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Cadillac Lyriq AWD Now Available to Order in China, Priced at RMB 479,700

General Motors developed the BEV3 platform for both front- and rear-wheel-drive applications. Compatible with dual-motor setups as well, the BEV3 was introduced in August 2020 by the Cadillac Lyriq crossover.
2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China 6 photos
Photo: Cadillac
2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD 700 E4 for China
A mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle that was originally sold exclusively with single-motor rear drive, the Lyriq wasn’t designed exclusively for the U.S. market. General Motors and China are BFFs, and Cadillac sales in the Middle Kingdom clearly show the automaker’s love for the yuan.

Combined retail and fleet deliveries were down 8.6 percent in 2021 in the United States, to 118,310 units, while the Chinese market accounted for 233,117 deliveries, a year-over-year improvement of 1.4 percent. It’s also worth remembering that the CT6 full-size luxury sedan is alive and well in China despite failing to meet expectations in Cadillac’s home market.

Manufactured in both Spring Hill, Tennessee and Shanghai, China, the Lyriq is available to order with all-wheel drive since May 2022 in the United States. Over in China, the order bank for the dual-motor variant has just been opened, with prices kicking off at 479,700 renminbi.

That bundle of cash means $68,680 at current exchange rates, which isn’t bad given the generous level of standard equipment and perceived quality. The Lyriq AWD for the U.S. market is listed as a 2024 model with a starting price of around $64,000 and initial deliveries in spring 2023.

Cadillac uses an alphanumeric naming convention to approximate a vehicle’s peak torque, and the Lyriq AWD also uses it. 700 E4 refers to nearly 700 Nm, electric, and all-wheel drive. The Lyriq AWD produces 710 Nm or 524 pound-feet on full chatter. The crown jewel of General Motors lists a zero-to-100-kph sprint (make that 62 miles per hour) of 4.6 seconds, three tenths better than the original estimate. It further boasts 375 kW or 503 horsepower, which makes it the third most-powerful Cadillac in series production today after the Escalade-V and CT5-V Blackwing.

The all-electric utility vehicle uses a lithium-ion pack that provides a CLTC-rated driving range of 608 kilometers or 378 miles. It should be mentioned that China’s Light Duty Vehicle Test Cycle is very far off the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate. The Lyriq AWD doesn’t have an EPA rating for the time being, but we can obviously compare the rear-wheel-drive version to understand how big of a difference there is.

Compared to the EPA’s 312 miles (502 kilometers), the Lyriq RWD is magically better in China, where the CLTC estimate is 404 miles (650 kilometers). There are many reasons why CLTC ratings are more optimistic than EPA ratings. For example, the idling duration is twice as long as in the NEDC the European Union replaced with the WLTP. The testing speed limit is also lower than both NEDC and WLTP testing speed limits at 114 kilometers per hour (70.8 miles per hour), and the whole testing procedure lasts 30 minutes over just 14.5 kilometers (9 miles).
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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