled perimeter of this faux-grille. The portions along that beveled edge are back-lit and as you approach the Lyriq with a key fob in your possession, the stripes light up from the bottom center out to greet you, forming a smile as if to say – let’s go for a drive. 

The Cadillac crest retains its position in the top-center of the grille, and it too is back-lit. Unfortunately the lighting is only in white, lacking the blue, yellow and red fields found on the current crest. Designer Andrew Smith explained that this limitation is forced by current lighting regulations that limit forward lamps to white with the exception of the amber turn signals. The headlamps are comprised of a pair slim vertical LED columns at the corners. 

The Lyriq’s profile can best be described as the current trend toward coupe-like or fastback crossovers but with a relatively long roof to ensure plenty of head room in the back seat. The flanks are relatively smooth and free of adornment. The rear pillars form a fairly large triangular area between the the near vertical trailing edge of the rear door window, the shoulder line and sloped upper half of the tailgate.

Cadillac has taken an interesting approach with the rear lighting as well with separate vertical and horizontal components. The slim vertical lamps at the lower portion of the rear corners echoes the look found on Cadillacs of the past couple of decades. A distinct upper lamp segment wraps around from the lower edge of the tailgate glass to the sides and then sweeps up like a hockey stick through the middle of the pillar area. The upcoming flagship Celistiq sedan has a similar treatment although the long trunk means it has a much longer, larger pillar area. 

The overall effect is a handsome and contemporary shape with a broad stance that doesn’t look quite like anything else on the road. 

Putting the Emphasis Where Customers Live

Where the Lyriq really stands out is in the interior. While Tesla
TSLA
vehicles have been rightly praised for many traits, the quality of their interiors is not one of them. Given the price point of a Tesla, the materials and fit and finish generally fall far short of competing products. The same is not true of the Lyriq which has a thoroughly modern, yet luxurious cabin. 

First up is the 33-inch LED backlit, curved display that spans from the A-pillar across to the center of the dash. It’s a single, seamless surface of glass with minimal bezels that is supported in such a way that it appears to be free-floating. Unlike some recent Mercedes-Benz systems that feature two separate rectangular displays under a single sheet of glass, this one is all display. 

In addition to the physical display, the Lyriq will have a new multi-plane augmented reality heads-up-display. Like traditional HUD systems, relevant vehicle information like speed, signals and various alerts will display in a plane that seems to float somewhere over the center of the hood. When using navigation, direction prompts and other signals are displayed on a second farther plane that appears to be on the road itself. 

Since electric vehicles don’t make any notable amount of powertrain noise, Cadillac has reworked the noise cancellation to focus on eliminating road noise. The system features additional microphones and accelerometers tuned to detect tire sounds and cancel them out. Given that one of the few major complaints about the XT4 was road noise, this will be a welcome addition. 

The trim throughout this cabin looks top notch including the inserts on the door panels. These inserts feature a wood veneer with diamond perforations laid over an aluminum backing that provides a truly unique appearance.

The central control knob for the infotainment sits on a cantilevered console that leaves space below for storage. The perimeter of the controller is knurled like a precision gauge as are other knobs and switches. While Cadillac isn’t providing any dimensions, when we got a look at the Lyriq at the GM EV day in early March, the back seat offered plenty of room for adults to ride in comfort, something that will be important when this vehicle launches in the Chinese market. 

Not Skimping on Range

Of course much of this wouldn’t be necessary were it not for what resides under the floor of the Lyriq. Here lies the new Ultium battery and propulsion system that we learned about back in March. You can read about that here because Cadillac has provided few additional details or specifications. 

Cadillac isn’t yet talking about things like battery capacity or even power levels for the Lyriq. What they have told us is that it will be available with either single motor rear wheel drive or dual motor all-wheel drive. Executive chief engineer Marty Hogan did acknowledge during a background briefing that they would be evaluating the potential for a higher performance V series but wasn’t committing to anything yet. 

What Carlisle did commit to was a minimum range of at least 300 miles. During a luncheon last December, Carlisle admitted that 300 miles was table stakes for any premium EV going forward and Cadillac was aiming for 400 miles. Whether the Lyriq gets to 400 in its initial iteration is unknown, but we have been promised that both rear and all-wheel drive models will go over 300. 

When you have a battery big enough to go that far, fast charging is important to replenish it. Hogan said the Lyriq will support 150-kW DC fast charging which means it likely features the base 400V electrical configuration rather than the 800V system expected to be used on the GMC Hummer EV. For AC charging at home, the Lyriq will also be supporting 19-kW charging, substantially more than the 6.6 or 7.2-kW power levels on most current EVs. GM will be working with its partner QMerit to help customers get these higher powered chargers installed at home. 

All of this sounds great, but how much will it cost and when can you get it?

First the good news. While Carlisle wasn’t ready to talk pricing yet, he did say “for sure less than $75,000, we’d be looking to be in the sweet spot of the mid size crossover.” With the Mercedes-Benz GLE and BMW X5 starting in the mid to upper 50s, it would seem likely that the Lyriq will probably start around $60,000 to 65,000. 

On the negative side, the Lyriq will go on sale in China first, starting in mid-2022, with U.S. sales a few months later. That’s more than two years away and some five years after GM first promised to launch 20 EVs by 2023. It’s almost four years after Carlisle first showed a render. While it’s great that GM is building a full slate of new dedicated EVs, by the time Lyriq arrives, the Tesla Model S will be ten years old and even the Ford Mustang Mach-E will have been on sale for two years. BMW is launching the production version of the iNext in 2021, Mercedes-Benz will likely have its own mid-size electric SUV and an electric Volvo XC90 should arrive. 

Interestingly, Cadillac is declining to be specific about where the Lyriq will be produced. We know the Hummer and Cruise Origin will be produced at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant that is currently being retooled. GM also has a second EV-only plant in Orion, Mich. where the Bolt is built. The fact that the Lyriq will launch in China a few months before North America, certainly points to it being built exclusively in China. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder that GM doesn’t want to talk about that in the run-up to a contentious election. It could certainly be produced in multiple locations, but the reality is that GM will probably sell more of these vehicles in China, so it would make sense to produce it there.

Why is GM showing this vehicle now? Probably to show that yes indeed they are working on stuff. But what is clear is that when GM made that 20 EV promise three years ago, they likely hadn’t started work on any of them except for maybe the Chevy Bolt EUV. It will have been four years, the normal product development time when the Hummer, the first of the truly new vehicles hits the market. By the time the Lyriq arrives in Cadillac dealerships, it will be hitting a much more crowded market. Of course, in late-2022, EVs are unlikely to represent more than 2.5 to 3% of overall sales so while this timing may sound disappointing, it may not actually be meaningful. Time will tell.



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