The 2023 Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover is already began manufacture at General Motors’ Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, the carmaker revealed Monday. The EV is the first electric car from the GM’s premium brand – Cadillac.
After GM had said that manufacturing would not begin until late 2022, the Lyriq is now officially ahead of schedule. Faced with concerns that its new EVs were taking too long to reach customers, the manufacturer hastened development of the Lyriq, resulting in an early 2022 launch date.
“This is taking Cadillac back to leadership, back to tier one luxury, and truly getting an American luxury brand recognized and very coveted, both from a design technology and engineering aspect,” GM President Mark Reuss said during a press conference yesterday.
The Lyriq, made a splash in August 2020 when GM accounted it with the extremely reasonable estimated sticker price $59,990. Now although GM has yet to reveal its trim levels and options, $60K for the luxury that consumers have come to expect from Cadillac is quite reasonable.
GM is aiming for a 300-mile EPA-rated range, as well as 340 horsepower and 324 pound-feet of torque for the Lyriq Debut Edition. It will also be able to charge at public fast charging stations at up to 190kW or at home (with the correct equipment) at up to 19.2kW, which adds around 52 miles of range each hour.
Just like the Hummer EV, the Lyriq will also include GM’s Super Cruise, a hands-free driving assistance technology that began with ICE Cadillacs and is now being expanded to other GM vehicles.
The Lyriq is also the first Cadillac to be built on General Motors’ innovative flexible Ultium architecture, which is powering the automaker’s next-generation EV portfolio, including the Hummer EV.
Just like the Hummer EV, the Lyriq is in high demand, with the company claiming over 240,000 “hand-raisers” for the electric crossover. Unlike Tesla reservations, those clients did not have to put money down to make a reservation; rather, they only expressed an interest in a prospective purchase. So it’s hard to determine what percentage of those “hand-raisers” are Russian bots. However, GM anticipates that a large majority of those “hand-raisers” will convert to real purchases. Let’s see if that happens.
