General Motors President Mark Reuss took to LinkedIn this past week to post about the Cadillac Lyriq, the brand’s first all-electric vehicle.
Lyriq will be built at the Spring Hill Manufacturing plant in Tennessee, which used to be home to GM’s Saturn brand from 1990 to 2007. More recently, the facility has manufactured the Cadillac XT5, XT6 and GMC Acadia. But now, GM has invested $2 billion to convert this facility to battery-electric vehicle assembly.
The first edition of the Lyriq, appropriately named the Debut Edition, sold out in 10 minutes when orders for it opened last fall, according to InsideEvs.com.
GM confirmed the reservation bank for the Lyriq Debut Edition is full, and reservations for additional models will begin this summer.
The Lyriq Debut Edition is the first Cadillac vehicle built on the GM all-electric Ultium-based platform. It will have a 12-module, 100.4 kilowatt-hour battery pack and rear-wheel drive with an estimated 340 horsepower and a GM-estimated range of 300 miles on a full charge.
The Ultium platform represents a complete change in GM’s manufacturing philosophy as it heads toward a fully electrified lineup. The Ultium platform will be at the center of numerous GM-branded vehicles from mass-market vehicles such as the Chevy Silverado EV to high-performance vehicles and everything in between.
Though Lyriq is not the first vehicle to be built on this brand new architecture — that honor goes to the GMC Hummer EV — it helps usher in the new look and persona of GM’s luxury brand.
When orders open up for other versions of the Lyriq, there will be options that range from rear-wheel drive to all-wheel drive. And the base price will be $58,795. Just when we can expect more of these Lyriq versions to begin production at the Spring Hill facility remains to be seen, but according to Reuss and GM, the automaker is more than nine months ahead of where it expected to be with this crossover.
The Lyriq, despite its price, will compete against the likes of the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model Y.
The Lyriq has a distinctive look, which showcases where the luxury brand intends to go with its EVs. At the same time, Cadillac is giving one last hurrah to gluttony as it announced the anti-EV, a Cadillac Escalade V (as in V-8).
It may seem like Cadillac is all over the place with the Escalade V announcement this news about the first Lyriq hitting production. However, Reuss and CEO Mary Barra have been pretty focused and clear with the vision of GM and Cadillac. It’s electric.
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