Now that it’s been in production for a couple of years, how has the Lyriq matured?
We first drove the Cadillac Lyriq a couple of years ago. It was the first of a whole range of new electric vehicles from General Motors built on shared electric powertrain components. Compared to more recent Ultium-based EVs from GM, the Lyriq launch went relatively smoothly, despite pre-production test vehicles. Hype was so great that Cadillac was said to have increased the first year’s production run by almost a factor of 10.
But customers faced a long wait for their orders as the company stumbled at the step where cells get turned into battery packs. Now the production kinks have been worked out, and Lyriqs are becoming a more common sight. So it seemed like a reasonable time to check in on the electric Caddy.
We’ve written quite a lot in the past about the Lyriq’s Ultium powertrain, so I won’t repeat too much detail here. For model-year 2024, the underpinnings remain the same, although our test car is an all-wheel-drive version. (Cadillac only had the rear-wheel-drive variant at the first drive in 2022.) There are a pair of new trims, Tech and Sport—this test car was the top-of-the-line Sport 3, with a $78,295 sticker price (including delivery charge).
Not memorable to drive
In day-to-day life, the Lyriq driving experience was frankly unmemorable. There isn’t quite the same sense of sitting atop a ton of batteries like there is in the near-identical Acura ZDX, but despite the Sport trim level and the presence of a Sport drive, this isn’t an EV that makes me want to take the long and twisty way home.
For the mundanities of everyday life—driving to work, going to get groceries, giving someone a ride—it does better. There are no objectionable blind spots from the driver’s seat, and it has a full suite of advanced driver assistance systems to watch out for things like other cars when you’re backing out of a space, or cyclists and pedestrians. The automatic braking system when in reverse can be a little eager, a trait I’m noticing across a few different brands these days.
Testing the Lyriq in May revealed all-wheel drive added little other than reduced range efficiency, which averaged 2.9 miles/kWh (21.4 kWh/100 km). The 22-inch wheels probably don’t help much either. I’m not sure I’d opt for the $3,500 AWD option versus having a dedicated set of wheels fitted with snow tires.
I remain a fan of the steering wheel paddle that allows you to toggle through increasing levels of regenerative braking, but even set to off there’s still a degree of regen that will slow you down when you lift your foot from the throttle pedal to try to coast. With this EV, one-pedal driving is the way to go for better efficiency, even on the highway.
DC fast-charging was painless, taking just under 28 minutes to get from 44 to 79 percent state of charge at an Electrify America charger rated for 350 kW. Lyriqs can’t take full advantage of that, maxing out at 190 kW, as the pack only operates at 400 V. For my session, which delivered 44 kWh, the peak charging rate was 144 kW.
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Super Cruise has a new party trick
A decent amount of my test mileage in the Lyriq was spent on the highways of northern Virginia, helping someone comply with a misguided return-to-office policy. There were frequent opportunities to let Super Cruise lighten the load. This combines a geofence to highways with infrared gaze-tracking to allow you to go hands-free as long as your eyes remain on the road ahead, and in dense traffic I find this kind of partially automated driving system to be quite useful.
As speeds increase I prefer to steer myself, so “regular” adaptive cruise control would be sufficient, which is included in the Luxury 1 and Sport 1 trims and is a $2,400 option for the $58,590 Tech trim.
I did notice that Super Cruise has learned a new party trick. If the car determines that you’re going to be held up in your lane and there’s space to move over, it will initiate that lane change without asking for permission first. The Lyriq’s UI makes it clear what it’s about to do, so there was always plenty of time to override Super Cruise: just hold onto the wheel and keep it in the lane it’s already in.
I don’t really like this behavior. For one thing, as the driver, if I’m meant to be in charge of situational awareness—and Super Cruise requires that I am—then I also want to be in charge of when we do or don’t change lanes. For another, this feature seems to encourage the complete absence of lane discipline that exists on most US highways. Maybe we should get out of the habit of passing other traffic on the right instead?
It still has CarPlay
I have no such complaints about the Lyriq’s infotainment system, other than to say it really does highlight how misguided GM’s decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from newer models is; the 2024 Lyriq still features both phone casting platforms, wirelessly, too. The 33-inch setup combines a main instrument display that’s pretty sparse in terms of information, and the touchscreen infotainment area to the right. The touchscreen is responsive but can get hot to the touch; the problem was noticeably worse during a recent test of the Cadillac XT4, which uses the same display and infotainment system but is otherwise too unremarkable to review.Advertisement
If you’re using Apple Maps in CarPlay (but not Waze or Google Maps), you can project the map with directions to the native display in front of you as well as (or instead of) on the infotainment side. Turn-by-turn directions will also work, either on the main instrument panel or via the heads-up display (which is new for MY2024).
While I didn’t test it, I’m confident in saying if you use Google Maps on an Android phone via Android Auto, that will also cast over to the main instrument panel and HUD. But if you use an Android phone, you might also just log in directly to the infotainment system itself, which is built atop Android Automotive OS, and send the route from phone to car via Google’s integrated ecosystem.
- Yes, you can still buy a new GM EV with Apple CarPlay. How confusing! Jonathan Gitlin
- No wonder so many Lyriqs have found work as livery cars. Jonathan Gitlin
- There’s lots of room to haul stuff around. Jonathan Gitlin
- Another look at the driver’s environment. Jonathan Gitlin
- I hid this one all the way at the end because I forgot to wipe the dew off the car and it looks bad. Shame really, the light was great. Jonathan Gitlin
In 2022, GM was still flush with EV optimism. Cadillac wasn’t going to introduce any more internal combustion engine-powered vehicles, it said. That has since soured as pessimism has taken hold of the industry—bold electrification plans are being backtracked in favor of more hybrids, plug-ins or otherwise. Despite this, Lyriq sales have been steadily growing.
At close to $80,000, the Lyriq, as configured here, faces stiff competition for buyers. A Porsche Macan EV still has plenty of cachet even in bare-bones trim, and the Polestar 3 is looking very intriguing. We hear BMW dealers are open to good deals on the iX, too.
But a more basic Lyriq looks like a better deal, particularly since the IRS clean vehicle tax credit can drop a mid-spec car’s price to something that starts with a 5—as long as you’re not looking for the last word in EV efficiency or driving dynamics.
