Cadillac’s first all-electric car, the Lyriq, works very well in a vacuum. It is a sleek, beautiful, luxurious, and eye-catching car with an electric motor on each end and a 102.0 kWh lithium-ion battery pack instead of a gas engine. This makes an engine with 500 horsepower that is almost quiet.
But the Lyriq, like most EVs, makes you change how you live to fit having one. This shouldn’t be a problem for people who really like electric cars, but for regular people like me, the Lyriq forces us to make concessions. But this time, it’s worth it.
The Lyriq is one of the few electric cars I wish I still had. Surprisingly, there isn’t much proof inside that parts were shared with other GM cars. The Lyriq’s interior, with its embroidered seats and center bench, is different from the clean-looking interiors of competing EVs from Tesla, Volkswagen, and Polestar.
The HVAC controls and speaker grates were just as carefully built as everything else. Everything makes the experience better as a whole. Everything seems to have a reason. The outward design language is both unique and friendly, which can be challenging to find. Everyone who saw it liked how pretty it was.
Thanks to Cadillac’s Super Cruise technology, I was able to drive hands-free and see other CR-V users crane their necks to get a better look at the beautiful new crossover. The customizable 19-speaker sound system and heated, cooled, and massaged seats were also easy to use. The Lyriq wouldn’t have needed to be plugged in at some point so that the ride would have been stress-free.
My car had about 307 miles left on its gas tank, so I had to find a gas station. The curved 33-inch infotainment screen has a very useful option that lets you find nearby chargers on Google Maps with just one tap. If the first two charging stations had working toilets, they would have been a lot more useful. The third one got lucky because the Lyriq started charging at a good rate of 130 kilowatts from a 150-kilowatt charger. The price was cut in half when someone else arrived at the two-stall station.
It said that it would take until 5:00 PM to hit 80% by this time, which was way past my planned time to relax on my couch at home. There were about 30 miles of range left when I left after a short time for my 80-mile trip.
That’s terrible because most of my earlier charging experiences were the same. The Lyriq can use the fastest 350 kW chargers because it can take electrons at 190 kW. But they never seemed to be there in a way that was reliably useful and useful. Even though it’s been said many times, the infrastructure for charging electric vehicles was broken, which made the whole experience unpleasant. It would be easy to own an EV if everything worked.
Before I drove the Lyriq, I had never really liked driving an EV, so the fact that it charged unevenly didn’t bother me. Most of them make power in the same way, even though you don’t have as much control over how the engine works. Also, a lot of them use the same high-tech iPad tricks to make you forget that you’ve been waiting for an hour in a parking lot.
It’s not the Lyriq. Yes, it does have a big screen, but it’s built into the panel on purpose. The program runs smoothly and is well organized. The built-in Google Maps also works great. Most of the other features specific to the car were simple to use and control.
It’s good that the Lyriq doesn’t try to be the best in every way. In sport mode, the full electric punch is unlocked. In all other levels, the speed increases gently and without making any extra noise. There is also a regen paddle on the left side of the wheel that lets the driver apply the brakes without using the pedals. It can be changed in any way you want, and it never makes the friction brakes work. When you pull harder, more comes back. That was my favorite part.
The Lyriq needs to look like an old Cadillac. It handles well on most roads, even though the tires have thin sidewalls and the wheels are 22 inches. The steering is light and has a slightly damped-on-center electric feel when the car is in normal drive mode. This car weighs almost 6,000 pounds, and the steering feels that weight, for better or worse. In any case, this shows that you are honest.
You can change the steering and other settings to your liking on the custom configuration UI page, which is standard for luxury cars in this price range compared to other brands. The Lyriq can change from an electric freight train slamming into the ground to something more like a sailboat on a calm ocean with just a few touches on its tablet. The ride is nice, and the usual double-glazed window lets you enjoy the peace.
Before I got this car, I would have agreed that having an EV has its boundaries. It was the first time I wished the warnings hadn’t been there. It’s only that some automakers are excited about making electric cars (EVs). For example, a number of Japanese companies seem like they need to be more eager to do so. On the other hand, this is not the case. I got the sense that Cadillac was trying to change its image while I was driving this car. It would be better if there were more of these cars on the road, along with somewhere to charge them.
COMMENTS