How to challenge Tesla's (TSLA) hegemony in electric vehicles?
Most carmakers have been seeking to answer this question for two-three years now. After ups and downs, General Motors (GM) thinks it has figured it out, with its high-end Cadillac brand, specfically the Cadillac Lyriq.
Introduced in 2020, this SUV/crossover is important, even central, for the tens of billions of dollars the Detroit giant has invested in its transformation into a group producing mainly electric cars in years to come.
The Lyriq, Cadillac's first 100% electric car, is supposed to launch the era of electrification of GM cars: Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC and Buick.
Early signals suggest things are going well and on the schedule recently advanced by GM, despite the global chip shortage, which has disrupted the supply chains of producers of autos and just about everything else.
Pre-production has started in the Spring Hill, Tenn., factory. This site initially produced Saturn models, but GM has laid out $2 billion to enable the plant to produce the Lyriq and other electric vehicles to come under the Cadillac brand.
"Our teams have worked tirelessly on the Lyriq, bringing the launch up nine months ahead of schedule and working in parallel to convert the plant and start production," GM President Mark Reuss said on a post on LinkedIn in January.
"This is an important proof point in our path to EV leadership as we introduce more high-volume EVs across price points and lifestyles."
Lyriq Is Ahead of Schedule
He said: "Our first pre-production Cadillac Lyriq has rolled off the line at Spring Hill, marking a major milestone for the Lyriq program as the team prepares to ship vehicles to customers in a few months."
Reuss shared a photo of a pre-production copy and said that the first Lyriq copies will be delivered to their owners in "a few months."
The original schedule called for the Lyriq to launch at the end of 2022, but GM has accelerated things in the hope of quickly catching up with Tesla, and especially to distance Ford (F). The automaker now talks about the current first quarter.
The Lyriq competes with Tesla Model Y.
The Lyriq is a large SUV integrating top-of-the-range equipment, at the height of the image of the brand. Thus, the dashboard is adorned with a giant curved screen 33 inches diagonally, which replaces the traditional dashboard and the central touch screen of the infotainment system.
The audio installation is signed AKG Studio and includes no fewer than 19 speakers, some of which are placed in the headrests, all combined with active suppression of ambient noise. The passenger compartment seems to offer generous dimensions.
For its first electric vehicle, Cadillac installed a single-motor power train, developing 340 horsepower with 325 pound-feet of torque. The power is transmitted to the rear wheels. The Lyriq is based on General Motors' Ultium architecture. It will in the future be able to receive a second engine, which will give it higher power and all-wheel drive.
The range of the vehicle is pegged at more than 300 miles on a single charge thanks to a 100.4 kWh battery pack. The Lyriq will accept fast charging up to 190 kW when plugged into a DC fast charger. That's enough to recover 76 miles of range in about 10 minutes.
The starting price tag is $59,990 including destination and freight. That's 10% above the base price of Tesla's Model Y, $54,690.
Cadillac.com
Strong Demand. And Virtual Design.
Customer interest remains strong, judging by Chief Executive Mary Barra's statements. Barra told shareholders that GM will take orders from customers following the launch of the Debut Edition.
"Customer interest in the Lyriq is now so strong that we will forgo a new round of reservations and begin taking customer orders soon after the Debut Edition launches in March," Barra said in a letter to shareholders on Feb. 1.
The Lyriq is unique in that its design was carried out by a computer, which a priori enables it to compete with Tesla's Model Y.
"In 2018 we went through a transformation; we needed to change our cost structure. That was impetus to amp this up," Mike Anderson, executive director for global virtual design, development and validation at GM, told CarBuzz last April.
"We've been doing this as a complement for a long time. What we realized is that this is a great instrument for speeding things up. And it's better; we see more initial quality."
This virtual design is what enabled GM to move ahead of its original schedule. The manufacturer will also be able to realize savings of around $1.5 billion a year.
On Sept. 18, a limited number of Lyriq cars had been opened for reservations. Cadillac closed its reservation book for Lyriq Debut Edition after only a few minutes. Cadillac did not indicate the number of copies planned for this edition. It should be noted that it was possible to book against a refundable deposit of $100 dollars.
"That was fast. Every all-electric 2023#LYRIQ Debut Edition has now been reserved," the company posted on Twitter.
During a recent Q&A session with the media, GM's global vice president for Cadillac, Rory Harvey, confirmed that the automaker so far has around 216,000 so-called hand-raisers for the Cadillac Lyriq, according to gmauthority.com.
A hand-raiser is someone who has registered interest in the vehicle at a dealer or through the automaker’s website by signing up to receive email updates.
“This is not a commitment to buy a vehicle,” Harvey cautioned. “This is basically somebody that says ‘I’m interested in the Lyriq, I would like to get details on the Lyriq, I would like to be kept informed in terms of the Lyriq,’ etc.”
But GM is sending signals that things are going in the right direction.
The automaker has decided to increase production of Lyriq this year, to 25,000 units from 3,200 to meet "strong" demand, according to Reuters, citing documents GM sent to its suppliers.
"We regularly share information with suppliers that we don’t publicly confirm or discuss, so I have no comment on any specifics related to future products," Dan Flores, a spokesman for the company, said in an email statement to TheStreet.
