“The culmination of a century of innovation and the beginning of a great new era.”

That’s how Cadillac is referring to the launch of the Lyriq. A bold statement, although it’s not just because this is the brand’s first ever full EV. Oh no, the ‘great new era’ refers to the fact that there will be no new internal combustion engined Cadillacs from this day forward. There might be a facelift here and there, but if it’s brand-new, it’ll be all-electric. Big news. 

We actually saw the Lyriq in concept form in August last year, and Cadillac says development is running ahead of schedule, so we’ll now get the full production version nine months earlier than was originally planned. 

And, well… it looks very much like the concept. The charging port is slightly simpler and the front end has regular LED headlights, but it’s still a futuristic-looking thing and the black crystal grille with its inbuilt lighting remains.

The interior gets the concept’s giant 33-inch LED screen that combines both the instruments and the infotainment too, whilst the wheels are 20-inchers as standard, but hefty 22-inch units are available upon request.

The Lyriq is based on GM’s ‘Ultium’ platform and will deploy a massive 100kWh battery pack for over 483 kilometres of range on a single charge. Just one motor drives the rear wheels for now (all-wheel drive versions could be around the corner), with around 340bhp and 441 Nm of torque.

High-speed 190kW charging will also be available, meaning you’ll be able to add around 122 kilometres of range in 10 minutes. For home charging Cadillac is promising a segment-leading 19.2kW charging module, which will add an impressive 84 kilometres of range in an hour on your driveway. 

There’ll be a new ‘Regen on Demand’ system too that will allow drivers to control the level of regenerative braking with a ‘pressure-sensitive paddle’ on the steering wheel. Interesting. 

Of course, it’ll also get the latest version of GM’s “Super Cruise” driver assistance tech, and prices are projected to start at just under $60,000 (RM244k), with production beginning in the first quarter of 2022.