Cadillac prepares Lyriq for production: most of the testing is over
The electric crossover passed a special test course, which included driving on the freeway, city streets and rural areas.
The Cadillac brand is owned by the American company General Motors. Recall that the brand released the first teaser of the “green" SUV in March 2020. At the same time, a new platform was introduced that GM had created for its member brands’ electric vehicles. The premiere of Lyriq was originally scheduled for April and was supposed to take place as part of the New York Auto Show, but this was prevented by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the company has delayed its debut, with the concept shown in August 2020 and the production version in April 2021. Now Cadillac continues to prepare an electric novelty for production.
In preparation for serial production, prototypes are tested on the road in various operating conditions. The company said that a special route has been created for the "green" model, which involves driving along the highway, city streets and rural areas. Testing of the Lyriq is 80 percent complete, Cadillac said. That is, most of the tests have already been completed, which means that only the final fine-tuning remains for the engineers.
In addition to the usual physical tests in various weather conditions, the developers of the “battery” SUV conducted virtual tests of the novelty. The company attributes all of this to a very difficult task it has entrusted to Lyriq: changing consumer expectations for luxury electric vehicles.
The Cadillac Lyriq has an almost 50/50 axle weight distribution, low center of gravity, multi-link front and rear suspension. Also, according to chief development engineer Todd Bruder, the model has "exceptional" torsional rigidity, he noted that the team managed to achieve high responsiveness of the steering and suspension system.
As mentioned, the Lyriq is based on the Ultium modular electric vehicle platform, which is also the basis of the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV. The distance between the axles of the Cadillac SUV is 3094 mm, the length is 4996 mm, the width is 1977 mm and the height is 1623 mm. Empty weight in the basic configuration – 2545 kg.
According to the plan, production of the Lyriq will begin in the spring of 2022, with production of electric vehicles being established at GM’s plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The first cars to roll off the assembly line are the Debut Edition welcome cars. Such a car has a rear-wheel drive, a complex of modern technologies and a traction battery with a capacity of 100.4 kW * h. The power reserve of such an SUV on a single charge will be 483 km (the calculation was made according to the EPA cycle). The power of the electric motor is 346 hp, and the maximum torque is 440 Nm.
Please note that Cadillac dealers are no longer accepting orders for the Limited Debut Edition Lyriq. Applications for "electrocrossovers" in the rest of the US will begin in the summer of 2022. Meanwhile, pre-orders for the novelty in China began last week. During the first hour, "heavenly" dealers asked more than a thousand questions. The cost of new items in China is 439,700 yuan, which is equivalent to about 5.11 million conventional units at the current rate.