2023 Cadillac Lyriq Electric SUV Production Begins
Depending on customer demand, GM could build nearly 200,000 of these battery-powered luxury utility vehicles per year.
GM is celebrating an important milestone on the road to electrifying its sprawling vehicle portfolio. On Monday, retail production of the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq commenced at the automaker's factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
This luxury SUV is the latest all-electric vehicle introduced by the Detroit-based company, though many, many more are in the works, from a battery-powered Chevy Equinox to the ultra-luxury Cadillac Celestiq sedan. As for the Lyriq, its launch is actually ahead of schedule, a rarity in the car business where delays and setbacks are the norm. Back in late 2020, GM committed to invest $2 billion in this Tennessee factory to allow it to build the Lyriq. Impressively, the company was able to get all its manufacturing ducks in a row while continuing to build the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 as well as the GMC Acadia, models that also call Spring Hill home.
"This is a monumental day for the entire GM team. We retooled Spring Hill Assembly with the best, most advanced technology in the world and the team worked tirelessly to complete the preparations nine months ahead of the original schedule," said GM president Mark Reuss in a release shared by the company. "The Cadillac Lyriq sets the standard for the future of Cadillac and marks another major milestone in GM's commitment to an all-electric future."
A vehicle's structure is something you don't often see.
Although the automaker won't say how many vehicles were available -- something that makes this statistic almost completely meaningless -- the 2023 Lyriq Debut Edition sold out in about 10 minutes when the reservation books opened late last summer. Cadillac will start taking additional orders starting on May 19, so if you've got your eye on one of these new all-electric SUVs , you shouldn't have to wait too much longer to stake your claim.
And depending on demand, GM is capable of building quite a few Lyriqs. According to Automotive News, the company has to capacity to screw together nearly 200,000 of these luxury SUVs per year, the Spring Hill plant's limit. Of course, this would mean phasing out or shifting to different factories the other models built there. In this report, Rory Harvey, vice president of global Cadillac said, "We have a progressive ramp-up, but we have the ability to flex based upon customer demand." He also added that desire for the swanky-looking Lyriq is "absolutely huge," which is great news for GM.
