Cadillac Unveils LYRIQ Show Car at Auto Shanghai 2021
Orchestrating a New Symphony for the All-Electric Era
2021-04-19
Cadillac today unveiled the all-electric LYRIQ show car at Auto Shanghai 2021. It was the first time for the new face of Cadillac to meet the public since its debut last August.
Led by the LYRIQ, Cadillac is committed to delivering an all-electric future with a full portfolio of transformative electric vehicles featuring cutting-edge future technologies.
“Cadillac has been pushing the boundaries of innovation for the past 119 years,” said Sam Basile, Executive Vice President of SAIC-GM. “Today we are laying the groundwork for a better future by reimagining the interaction between user and vehicle. The LYRIQ marks the beginning of a new chapter for the brand – one that is all-electric and redefines the luxury EV experience.”
As the spearhead of GM’s zero-zero-zero vision, Cadillac is accelerating its pace to become a leader in tomorrow’s technologies with the Ultium EV platform, Vehicle Intelligence Platform (VIP), Super Cruise and more.
“We are calling the model on display in Shanghai a show car – not a concept – because it will go into production soon,” said Felix Weller, Vice President of Cadillac in China and General Director of Cadillac Marketing and Sales at SAIC-GM. “You may be surprised how similar it is to the show car.”
Cadillac will begin accepting pre-orders in China for the production version of the LYRIQ later this year, with deliveries starting in early 2022.
Powered by Ultium
As the cornerstone of GM's electrification across the board, the next-generation and highly flexible Ultium platform integrates GM’s more than a quarter of a century of experience in electrification and advantages from its visionary technologies, allowing Cadillac to deliver a variety of range and performance options.
The modular EV platform on which the LYRIQ is based is the foundation for its liberating performance. With a dedicated EV architecture, its design eliminates significant physical constraints associated with adapting electric propulsion within a conventional vehicle architecture. The result is an optimized design that supports greater driving range, an engaging driving experience and a new interpretation of the passenger space.
The LYRIQ features an industry-first wireless battery management system and patented thermal protection technology to offer a safe, powerful and reliable luxury EV experience.
The New Face of Cadillac
The name “LYRIQ” was inspired by Cadillac’s rich connection to the arts such as music and poetry. Its exterior styling is true to its intent to blend a sensory artform with intelligent technology, and underscores the brand’s bold aesthetic design philosophy.
It features flowing, minimalistic, exquisite and visionary styling that perfectly combines sculptural refinement with rhythmic lines. It invites imagination and expectations about what the brand’s future models will be like in terms of craftsmanship and design.
The front of the LYRIQ show car is designed to blur the lines between lighting and the grille. Vertical, slim-line LED headlamps interplay with Cadillac’s signature vertical lamps via the Illuminated Black Crystal grille, which not just follows the brand’s classic elements but presents a charming and futuristic visual effect like never before.
A full, two-tone glass roof stretches straight through to the roof spoiler, defining a low and fast profile while enabling outstanding aerodynamics.
The lower center of gravity and near 50/50 weight distribution between the front and rear axles was enabled by the placement of the battery pack. Large 23-inch wheels in a matte finish enhance the vehicle’s dynamics and visual impact when still.
In order to highlight the purity and lightness of the LYRIQ’s form, Cadillac's design team straddled the line between white and silver, and adopted an unusual 14-layer painting process. With the change of light angle, the body paint shows a strong sense of flow, reflecting Cadillac's distinctive luxurious style.
The seamless integration of art and technology is woven through every detail of the interior. Graceful and specific Cadillac knurling is etched on each component, and laser-etched patterns run throughout the metal-based wooden décor. There is detailing inside the vents as well, which emphasizes the idea of high design even in the smallest of areas.
Artfully Integrated Technology
Envisioned to make interaction with its technologies more intuitive and rewarding, the LYRIQ’s partnership with the driver and passengers is simultaneously energizing and artful.
Upon approach, the LYRIQ recognizes the driver and initiates a “greeting” with a choreographed lighting sequence, while also preparing the cabin for the journey, including seat, mirror and climate system adjustments. Once the user gets inside, the LYRIQ offers Cadillac’s highest level of driver information, infotainment and connectivity integration, for a more seamless and rewarding experience.
A 33-inch-diagonal advanced LED display artfully integrates a single large screen that spans the viewing area for the driver and incorporates driver information details, infotainment controls and camera views. This new display has the highest pixel density available in the automotive industry today and can display over one billion colors, providing a stunning in-vehicle experience unlike anything seen before from Cadillac.
For a more immersive interior ambience, the Cadillac team invited innovative companies from outside the automotive industry, including Territory Studio, Rightpoint and Epic Games, to help reimagine the user interface. Focused on artfully integrating aesthetics, purpose and technology, these teams helped bring to life an unprecedented human-vehicle interaction experience.
The LYRIQ’s new augmented reality-enhanced head-up display employs two planes – a near plane indicating speed, direction and more, and a far plane displaying transparent navigation signals and other important alerts. The vehicle’s technology also addresses sound in two important ways: blocking unwanted sounds and making the most of the sounds passengers want to hear.
For the first time, Cadillac will introduce a new road noise cancellation technology, which takes active noise cancellation to the next level by introducing more microphones and accelerometers. With this new system, Cadillac’s performance and audio engineers can target the frequency range of tire cavity noise, reducing the noise level in the vehicle and allowing for a quieter in-cabin experience.
The LYRIQ will also come with the enhanced version of the Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance feature, including lane change on demand. The award-winning system can be used on nearly 300,000 kilometers of highways across China.
The LYRIQ show car is being displayed at the Cadillac stand in Hall 3 at the National Convention & Exhibition Center in Shanghai from April 19-28.