Lyriq Launches Cadillac Into Electric Era

Cadillac is banking on Lyriq, its first battery-electric vehicle, along with technology enhancements and a new digital retail platform to bolster sagging U.S. sales.

Rory Harvey, global vice president-Cadillac, expects first-quarter 2022 U.S. sales to lag behind last year’s numbers. Cadillac’s 2021 U.S. sales were 118,310 units, according to Wards Intelligence data, the brand’s worst U.S. showing since 2009.

Globally the automaker saw gains, including in China, where it sold a record 240,633 vehicles. Harvey says that globally, 2021 marked the automaker’s fourth-best year in its history.

“I think like most organizations, we had to refine our strategy. We had to refine our spend. We needed to align some of the resources with the market conditions,” says Harvey, who notes the brand’s U.S. dealer body slimmed from 928 four years ago to 564 currently. “You could say all of the  metrics we measure are moving in a positive direction. That makes me feel really upbeat and positive.”

The automaker expects a strong rebound due to pent-up consumer demand, especially for the Escalade. A full reveal of the high-performance Escalade-V is  scheduled for May 11.

Cadillac says it has 233,000 customers interested in the midsize Lyriq crossover,  up from the 200,000 buyers the brand had forecast. Cadillac has not revealed the number of reservations for the Lyriq.

The standard rear-wheel-drive model goes into production March 21 in Spring Hill, TN, followed by the all-wheel-drive performance model late this year. Harvey reports customers’ orders will funnel through a  new digital-retail platform directly to dealers just as they do for the CT4, Escalade or other available Cadillac models.

When a customer places an order for the Lyriq Cadillac will supply them with a list of area dealers. Each customer chooses their preferred dealer, then teams with the dealer to customize the model, either virtually or in a more traditional purchase practice.

The new digital retail platform “is going to be very important to the Cadillac brand and our customers going forward,” says Eric Cunningham, North American vice president-Sales, Service and Marketing.

“It’s important because it delivers what modern buyers, especially battery-electric buyers, want.” Cadillac reports 96 % of dealers have the new retail platform equipment and infrastructure in place. The automaker plans to bring the remaining dealers up to speed quickly.

Cadillac plans to offer Super Cruise technology enhancements on ’21 CT4, CT5 and Escalade models. The optional over-the-air update, which includes features such as automatic lane changing when a slow driver is ahead, will be available this summer.

“When customers have driven vehicles with Super Cruise, once they get used to it, it’s something that they don’t want to do without,” says Harvey, noting 86 % of customers with Super Cruise said they didn’t ever want to go back to a car without the feature again.