2025 Cadillac Lyriq

You drive a Cadillac because you’ve made it, and you want people to know. It’s a great, big, comfortable car. It’s a fast, yet cool, calm, status piece. You’d love to be picked up in this if you’re an international artist, being taken to your gig, being ferried around town between red carpet events – being chauffeured from place to place. It effortlessly sails everywhere, it’s really very good. It’s lovely to drive in general.

One of the oldest car brands in the world was formed in 1902 by Henry M. Leland in Detroit, and has always produced America’s best. It’s the car of the stars. They dream about it, they sing about it, then they buy them. Lyriq references the sheer number of songs that mention the car. GM celebrate this by compiling a ‘The Cadillac of Playlists’ on Spotify which I listened to for the week I had this car. It was a week in which I learned to relax in a style, driving the the crème de la crème of American vehicles.

Cadillac has a long, storied history in the USA yet it’s an enigma in New Zealand where they’ve essentially been unobtainable; and as far as I can see, they’ve never been offered new in this part of the world. Some float around in the left-hand-drive version, but now we get a factory-new right-hand-drive car. Owning a Cadillac in this country would certainly give you a sense of exclusivity, because everywhere I went, not only did you never see one, and everyone remarked they’d never seen one either. It’s a striking-looking vehicle. You don’t mistake this for anything else – the Cadillac Lyriq is essentially a large electric SUV, though in America, this counts as mid-sized!

It’s a very pleasant environment to be in. The interior is attractive yet uncluttered and sedate, and sensible buttons for useful functions make for easy piloting. The badge motif is subtly carried through the cabin: on screen, the rear vision mirror, the center console, and more. You know Cadillac designers have been doing this for generations, and the consistency of the design language is appreciated. Little touches of pressed leather and chromed interior surfaces impress. There are some beautiful details, like the large yet attractive screen and the metal speaker covers over the wonderful 19 speakers of the AKG sound system that also feature active noise cancellation. That large screen is continuous, meaning some displays will show across the entire width. It’s an interesting combination of design elegance plus a bit of bling. Front seats are superb while the rears seem as highly specced and comfortable as the front.

With double-glazing – it is so quiet, a real pleasure just to put in the miles. One-pedal drive if you want, but my preferred setting was to use the lever on the steering wheel that lets you use adjustable regenerative braking. It’s incredibly natural to use; an excellent addition I’d love to see on all electric vehicles. There’s one setting on the suspension: comfort, however it does feature a Sport mode. Acceleration is swift and progressive. Helping road holding is the AWD – 2 motors making for a good grip. And the vehicle packs plenty of oomf to push its 2687 KG around with 388 kW and 610 Nm torque. It can move quickly should you need it to, but it’s not the point of this car.

Despite being a large vehicle, getting around is not bad. Maneuvering through most obstacles and into tight spots or parking spaces is easy thanks to the camera package, sizable mirrors, and (once you get used to the seat-based vibrator) distance/proximity warnings. Just don’t imagine it’s a small car – it’s 5 metres long. Like everything, the wheels are enormous, with 21″ rims brandishing 275mm tires, all to help the great ride quality. It’s not your dash-round-town car, it would be fabulous as an everything family vehicle or an intercity limousine. Driver assistance functions gently flag if you move out of the lane while maintaining your even progress on the open road. The range is around 500 kilometers to a charge, which is roughly Wellington to Hamilton, and on a fast charger, you can add up to 130 kilometers of range in about 10 minutes.

The very logo of Cadillac used to have a V on it, pretty much announcing proudly that there was going to be some enormous V8 in there. They’ve dropped that V, (and the V8) and we just have the modernized shield on this EV. However, this thing still feels like it’s got a V8 – it’s got authority, it’s got grunt. It doesn’t have that sound, but it certainly got the go. A Cadillac certainly shouts, “Look at me! Look at me! I’m very successful!” but it doesn’t say, “I’m better than you.” That’s why I think pretty much anyone could roll around in a Cadillac, and be pleased with their ride. It’s a car of success.