GM’s North American president said Wednesday that the upcoming Lyriq will start at less than $60,000, putting it somewhere in between Tesla’s Model X and Model Y, though Cadillac still has to nail the execution.
GM North American President Steve Carlisle’s exact quote, via Automotive News:
Cadillac won’t announce official pricing anytime soon, but as the brand transitions to an all-electric portfolio, the Lyriq midsize crossover and other EVs have to be able to replace its current gasoline-powered vehicles, Carlisle said at the JP Morgan Auto Conference.
“We need to be in the same price zone,” said Carlisle. “This car will need to be priced similar to how the industry prices midsize lux SUVs today, maybe a slight premium at the outset. It’s a price that won’t be high five digits. It won’t start with a seven and it won’t start with a six.”
The Lyriq is supposed to be out by 2022, and will be joined by Celestiq, which is expected to be the flagship electric vehicle in Cadillac’s arsenal and will probably cost a bit more than $60,000. It’s rumored to be a lot more, in fact, or north of $200,000. Beyond that, Cadillac is planning equivalent electric versions of the XT4, XT6, and Escalade, with the Lyriq being the XT5 equivalent.
And it is with those vehicles that Cadillac plans to take on Tesla, with Cadillac’s theoretical customers being people who are turned off by Elon Musk’s schtick, people who don’t believe Tesla’s build quality is very good, people who simply don’t buy the Tesla hype, or people who think some mixture of all of those things.
This will take years to play out since all these electric Cadillacs won’t be getting here for a few years, and who the hell knows what state Tesla will be in then, in addition to the rest of the market, but I hope Cadillac’s ambitions for its electric program are modest. Tesla sold about as many cars globally last year as the Chevy Equinox sold in the U.S. alone.