Cadillac Lyriq vs Infiniti Q30

What's the difference?

It's got a couple of quirks, but the Cadillac Lyriq is a pretty convincing, and definitely American, take on a premium electric vehicle in Australia. The only issue, I think, is that, while the brand is obviously iconic in the USA, it's not that well known in Australia, and we are a market now awash with pretty good, and often much cheaper, EVs from China. It's a hyper-competitive market. Only time will tell if Cadillac can convince Australians that its badge belongs among the European premium marques.

The Q30 Sport is a left-field choice in the premium hatch segment. For those who don’t care about badge equity and are looking for something different, the Q30 provides maybe 70 per cent the feel of its well-established competition while offering decent value courtesy of standard safety and spec inclusions.

The biggest letdown is how much better it could be with just a little extra in every department. Even in this top-spec the drive experience is a bit generic, and it’s missing an up-to-date multimedia experience limiting its appeal to a younger audience.

Even with its promising mixed heritage, the Q30 hardly feels more than the sum of its parts.

The Cadillac looks… well, it looks American, right? A kind of difficult-to-describe Americanness that’s somewhere between an SUV and state car.

That’s not an insult, by the way. I personally think the Lyriq looks kind of pretty, with its bold elements countered by the surprisingly gentle touch applied in places, like its razor-thin daytime running lights (DRLs).

I’ve got to say, it doesn’t look much like any of the other new SUVs arriving, or a knock-off German brand. It’s got its own persona.

The cabin of the Lyriq is predictably plush, with comfy massaging seats, soft-touch materials and plenty of tech, but it is a little shiny and busy in places for my tastes. Minimalist this is not.

But I do like the fact that – when I’ve got Apple CarPlay hooked up – I can just leave the screen be. My driving stuff is accessed by the wheel, and everything else I want is accessible through physical buttons.

There are some strange elements, though. The grab handle on the driver’s side, which isn’t replicated on the passenger side, is odd, and likely a byproduct of the factory moving the steering wheel. Some of the central storage bins are too small to be really useful, and I hate gloveboxes that can only be opened through the screen.

The Q30 drew more than just looks for its badge. It genuinely looks like a concept car from a motor show stand. Not the paper mache Mars rover early prototype kind, more like the six-months-before-production kind.

It’s all swoopy with curves cutting all down the sides, and Infiniti has done a good job imprinting the brand’s signature design queues – like the chrome-framed grille and notched C-pillar - on the front and rear three-quarter views.

It’s genuinely hard to tell it shares major componentry with the last-gen (W176) A-Class from the outside and I’d place the overall look somewhere between Mazda and Lexus’ design languages for better or worse.

While the front is swoopy and resolved the rear is a bit busy with lines everywhere and bits of chrome and black trim all over the place. The tapered roofline and high bumpers set it apart from your regular hatchback fare. 

It might grab the eye for the wrong reasons, but it certainly gives the Q30 a slick look when viewed in profile. I wouldn’t call it a bad looking car, but it is divisive and will appeal only to certain tastes.

Inside is simple and plush. Perhaps a little too simple when compared with the new (W177) A-Class with its entirely digital dashboard or the 1 Series with its M bits. One could even argue the Audi A3 has done ‘simplicity’ better.

The seats are nice in the two-tone white-on-black trim and the Alcantara roof is a premium touch, but the rest of the dash is a bit too basic and dated. There’s a smattering of buttons down the centre stack which are replaced with more intuitive touchscreen functions on most rivals, and the 7.0-inch touchscreen looks small, distantly embedded in the dash.

The materials are all nice to the touch, with most important touch-points clad in leather, but it also feels a little claustrophobic, with the abundance of dark trim, thick roof pillars and a low roof-line, especially in the back seat. The switchgear, which is mostly dropped straight out of a Benz A-Class, feels good.

It’s a big boat, the Lyriq, stretching more than five metres long and almost two metres wide. That’s not much shorter than, and in fact slightly wider than, something like a Nissan Patrol, just to put it into perspective. Though of course it’s nowhere near as high as a proper 4WD.

Predictably, though, its dimensions mean plenty of room in the boot, which opens to reveal a very useable 793 litres of luggage space. Drop the seats, and that number grows to a massive 1722 litres. 

But the Lyriq does without any spare wheel of any kind. A tyre repair kit is your only option.

Now, the backseat. And I know this is likely only of interest to parents of newborn babies, but that’s me, so I noticed. These are some of the best ISOFIX attachment points I ever used. Usually you’re fumbling around between the seat cushions trying to line up the latch points, but the Lyriq's solution — while perhaps not the most visually alluring – puts the brackets beneath plastic lift-up flaps, and they're so damn easy to use. 

But there are some quirks in the backseat, too. Those same ISOFIX attachment points, which are so great for baby seats, are less great for the adults actually sitting in the back. You can feel the hard plastic covers, and what feels like the bracing bar running across the backseat, beneath the cushions. It's not diabolical, and if you shift your rear-end forward slightly you can't feel it at all, but it's a strange quirk all the same.

Elsewhere in the backseat, there is plenty of room for backseat riders, and you can control your own temps, too.

Infiniti calls the Q30 a “crossover” rather than a hatchback and this is best reflected through its pumped ride height. Rather than hugging the ground like the A-Class or 1 Series, the Q30 sits propped up, almost like a small SUV.

There’s also the QX30 which is an even more pumped version of this car complete with plastic guards in the vein of Subaru’s XV. The QX30 is also your only way to all-wheel drive now that the Q30 is front-wheel drive only. 

While the extra ride height means you won’t have to worry about scraping expensive body panels on speedbumps or steep ramps you won’t be wanting to get too brave off the tarmac.

Interior space is fine for front passengers with plenty of arm and legroom, but back seat passengers are left with a small, dark space which feels especially claustrophobic. Headroom is not great no matter which seat you’re in. In the front seat I could almost rest my head on the sun-visor (I’m 182cm tall) and the back seat was not much better.

Rear passengers do score nice seat trim and two air-conditioning vents though, so they haven’t totally been forgotten.

There’s average amounts of storage up front and in the back, with small bottle holders in each of the four doors, two on the transmission tunnel and a tiny trench – useful for keys maybe – in front of the air-conditioning controls.

Even the centre console box is shallow, despite a large opening. Once I had collected enough loose objects on my trip I started to run out of room for things in the cabin.

There are nettings on the back of the front seats and an odd extra one on the passenger’s side of the transmission tunnel.

Power outlets come in the form of a single USB port in the dash and a 12-volt outlet in the centre box.

The boot is a much better story despite the swoopy roofline with 430 litres of space available. That’s bigger than the A-Class (370L), 1 Series (360L), A3 (380L) and CT200h (375L). Needless to say, it ate up two large duffle bags and some extra items we brought with us for our week-long trip.

This is due to its impressive depth, but it does come at a cost. The Q30 only has the sound system’s base and an inflator kit under the boot floor. There’s no spare for long distance trips.

One irritation I have to mention is the shift-lever, which was annoying in its tilt-shift operation. Often when trying to change to drive from reverse or vice versa it would get stuck in neutral. Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with a shifter which locks in position…

If you’re shopping in this segment, there’s a good chance you’re not looking for a bargain buy, but the Q30 shines in some areas its competition doesn’t.

A promising start is the complete lack of a lengthy and expensive options list with items which should be standard. In fact, apart from a reasonable set of accessories and the $1200 premium 'Majestic White' paint, the Q30 has no options in the traditional sense.

The base Q30 scores 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights with high-beam assist, heated leather seats, flat-bottomed leather steering wheel, leather trim on the doors and dash, Alcantara (synthetic suede) roof-lining and a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen supporting DAB+ digital radio and built-in navigation.

Our Sport adds a 10-speaker Bose audio system (which could have been better…) dual-zone climate control, a fixed panoramic sunroof, fully-electric front seats and Nissan’s 360-degree ‘around view monitoring’ parking suite.

It might have premium aspirations, but value-wise Q30 is still specified like a Nissan.

The standard safety suite is also reasonably impressive, and you can read more about it in the safety section of this review.

Our Q30 Sport comes in at a total of $46,888 (MSRP) which is still premium money. The price pits it against the BMW 120i M-Sport (eight-speed auto, $46,990), Mercedes-Benz A200 (seven-speed DCT, $47,200) and fellow Japanese premium hatch act - the Lexus CT200h F-Sport (CVT, $50,400).

Herein lies the Q30’s biggest problem. Brand recognition. Everybody knows the BMW and Benz hatches by virtue of their badges alone and the Lexus CT200h is known by those who care about it.

Even without the extensive options list, it makes the price of entry against such established competition tough. While you might see a couple of them around Sydney, the Q30 is a relatively rare sight which garnered more than a few quizzical looks in the towns of NSW’s mid-north coast.

The standard spec is also missing the all-important Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. It rendered the 7.0-inch multimedia screen clumsy and largely useless, although the old-fashioned built-in nav gives peace-of-mind when you’re out of phone reception range.

If you have an Apple phone you can make use of the iPod music playback feature via the USB port.

All Aussie Lyriqs are dual-motor affairs, with an electric motor at each axle producing a total 388kW and 610Nm, which in a car this big, which weighs just under 2.7 tonnes, is more than enough to get the Caddy up and moving, but not enough to make it feel like a supercar. The two motors mean AWD, of course.

For 2019 the Q30 has had its list of engines trimmed from three to just one. The diesel and smaller 1.6-litre petrol engines have been culled, leaving a 2.0-litre petrol.

Thankfully, it’s a strong unit producing a once-V6-range 155kW/350Nm across a wide band from 1200-4000rpm.

It feels responsive and isn’t let down by a slick-shifting seven-speed dual clutch automatic transmission.

The new-generation A-Class equivalent, even in 2.0-litre A250 guise produces less torque with outputs of 165kW/250Nm, so for the money the Infiniti scores a solid serving of extra punch.

The Lyriq is equipped with a 102kWh lithium-ion NCMA battery, which delivers an ok 530km on the combined cycle. I say 'ok', because the BMW iX offers 600km-plus, while the dual-motor Polestar 3 is more like 630km claimed. Energy consumption is a claimed 22.5kWh per 100km on the combined cycle. 

When it comes to plugging in, the Lyriq is set up for 190kW DC fast charging, with the brand promising 128km of range in 10 minutes, or 10 to 80 per cent in just under 30 minutes. At home, a 7kW wall ox will deliver more like 43km an hour.

Over my week-long test the Q30 returned a figure of 9.0L/100km. I was a little disappointed with this figure given much of the distance covered was cruising at freeway speeds. 

It’s made worse when you pitch it against the claimed/combined figure of 6.3L/100km (not sure how you could achieve that…) and the fact that I left the irritating stop-start system on for much of the time.

For a leader in the luxury hatch class consider the Lexus CT200h which makes full use of Toyota’s hybrid drive and pitches a fuel consumption figure of 4.4L/100km.

The Q30 has a 56-litre fuel tank and takes a minimum of 95 RON premium unleaded.

The first thing you notice behind the wheel of the the Lyriq is just how whisper-quiet it is on the road. Cadillac makes a big deal about its 'Active Noise Cancellation' tech that's deployed here – it uses sensors to monitor road vibrations and the like, and then uses the car's stereo to create what it calls an 'anti-noise' signal.

It all sounds pretty high-tech and complicated, but it also works, with the Lyriq a seriously quiet and composed way to get around, with only the artificial EV noise really noticeable in the cabin.

Even travelling past freeway speeds, the Lyriq remains quiet, which does lend the whole experience a sort of premium vibe.

The Cadillac is also one of those cars that thinks solidity means premium, from the solid 'thunk' of the doors shutting to a general heft and weight to the steering, there's nothing feather-light or agile about the Lyriq experience, but it does all feel a little artificial, and like it's trying to be heavy on purpose.

The Lyriq, then, is no out-and-out performance car – it's 2.5-tonne-plus kerb weight and Olympic swimming pool dimensions largely put an end that – but it's more than brisk enough to get up and moving, with its twin-motor powertrain finding grip even in slippery conditions. It's brisk, but not brutal.

The Lyriq hasn't been tested or tuned in Australia, but happily it doesn't have that floaty, wafty suspension style so popular in the USA. This one feels to have at least had an international tune, which removes some of that marshmallow softness and makes you feel connected to the road.

The steering, too, feels direct enough and easy to predict, and the overall impression is one of quiet, calm motoring, which is probably what it says on the tin of any premium vehicle.

Thanks to its shared underpinnings with the A-Class the Q30 Sport drives largely like you would expect a premium hatch to drive. It’s just lacking a bit of character.

The engine is responsive, the transmission is fast and the availability of peak torque from just 1200rpm will lead to spinning the front wheels if caution is not applied. Power is no real issue.

Although Infiniti says it has tuned the Q30 in Japan and Europe, the ride has an undeniably Germanic flavour. It doesn’t feel quite as tight as the A-Class or 1 Series but it doesn’t feel as soft as the CT200h, so it strikes a decent balance.

The Q30 uses MacPherson strut suspension in the front and multi-link at the rear, more suited to a premium car than the torsion bar rear on the new Benz A 200.

The wheel has a nice amount of feedback, and thankfully doesn’t use the larger Q50’s strange ‘Direct Adaptive Steering’ which has no mechanical connection between the driver and the road.

If you’ve driven a decently-specified A-Class before the drive experience will feel familiar. The added ride height seems to remove a bit of feel from the corners, however.

There’s also the inclusion of three drive modes – Economy, Sport and Manual. Economy mode seems to be the default with Sport simply holding gears for longer. Steering-wheel mounted paddle-shifters could be used to mill through the seven gears in 'Manual' mode, although this didn’t add much to the experience.

The addition of active cruise control and adaptive high beams proved to be fantastic for reducing fatigue on long highway stints during the night, but the lack of a padded surface on the inside of the transmission tunnel proved uncomfortable for the driver’s knee on longer trips.

I persisted with the stop-start system to test it, but it proved slow and irritating. Under normal circumstances it would be the first thing I’d turn off.

Visibility was also a bit limited out the rear three quarter courtesy of the low, swoopy C-pillars.

The Q30 scores some decent active safety goodies alongside the usual refinements. Active safety items include auto emergency braking (AEB) with forward collision warning, blind spot monitoring (BSM), lane departure warning (LDW) and active cruise control.

There’s also Nissan’s signature ‘Around View Monitor’ 360-degree reversing camera which sounds more useful than it is. Thankfully there is also a standard reversing camera.

The Q30 carries a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating as of 2015 but has not been tested to the more demanding 2019 standards.

The rear seats also benefit from two sets of ISOFIX child seat mounting points. 

As previously mentioned, there’s no spare wheel in the Q30 Sport, so best of luck with the inflator kit if you end up with a flat in the outback.

Cadillac has built a pretty convincing ownership package around the Lyriq, which begins with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and an eight-year, 160,000km battery warranty. Beyond that, you also get five years of servicing, and five years of roadside assistance, free. 

Then you get a year’s free public charging through the Chargefox network and a free home wall box charger. If you have a wall box, or don’t want one, you can trade the home charging for an extra two years of free public charging.

As with all Infiniti products, the Q30 is covered by a four-year/100,000km warranty and a three-year service program can be purchased with the car. Pricing was not available for the 2019 Q30 model year at the time of writing, but its 2.0-litre turbo predecessor averaged $540 per service once a year or every 25,000km.

Credit where credit is due, the Q30 edges out the European competition by a year of warranty length and general service pricing. This market segment is still wide open for a manufacturer to take the lead offering five or more years of warranty coverage.