It has been a very busy day for GM’s EV program, with the company releasing a treasure trove of information regarding its future plans for the EV market, and some of the models that will play various roles in achieving the company’s dream of green market domination. In addition to the Hummer EV we covered earlier today, Cadillac is also getting in on the act, with the brand shedding more light on its strategy for it’s upcoming EV CUV.
A big development is that we finally have a name for the new model, with Cadillac revealing that it will be dubbed the Lyriq. This naming strategy seems to reveal a common theme, with the Lyriq, and the Celestiq sedan all having the letter “IQ” as the final letters of their names. But while the Celestiq takes to the stars for its naming inspiration, the Lyriq is inspired by the whimsical sounds of music. This is an interesting development, but it also highlights Cadillac’s unpredictability when it comes to its naming layout, with the brand changing things over three separate times over the past 20 years. Currently, the brand is using alphanumeric names and newton measurements for engine designation, but these names suggest that Cadillac is sticking to traditional names for the EV range.
Cadillac even let lucky attendees of its EV days event see the new model in person, and while the model they had on hand is far from production ready and still a concept at this point, the styling does appear to be a radical departure from past Cadillacs (and even the original teaser sketch) with the Lyriq featuring an arching roof design and an angled rear window. the wheelbase is rather long, and reports suggest that wraparound taillights will form a very prominent styling statement.
The Lyriq will ride on GM’s new modular EV vehicle platform, and will also make use of the firm’s Ultium battery pack technology. The Ultium batteries are twice as big as the units Tesla uses, and GM has made them to be very flexible with the adaptive battery packs supporting anywhere from 50 kWh, all the way up to 200 kWh with GM claiming that it expects products equipped with the battery packs to go as far as 400 miles on a single charge of electricity. GM also took advantage of the occasion to announce an expansion of Super Cruise. While prior efforts at expanding this technology have so far not gone really anywhere. It appears that GM is finally serious about making the novel cruise control technology available to more buyers, with no less than 22 models expected to be equipped with the technology by 2023. This would include non-Cadillac models which would be the first time that Super Cruise has ventured outside the Cadillac rank and file. Look for the Lyriq to benefit from this move, with the system allowing it to have an edge over Tesla’s AutoPilot system.
Production of the Lyriq will take place at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant where it will share space with the Hummer EV pickup, with the two models representing a $2.2 billion dollar investment that GM has made into transforming the plant from one that made mostly large sedans into a state of the art EV hub for the company.