Cadillac debuted its first all-electric vehicle today, a luxury crossover called the LYRIQ. The Cadillac LYRIQ is just a “show car” right now, but we’d expect to see something very similar available soon at your local Cadillac dealership.
“Led by LYRIQ, Cadillac will redefine American luxury over the next decade with a new portfolio of transformative EVs,” said Steve Carlisle, Executive VP and President, GM North America. “We will deliver experiences that engage the senses, anticipate desires and enable our customers to go on extraordinary journeys.”
Cadillac LYRIQ
Look at the LYRIQ as a view into the not so distant future of Cadillac vehicles. It is a mid-sized super-luxury electric crossover, built on GM’s next-generation modular electric vehicle platform. With these new underpinnings and GM’s “Ultrium propulsion system” the LYRIQ is a look towards Cadillac’s first electric offering.
This platform for electrified propulsion will offer customers a variety of range and performance options. The LYRIQ is expected to “offer beyond 300 miles of range on a full charge” and be available in both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. It is primarily rear-wheel drive, for enhanced performance driving characteristics.
The GM Ultium battery system is a structural element of the vehicle platform. This provides an extremely low center of gravity and a “near 50/50 weight distribution.” The Ultium battery in the LYRIQ offers approximately 100 kilowatt-hours of energy. It is a modern NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum) chemistry, which uses aluminum in the cathode to help reduce the need for rare-earth materials such as cobalt. The battery electronics are also built into the modules themselves, which eliminates “nearly 90 percent of the battery pack wiring, compared to GM’s current electric vehicles.”
The LYRIQ also gets the latest version of Super Cruise 3, “the industry’s first truly hands-free driver assistance feature.” Autonomous driving is just around the corner for lots of vehicles.
Inside Cadillac LYRIQ
Inside the LYRIQ you get an impressive 33-inch-diagonal advanced LED screen. This new screen can display “over one billion colors, 64 times more than any other vehicle in the automotive industry.”
Inside the LYRIQ you’re sure to only hear what you want to hear. For the first time, Cadillac is introducing a new road noise-canceling technology. It uses even more microphones and accelerometers to improve noise cancellation abilities. A new 19-speaker AKG Studio audio system, combined with the noise-canceling tech, should create a “sound studio” like environment.
The driver also gets a new “dual-plane augmented reality-enhanced head-up display.” The near plane in the HUD displays speed, direction and more, while the far plane displays transparent navigation signals and other important alerts.
Cadillac Electrified Future
Cadillac is planning for an all-electric vehicle future. The Cadillac LYRIQ is just our first glimpse of what’s to come.
