2024 Cadillac Lyriq Review: Luxury SUV Does EV Differently

Electric cars may have raced to secure their automotive cool credentials with blistering straight-line speed, but arguably it's in the luxury segment where ousting internal combustion makes the most sense. Witness by way of solid evidence the 2024 Cadillac Lyriq: the first of the automaker's new fully electric line-up, and a car which aims to blend what Caddy buyers have long loved, with the realities of our EV-focused, SUV-obsessed world today.

The result isn't the biggest Cadillac EV — that'll be the upcoming 2025 Escalade IQ — but it's scaled for the fiercely popular midsize SUV segment. Nor is it the most expensive, or the most lavish — that'll be the $300k+ built-to-invitation Cadillac Celestiq — but its eligibility for U.S. electric vehicle incentives could bring its near-$60k starting price to just over $51k.

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With GM insisting the Ultium platform's early bottlenecks for Lyriq production are sorted, Cadillac's EV is all out of roadblocks — and of excuses. So, does this unexpectedly affordable electric luxury SUV check off all the necessary boxes?

For the most part, the Lyriq is instantly recognizable as a Cadillac. It's a lower, squatter SUV than the aesthetic of the gas-powered XT series: more than half a foot longer than the XT5, but almost two inches lower and nearly three inches wider. The resulting silhouette looks aggressive and more intentional, and then Cadillac throws a ton of brightwork on top.

Despite all that, practical matters like ground clearance don't suffer anywhere close to what you'd expect. The EV's seven-inch ground clearance is only 0.8 inches less than that of the XT5. Are Lyriq owners likely to risk damaging their car, particularly when wearing this Luxury 3 trim's polished 22-inch alloy wheels and finished in Nimbus Metallic pale blue (a $625 option, along with the $600 black painted roof)? Probably not. Even the 20-inch wheels standard on the more affordable grades aren't really conducive to playing in serious mud.

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At the front, the headlamps have a cornering feature to cast their LED light around the bends, and Luxury trim gets a heated windshield which also keeps the wipers from icing up. The rear has a power liftgate — hands-free triggered on the Luxury 3 trim — and LED taillights.

In standard, rear-wheel drive form, the Lyriq wields 340 horsepower and 325 lb-ft of torque. Paired with Cadillac's single 102 kWh (usable) battery option, that's good for an EPA rated 314 miles of range. My own, mixed driving clocked in at 2.5 miles per kWh, mind; that would suggest a more conservative 255 miles total.

Spend $3,500 more and Cadillac will throw in a second electric motor, driving the front wheels. That nudges total system power up to 500 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque, though also eats away slightly at total range. That dips to 307 miles, though interestingly the Lyriq AWD's 89 MPGe combined figure is one point higher than that of the RWD. Turns out, the RWD is slightly more efficient on the highway, whereas the AWD is equally-slightly more efficient on the EPA's city cycle.

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340 electric horses in the standard Lyriq is no small amount, though with a curb weight of 5,557 pounds, the Cadillac is no small car. Performance is ample rather than excessive, then, even in Sport mode. All that instantaneously available torque means it never feels slow, whooshing away from every stop light and sign, but planting your right foot all the way never unlocks that face-rearranging sense of wild pace that EVs have become synonymous with.

Wild racing isn't what Cadillac is channeling here, though (even if we're all mighty curious to see a V-branded Lyriq). Instead, it's cosseted cruising which suits the shapely SUV and — one notable caveat aside — there it delivers with aplomb. 5-link suspension front and rear, along with passive dampers, skip the fancy Magnetic Ride Control that bring such duality of comfort and stiffness to cars like the CT4-V Blackwing.

The resulting tune does a decent job of handling the Lyriq's heft. For the most part, it glides gracefully, comfortable both in the front and the back. Faced with highway miles in particular — and aided by the Super Cruise hands-free driving system included on the Luxury 2 package and above — it's a grand way to road trip.

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Hit grooved concrete surfaces, as are used on certain highways, though, and the Lyriq loses its composure. Suddenly, it wobbles and shudders in its lane, tramlining and bouncing to the point that I turned off Super Cruise and wrested some degree of manual compensation for fear of looking like a drunk driver to other motorists. Cadillac tells me that it's a known issue that engineers are "in the process of evaluating and integrating continuous improvement solutions to help reduce and hopefully, eliminate this concern" for the EV.

Avoid (or ignore, route-depending) the jounce, and the Lyriq's cabin is a swell place to find yourself. It's a five-seater, with faux-leather — that Cadillac brands Inteluxe — as standard, and real Nappa hide available as an option on higher trims. A 33-inch dashboard-spanning display is standard, running a Google Built-In based infotainment system with embedded 5G data and (unlike Cadillac's future EVs, like the upcoming 2025 Optiq) wireless smartphone projection for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A bird's eye view camera is standard on Luxury trim and above; Luxury 3 trim adds a rear camera mirror.

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A glass panoramic roof is standard across the board, fixed on the base Tech trim and optionally opening on Luxury and Sport versions. Luxury 2 trim and above gets front seat ventilation and massage to go with the Luxury's standard heating front seats and steering wheel; Luxury 3 upgrades the dual-zone climate control to tri-zone.

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An AKG Studio 19-speaker audio system is standard on the Luxury 2 and above. As well as promising better-sounding music, it adds active noise cancellation. With it, the Lyriq's cabin is seriously quiet.

Cadillac definitely leans into the glitzy when it comes to the Lyriq's buttons and knobs. There's lots of zealously-detailed knurling on the switchgear, transparent and gloss-finish controls, and smooth matte-metal toggles. 26-color ambient lighting supports customization for both accent and glow.

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It looks, to be blunt, a little better in some places than it feels. Often what resembles metal is in fact plastic, and the piano black touch-sensitive controls are gluttons for fingerprints and smudges. The flip side is that, though it may look like Cadillac put svelte styling first, beyond the fact that the glovebox release is an on-screen control not a handle, it's actually a pretty practical car. 28 cubic feet of trunk capacity with the rear seats up, expanding to 60.8 cu-ft with the 60/40 bench down, is decent.

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Enhanced automatic emergency braking with front pedestrian and bicycle detection, reverse automatic braking, lane-keep assistance and blind zone steering assist, and front and rear park assist are all standard. Only the AWD version of the Lyriq is tow-rated, though, for up to 3,500 pounds.

As you'd expect, there are different levels of regenerative braking, all the way down to one-pedal driving support. That's controlled via the touchscreen, rather than — like many other EVs adopt — paddles on the steering wheel. The Lyriq has a single paddle, but that's a pressure-sensitive regen-on-demand control. Squeeze that, and the SUV will slow to a full stop.

Standard is a 11.5 kW AC onboard charger, capable of adding up to 31 miles of range per hour plugged-in. From the Luxury 2 trim and up, though, $1,480 will swap that for a 19.2 kW AC module. Assuming you also have a 19.2 kW/100A dedicated charge station to plug the Lyriq in to (Cadillac will sell you one for $1,299, though any with the CCS connector will suffice) that can add 51 miles of range per hour.

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190 kW DC fast charging support, meanwhile, could add up to 77 miles of range in 10 minutes at a suitably-potent location. Eventually, Cadillac plans to add a NACS port for charging, which will make plugging in directly at Tesla Superchargers possible, but that's not due until 2025.

Despite the glitter and the showy design, there's something unexpectedly sensible about the Cadillac Lyriq. The automaker didn't go wild with performance, or chase Lucid levels of range; the airy cabin is spacious across both rows, as is the trunk. Meanwhile, it drives like, well, a comfortable Cadillac always has.

You can see, then, why Cadillac envisages the Lyriq as being a gateway to EV ownership for its customers, though according to the sales stats it has succeeded beyond that, too. With a 70% conquest rating — that is to say, bringing new customers to the brand — there's clearly an interest in an electric vehicle that doesn't make organ-rearranging speed its sole personality trait.

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On that front, the 2024 Lyriq Luxury 2 trim — from $66,990 — in rear-wheel drive form strikes a balance between price and features. With Super Cruise and the AKG audio upgrade, plus eligibility for the $7,500 U.S. federal tax incentive for EVs, the only decision left is whether to add all-wheel drive for speed, snowy surety, or tow capacity.