Cadillac Lyriq deliveries will begin shortly, now that the electric BMW iX rival has received Australian Government approval to be sold here.
General Motors’ luxury brand has confirmed customer deliveries will begin in April 2025.
This follows orders opening back in October 2024 for the Lyriq, a large dual-motor electric all-wheel drive SUV priced from $117,000 before on-road costs.
Approval documents show the Lyriq has a power output of 388kW, which indicates Australian models will get the power boost given to US-market models for model year 2025. Cadillac had previously confirmed an output of 375kW for Australia.
The Lyriq also has a braked towing capacity of 1588kg.
Hundreds of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
General Motors Australia and New Zealand (GMANZ) is playing its cards close to its chest when it comes to interest in the brand locally, other than to say it’s happy with the reception Cadillac has received.
It has also confirmed it won’t report customer delivery tallies.
“Cadillac will not be reporting sales data this year in Australia or New Zealand,” said a company spokesperson.
The brand currently has 55 Lyriqs listed in inventory on its local website.
While the company wouldn’t confirm how many orders had been placed, GMANZ managing director Jess Bala told Australian media in February the brand has had “nearly 9000 hand-raisers express interest in Cadillac and the Lyriq”.
“We commenced sales of the Lyriq in October 2024, and have already had several of our first customers place their orders,” said Ms Bala, noting many of these customers are coming from other luxury brands.
“We keep that information pretty close to the chest,” Ms Bala said when asked about the number of orders, “But I can tell you that we’ve been very pleased and happy with the interest we’ve had.”
Unlike many other brands new to the Australian market, Cadillac doesn’t have lofty volume goals – though it won’t share exactly what its targets are.
Lyriq-V
“We’re not targeting any sort of massive mainstream volumes for a reason, the vehicle and the brand to us is all about driving exclusivity and really appealing to those customers, so we don’t see huge volumes in our future,” said Ms Bala.
“When we say we’re a niche luxury EV brand, that means we’re really focusing on what that customer experience is and making sure that we are living up to the Cadillac brand that [Cadillac global vice president John Roth] and the team have done an awesome job of building over the last few years as a true tier 1 luxury brand.
“Success to us is obviously hitting our sales targets, obviously being profitable like any other business, but then also creating those customers for life and having people come back to our brand over and over again and really building that emotional connection with them.”
The Lyriq will be followed in 2026 by a high-performance version called the Lyriq-V, with the smaller Optiq and larger three-row Vistiq crossovers also due next year.
While it has committed to only rolling out electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia, the brand isn’t concerned about cooling EV demand.
“It hasn’t changed anything for us locally in Australia and New Zealand, obviously we know that electric vehicle sales here were relatively flat last year, they were up slightly,” said Ms Bala.
“But again because we’re playing in the luxury EV space, it’s a little bit different, and that’s where you do tend to see a little bit more of the growth.”
EV sales grew last year in Australia, but only by 4.7 per cent while hybrid sales were up 76 per cent and plug-in hybrids 100.2 per cent.
Cadillac has committed to a direct-to-consumer sales model in Australia, much like Genesis, rather than the traditional dealer franchise model used by GM Specialty Vehicles.
The brand has just one ‘experience centre’ in Australia thus far, at the Rosebery Engine Yards in Sydney, which opened late in 2024. It’ll also sell vehicles via its website.
It’s planning to also have a retail presence in Brisbane and Melbourne, but hasn’t announced locations yet.
Cadillac will offer the Lyriq with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre vehicle warranty, an eight-year, 160,000km battery warranty, five years of roadside assistance, and five years of free scheduled servicing.
It’s calling this after-sales package Cadillac Confidence, and it’s transferable to the next owner should you sell your Cadillac.
All Lyriqs will come with one year of free public charging through the Chargefox network.
Once that year is up, you can then opt to receive another two years of free Chargefox charging. Alternatively, you can opt for JET Charge to deliver and install a 7.4kW Autel home charging unit, free of charge.
Cadillac has also partnered with Plenti to offer “tailored financing solutions” for Lyriq buyers.
