Cadillac reports 39,135 vehicle deliveries in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2022, which is almost a 75 percent increase year-over-year. Thanks to this result, the company noted 134,726 deliveries in 2022 - 13.9 percent more than in 2021.
Electrification of the Cadillac brand is just starting (in terms of all-electric cars, and excluding the ELR and CT6 PHV plug-in hybrids from the past).
In Q3, the company delivered the first 36 Cadillac Lyriq and in Q4, the ramp-up progressed, although very slowly. Only 86 units were delivered to customers last quarter. That's about 0.2 percent of the brand's total volume. To be honest, we hoped for more - a few hundred maybe.
It means that 122 units were delivered in total in 2022. Cadillac says that the production (started in March 2022) at the Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee continues to increase "to meet strong customer demand."
Hopefully, we will see some strong progress in 2023 to reach a rate of hundreds and potentially even several thousand per quarter.
The Cadillac Lyriq is based on General Motors's Ultium platform and utilizes Ultium lithium-ion battery cells from Warren, Ohio (Ultium Cells joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution), which started production just several months ago. GM recently announced an additional investment in the battery plant to boost the production of batteries to 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) annually.
We guess that the Cadillac Lyriq ramp-up is not particularly fast because the company has to make sure that the all-new Ultium vehicles as well as the all-new batteries are fully up to specification. Especially since there already was a recall of 186 Cadillac Lyriq (some not yet delivered) because of a touchscreen issue.
Gallery: 2023 Cadillac Lyriq
Besides the Lyriq, Cadillac is also preparing for another all-electric model - the Celestiq, which in Summer 2022 was seen in camouflage during some road testing.
Cadillac is expected to gradually become fully electrified, basically just like most or all other luxury/premium brands. That's a big chance for the brand overall with a potential chance to maybe return to Europe.
