A Genesis GV70, Audi Q8 e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC and Lexus RZ were used as benchmarks to make the 2025 Cadillac Lyriq a fun-to-drive electric car

Cadillac will burst onto the scene in Australia before the end of 2024, entering the fray in an increasingly congested sports luxury segment.

Its first launch will be the Lyriq SUV which looks similar in shape to something like a Mustang Mach-e or Kia EV6 but has loftier aspirations in terms of luxury, performance, and price. 

So how does Cadillac plan to set itself apart from the pack when it comes to EV driving dynamics? Speaking to Australian media, Global Vehicle Performance Manager Marcey White, explained how driver engagement was a focus of development from the platform up.

“It’s always a struggle making [EVs] fun to drive. It’s a legacy reputation that they can’t possibly be fun. The Lyriq is a 180 from that, it’s so fun to drive.”

“I’m passionate about that,” said White, who has spent 23 years working on the performance aspects of General Motors products encompassing Chevrolet, GMC Buick and Hummer. White jokes that, with Cadillac, she’s now worked on everything in the GM family.

“There are so many things that have been built into the architecture of Lyriq that enable our ride and handling engineers to get that precision out of it, which makes it fun to drive. Our suspension components really enable that. As soon as you turn the wheel, that precision is there.

“The Ultium platform, the stiffness and the structure and the low centre of gravity is another enabler for that precision.”

Also mentioned was special tuning for the brake pedal to be able to blend regenerative braking in, and the fact that the Lyriq’s drive was ‘primarily’ to the rear.

Despite its luxury positioning, White was confident the Lyriq did not require air suspension – or even adaptive dampers – saying passive dampers were “absolutely” the best and more complex suspension was “not necessary” for her team to achieve the ride quality and driver engagement they had planned.

When asked what products Cadillac was aiming to benchmark for the Lyriq, White had a firm list of vehicles aiming to beat in development.

“The Genesis GV70, BMW iX, Audi Q8 e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and Lexus RZ.” She rattled off without second thought, “I can tell you, at Milford [Proving Ground] I know for a fact we have three or four of those. I’ve been in them and when we do our evaluations one or two or three of them come with us. I would personally choose the Lyriq over any of them.”

This positioning extends beyond just tuning and driver engagement, and is understood to be the basis for pricing for the Lyriq. Cadillac’s representatives wouldn’t be drawn on price specifics for the Lyriq, due for a Q4 2024 launch, but said the SUV would be specifically pitched at Audi and BMW in the mid-size EV space - this would suggest before-on-roads pricing in the realm of $130,000 to $160,000.

One thing was clear, though, while Australia is defined as a ‘strategic market’, we wouldn’t be scoring our own local suspension tune, with damper settings selected by the brand from a handful of regionally-specific set-ups. Without the information on hand, White suggested our version of the car would be using the European damper set, tuned for high speed conditions and Autobahn use. Indeed, Australian vehicles are often shipped with harder ride settings as many brands have indicated a local preference for these qualities over the softer tunes often used in markets like the US, China, and Korea.

Unlike products offered from GMSV, the Lyriq – thanks to its new GM Ultium platform – was not only planned to be right-hand drive from the beginning, but it wasn’t forgotten at the tuning stages.

“At all development stages, we took the right hand drive version with us to make sure it’s on par” White said.

The Lyriq is still planned to launch in Q4 of this year. It puts down a combined 373kW in all-wheel drive form, and has a 494km driving range courtesy of a large 102kWh battery pack.

It can add roughly 124km of range in just 10 minutes thanks to a peak charging speed of 190kW on DC, and is one of the few electric vehicles to offer almost the maximum speed for AC charging at 18.2kW. This should allow it a ‘slow’ charge time in just over five hours on a compatible charger.

Expect more detailed local specs imminently ahead of the Lyriq’s local arrival. The brand will launch ‘experience centres’ in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Melbourne, and for our New Zealand friends, Auckland for its launch, but says it will be able to deliver to cities outside of this.

Cadillac's range is also planned to expand, with its next model, most likely to be the smaller Optiq, to be on sale before the end of 2025.