2024 is shaping up to be a banner year for General Motors’ electric ambitions. After some fits and starts, the automaker’s EV transition is gaining steam once again. No car showcases GM’s comeback quite like the Cadillac Lyriq.
Like all of the automaker’s latest electric models, the Lyriq uses GM’s new Ultium technology, a battery-and-motor platform that can be adapted to underpin small SUVs like the Equinox EV, big trucks like the GMC Hummer EV and vehicles somewhere in between, like the Lyriq. GM ran into some snags ramping up production of Ultium battery packs (and thus, vehicles). So even though the Lyriq officially launched a couple years ago, it’s basically been a footnote on GM’s sales reports until recently.
[Full disclosure: Cadillac delivered a fully charged Lyriq to my home for this review. I kept it for a week.]
Now, however, sales of the first electric Cadillac are popping off. In the first half of 2024, GM delivered 13,094 Lyriqs, way more than any of its other EVs and nearly five times the model’s sales during the same period last year. In the second quarter, more than half of Lyriq buyers who traded in a car defected from a competing manufacturer, GM says. That bodes well for GM and Cadillac’s ability to do battle with Tesla, still far and away the EV-industry leader.
After spending a week with the Lyriq, it’s easy to see why so many people are buying them. It’s comfortable, packed with technology, provides plenty of range and looks great. It’s far from the only luxury electric SUV you can buy, but it’s a very good one and, in my view, a highly appealing step up for anyone graduating from a Tesla Model Y.
Cadillac Lyriq AWD Specs
Driving Experience
Some EVs are all about 0-60 times that leave you grinning and your passengers looking for a barf bag. Not the Lyriq. This Caddy is built for classy, comfy cruising and fulfills its mission with flying colors.
Power delivery is silky-smooth. The Lyriq soaks up bumps without issue. Even at speed, the Lyriq’s cabin remains library-quiet. That all adds up to an easy, serene driving experience. Steering isn’t quick or terribly engaging, but that’s not the point.
Still, the Lyriq wasn’t sluggish by any means. My 500-horsepower, dual-motor tester eagerly executed quick highway merges when I put my foot down—arguably the best part of driving an EV. And it stayed fairly composed around corners. You get the most electric oomph in Sport mode, but I kept the Lyriq in the more efficient Tour mode most of the time and never felt the need to switch things up.
One-pedal driving is available in any drive mode and can be accessed in a couple of different ways. One method is to go through some menus in the Lyriq’s touchscreen and find the one-pedal driving settings. From there, you can switch one-pedal driving on or off, and toggle between normal and high levels of braking. Fortunately, you can permanently add one-pedal driving to the menu bar at the bottom of the screen, so it can be switched on or off with a single tap. I found the Lyriq’s one-pedal driving predictable and easy to get used to, so I kept it on most of the time.
One fun quirk: The Lyriq also features a paddle on the left side of the steering wheel that essentially acts as a secondary brake pedal—only it’s just for regenerative braking. It’s progressive, meaning that if you squeeze only a little bit, you get a little bit of additional stopping power. If you squeeze the paddle all the way, that’s effectively like slamming on the brakes. It was fun to play around with, but, truth be told, I couldn’t quite figure out the best times to use it. If you want more control over your regenerative braking than one-pedal driving allows, I suppose regen on demand could serve you well.
Range, Battery Size, Observed Efficiency
The Lyriq AWD offers 307 miles of range, as estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Rear-wheel-drive variants, which have one motor instead of two, offer slightly more: 314 miles. Both powertrain configurations get their electrons from a 102-kilowatt-hour battery pack. The Lyriq’s range stacks up nicely with maximums offered by other premium SUVs like the BMW iX (324 miles), Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV (307 miles) and Genesis GV60 (294 miles).
Better yet, InsideEVs conducted a 70-mph range test using a 2023 RWD Lyriq and found it far exceeded its EPA combined range, going 330 miles on a full charge.
Over a 50-mile efficiency test that included mostly 60-70-mph highway driving and a couple of miles of city streets, my Lyriq AWD tester managed to deliver 2.7 mi/kWh, translating to an observed range of 275.4 miles. We’d expect the extra motor in the AWD Lyriq to ding efficiency, and big elevation changes in my test also likely had an impact.
One nice touch: You can add an efficiency tile to the gauge cluster to keep close tabs on your energy consumption during a trip. The Lyriq also displays in kilowatts how much power you’re using—or regenerating via braking—at any given moment.
Charging Experience
The Lyriq maxes out at a respectable 190 kW when plugged into a sufficiently powerful DC fast charger. However, the devil is in the details. Previous InsideEVs tests have reliably shown the Lyriq isn’t able to absorb that peak charging power for very long, producing longer-than-expected charging stops.
Gallery: 2024 Cadillac Lyriq
We tested a 2023 Lyriq from 20%-80% on a 350-kW Electrify America unit and found that it took a rather sluggish 40 minutes, matching Cadillac’s advertised figures. We were able to add 75 miles of EPA range back into the Lyriq RWD in the first 10 minutes of the session, but the distance added per minute slowed considerably after that.
The Lyriq uses a 400-volt architecture, which yields slower charging times than some more advanced, 800-volt EVs. Some of those can charge from 10%-80% in a blistering 20 minutes. That’s part of why we’re seeing below class-leading charging speeds here, and the Lyriq’s rather large battery pack doesn’t help either. However, there are also 400-volt cars that juice up quicker than the Lyriq does. The Tesla Model Y accepts up to 250 kW and can recharge from 20%-80% in less than 30 minutes. In our tests, the BMW iX went from 10%-80% in 41 minutes, and it has a bigger battery pack and more range than the Lyriq.
On the plus side, the Lyriq offers automatic battery preconditioning when you plot a route to a charging station. You can also initiate preconditioning manually. It shows how many stalls are available at charging stations as you search for them, which is super handy.
During charging, the Lyriq indicates your current state of charge, the number of miles you’re adding per hour and the expected time remaining to get to whatever state of charge target you set.
The Lyriq comes standard with an 11.5-kW onboard charger for level 2 charging and also offers an upgrade to 19.2 kW, more than many EVs offer. Cadillac says a Lyriq with that option can add 51 miles of range per hour. If you primarily charge at home overnight and don’t deplete your battery on a daily basis, that’s probably overkill, but it’s nice to see as an option.
Interior
I found the Lyriq extremely pleasant to spend time in, especially during long days in the driver’s seat. It certainly helped that GM treated me to a Luxury 3 model, which comes with lots of options you won’t find in lesser trims. I had no trouble getting nice and comfy in my tester’s heated and ventilated faux-leather seats (with lumbar massage, might I add). The two-tone interior felt solidly premium and came complete with wood trim, a powered sunroof, colorful ambient lighting and plenty of shiny, metallic bits. Active noise canceling—an option that combats road noise—amped up the cabin’s high-end vibe.
The Lyriq offers plenty of storage, too. In addition to the standard glove box, you get a little bonus drawer just below the climate controls and a padded area between the front seats for a purse or the like. Both come done up in vibrant blue leather. There’s no frunk, but there is a sub-floor storage space in the rear, which is great for stowing things you want to keep out of view.
Visibility out the back, however, is not good due to the Lyriq’s sloped rear end and small back window. The available camera-based rear-view mirror doesn’t offer a much better view than the regular mirror.
Infotainment & UX
The Lyriq’s command center is an impressive-looking 33-inch screen that’s split into three sections.
Front and center is a digital gauge cluster, which displays your speed and other critical info. On the left, a small touchscreen panel lets you choose from a few cluster designs and adjust basics like your headlights. On the right, you’ll find the main infotainment display, which runs an Android Automotive-based operating system with Google Built-in. All told, the Lyriq’s digital interface is attractive, responsive, easy to use and nicely configurable. I encountered a couple of glitches, but they were rare and didn’t impact how I operated the car.
The best part about it is Google Built-in capability, which replaces reliably clunky automaker apps with familiar and sleek Google offerings. For example, the native navigation app is Google Maps, which you can set to take up the whole gauge cluster. The Google voice assistant understood my random Google searches well and reliably routed me to the right destination, even when it was a restaurant with a unique name.
The Google Play Store offered a lot of weird music services I’d never heard of, but also more familiar apps like Spotify and PlugShare. More apps should hit the store over time.
Although GM has made the now infamous decision to stop offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its EVs, the Lyriq is an exception. For now, at least, it still offers wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. In my experience, however, the native system offered a better overall experience than mirroring my iPhone did.
Thankfully, Cadillac didn’t stuff every single feature into the touchscreen. Below the main display sits a row of physical switches for adjusting the climate controls. On the center console, there’s a scroll wheel for volume and a dial that you can use to operate the touchscreen.
Safety & ADAS
The base Lyriq offers a host of safety and driver-assistance tech as standard equipment, including rear cross-traffic alert, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, blind spot steering assist and seat vibrations that warn when you’re about to hit something. (That last one I found irritating and opted instead for the more standard beeps. But to each their own.)
Much more tech is available for added cost and on higher trims. My tester came with a 360-degree birds-eye camera—something every new car should have. Plus, it had Super Cruise, GM’s excellent hands-free highway-driving feature. That’s a $2,500 option and requires a monthly or yearly subscription once a three-year trial period elapses. For my full thoughts on Super Cruise in the Lyriq, check out this story.
Pricing & Trims
Pricing starts at $58,590 not includes a mandatory $1,395 destination charge. Here’s a trim breakdown:
- Tech: $58,590
- Luxury: $62,690
- Sport: $63,190
The Tech trim comes with 20-inch wheels; a fixed-glass roof; wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; heated seats; and wireless phone charging. Bumping up to the Luxury trim unlocks conveniences like adaptive cruise control, a 360-degree camera view, ambient lighting and more interior colors apart from black. It also opens up options like Super Cruise, a power-opening sunroof and ventilated front seats.
The Luxury trim is broken up into three levels with increasing levels of options and fanciness: Luxury 1, 2 and 3. The Lyriq Luxury 3 I tested came out to $77,770, including the destination charge and $7,180 worth of options. Those included a black painted roof ($600), 19.2-kW AC charging capability ($1,480) and AWD ($3,500).
Verdict
At InsideEVs we answer two big questions with our reviews: How good is this as a car, in general? And how good is it as an EV, specifically?
The Lyriq is a great car, and the rising sales bear that out. It delivers a comfortable, hushed ride and is, I reckon, one of the best-looking electric SUVs on the market right now. It’s more striking than any of Cadillac’s gas SUVs and far fresher than anything from Tesla. Plus, it serves up some great tech, including a highly satisfying user interface.
An EPA-estimated range above 300 miles is a boon to the Lyriq’s EV cred. Moreover, we’ve shown it’s capable of exceeding that. Thoughtful implementations of regen/one-pedal driving—plus the ability to manually precondition the battery—are pluses here too.
The only real knock on the EV front is that some other models can DC fast charge more quickly, making them better for road trips where time is tight. And the competition is only getting fiercer in that respect; the upcoming Audi Q6 E-Tron notches a peak charging rate of 270 kW and advertises a 10%-80% charging time of 21 minutes. Still, if you’re someone who plugs in at home 90% of the time and only takes the occasional multi-hour trip, this may not—and perhaps should not—be a dealbreaker.
The Lyriq isn’t the first or best luxury electric SUV on the market. But Cadillac has a solid competitor on its hands. It’s far more luxurious and has better ride quality than a Tesla Model Y. It’s way cheaper than a BMW iX or Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and it’s got way more range than a Lexus RZ450e.
The question going forward is whether GM can translate the Lyriq’s success to more mainstream vehicles—like the new Chevy Blazer EV and Equinox EV—and keep this party going.
Contact the author: tim.levin@insideevs.com
