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2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD Weighs More Than An Escalade

Electric vehicles like the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq offer myriad benefits over equivalent internal-combustion-powered alternatives, but when it comes to weight, the BEVs typically tip the scales with much, much more heft. In fact, looking at the numbers, we find the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq AWD is actually heavier than the Cadillac Escalade.

Offered in both a rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive configuration, curb weight for the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq is set at 5,688 pounds and 5,915 pounds, respectively. By comparison, the rear-wheel drive Cadillac Escalade is 5,635 pounds, while the all-wheel drive Cadillac Escalade is 5,823 pounds, which makes the Escalade lighter than the Lyriq by 53 pounds and 92 pounds, respectively.

Granted, the weight differentials here aren’t that big, but considering the size difference between the Lyriq and Escalade, it becomes clear just how heavy the new all-electric Lyriq really is. For example, the Cadillac Lyriq has a wheelbase of 121.8 inches, an overall length of 196.7 inches, an overall width of 77.8 inches, and an overall height of 63.9 inches, while the Cadillac Escalade has a wheelbase of 120.9 inches, an overall length of 211.9 inches, an overall width of 81.1 inches, and a height of 76.7 inches.

Check out the table below for a closer look at the curb weight figures for the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq as compared to the rest of the Cadillac crossover and SUV lineup:

2023 Cadillac Lyriq Curb Weight vs. Cadillac Crossovers And SUVs
RWD Curb Weight (lbs / kg) AWD Curb Weight (lbs / kg)
2023 XT4 3,660 / 1,660 3,847 / 1,745
2023 XT5 4,076 / 1,849 4,286 / 1,944
2023 XT6 4,441 / 2,014 4,644 / 2,107
2023 Escalade 5,635 / 2,556 5,823 / 2,641
2023 Lyriq 5,688 / 2,580 5,915 / 2,683
2023 Escalade ESV 5,785 / 2,624 5,993 / 2,718

As a reminder, the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq features the latest GM Ultium battery tech and the GM Ultium drive motor tech, with output ranging between 340 horsepower and 500 horsepower. Range-per-charge is more than 300 miles.

Under the body panels, the Cadillac Lyriq rides on the GM BEV3 platform. Production takes place at the GM Spring Hill plant in Tennessee

Subscribe to GM Authority for more Cadillac Lyriq news, Cadillac Escalade news, Cadillac news, General Motors electric vehicle news, General Motors technology news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Don’t think anyone buying this will care as long it drives and handles well like a Cadillac should. Some people like the heft of big vehicles.

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  2. It gives pause to the changing landscape of US roadways. Now automakers are on the cusp on introducing more vehicles with weight density that off the scales, pun intended. Take the Lyric: with the numbers above, we’re looking at a vehicle that’s within 98% of XT6 dimensions, but is HEAVIER than the BOF Escalade? Geez, makes me want to get one of these so I’m on the surviving side of physics in an accident.

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    1. Till you get hit by a Tesla….

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      1. Or a Hummer EV. It would be like getting hit by a semi tractor.

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  3. Goodbye roads, hello taxes.

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  4. Don’t get hit by one of these beasts. Registration weight class will be like a truck. Crazy. Read article today how states are charging evs higher fees to make up for loss of gas tax dollars.

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  5. The AWD variant will accelerate to 60 within a half second of Escalade-V and gets 96 MPGe.

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    1. Other than MPGe is a lie. It starts the counter after the battery is fully charged to intentionally inflate the numbers of these very ungreen vehicles. Considering most fast chargers are coming back 80-85% efficient, for this example, let’s go with a generous 90% 😉, that drops to 86. Power transmission losses another 10% on the conservative side, down to 78, and 80% of our grid is fossil fuel, at a conservative 60% efficiency, leaves you at 46 mpg…. Or the same as a normal sedan…. In reality all those numbers are worse, so more likely low-mid 30’s for a sedan

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      1. Hmm. So much wrong with this.

        First MPGe actually does include charging losses.
        Second the majority of our electricity does not come from fossil fuels.
        Also you cannot scale MPG linearly based on down stream efficiency.

        Of note the MPG of a combustion vehicle don’t include drilling, upgrading, refining or transportation.

        Wheel to well studies show that EV’s are multiple times more efficient than combustion vehicles when you take the whole supply chain into consideration.

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        1. EV’s can’t last 20 years.
          So more pollution spewed making another throw away EV.
          In addition combustion engines are able to be powered by biofuels. Which is cleaner than renewables.

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          1. Not to mention the crappy resale values these EVs will have in about 10 years.

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            1. Not exactly the entire market, but 10 year old Tesla Model S cars are mostly listed for more than 10 year old MB S-class cars. Probably cost less at purchase too.

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          2. Funny, the some EV “Horseless Carriages” of the early 1900s were restored with no more than a pack of today’s starter batteries and they operated. Even Jay Leno has one from that time period and the lady who had it drove it until her old age into the 1960s. I think EVs have a place in the landscape but I wouldn’t totally replace ICE.

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            1. Thank you for proving EVans point…. It’s just a modern EV has a 20-30K batttery, not a 1k juice kit……… megawatt difference 😉

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              1. What point?, Is it not an EV from 1900 still able to run after 100 years in some cases off the road with a pack swap?. Who knows what batteries able to run a Lyriq 100 years from now with just a pack swap. Can’t do that with a Model T

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                1. You can make an ICE run just as long. So what is your point. I’d argue it is going to be way more difficult to replace that structurally integrated battery pack than drop a new crate engine in.

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                  1. Installing some batteries and flipping a switch is alot simple than installing some coughing, gagging, loud, greasy, puking gas engine.

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                    1. Until you realize that the old battery is bolted to the chassis in a funny manner, so you have to pull of the old one, frabricate a new frame for the new batteries, create a custom wiring harness to fit the new doohickey…….

                      Nah, it’s way harder to just add gas and go.

                      And yes I’m talking about mint condition vehicles. Most barn finds, eletric or gas will need parts, weather it’s brushes and bearings or carberators and distributors.

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                    2. So you’re planning on not buying an EV, great!. As said still a backfiring, belching gas engine isn’t more reliable than a electric setup. Im sure you seen “Will it Run/Start?” on YT, it’s far from “add gas and go” for barn cars, let’s not forget the cooling system, seals, hose, lubrication and sometimes emission controls on old ICE vehicles that have to operate to get it moving.

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        2. Wrong. MPGe is calculated as the number of miles a fully charged EV can go divided by the KWH’s, divided by the number of KWH in a gallon of gas. It doesn’t include all the inefficiency on the other side of the plug.

          Also wrong, our current grid is 2% “renewables”, 3% hydro, 15% nuke and the rest coal and gas. I’m including the cost of distribution as coal and gas needs distribution to the power plants, so that’s where I am starting the counter…. Light years ahead of ya.

          Wheel to wheel studies of ethanol also show that its dirtier than gas, so antything can be warped and twisted if you have an agenda.

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        3. Wrong, in 2021, 61% of US power was generated from fossil fuels.

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          1. Isn’t natural gas a fossil fuel?

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          2. Ahhhh yes….. that stat…… just like how in 2021 Tesla us it’s first year in the black, and ignoring the last 6 in the red and saying “EV’s” are profitable!!!!! 🤯

            Sooooo much wrong with that stat. Much of our grid goes to industrial processes. In the rust belt 80% of our grid is for industry. (Certain states like Iowa/Colorado proudly point out that their grid is 3/4 powered by wind….but their agricultural states and their economies are really ram by diesel.) in 2021, many industries were shuddered, or ran maybe 1 shift for half the year. Of course grid demand is going to be down and coal and gas plants to be slowed down to a minimum.

            So how about 2019? 2022? 2018 is where the grid showed 2% renewables, 2019 the same study wasn’t ran. And you can bet your bottom dollar as we don’t open more nuke, IF EV’s become any bit more popular, they will be powered by coal and gas.

            2021-the year production was idled.

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  6. It is about the same weight as a Porsche Cayenne.

    We have a number of heavy vehicles out there that people don’t realize how. Heavy they are.

    I thought my Fiero was heavy at 2600 pound when it was new. Now just look at how heavy things are today.

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  7. With that weight, I expect the hydraulic brakes on the Lyriq to be the best for Cadillac class vehicles. The battery weight is always a factor in electric and hybrids . That is why the battery must be centered in the vehicle floor for stability . Some hybrids have the battery below or behind the rear seats which helps to balance against the gas engine up front

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  8. And auto fatalities are up over 10%. These heavy cars are only going to make it worse.
    Fat cars for fat Americans. So fitting.

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  9. Audi Q8 Etron (Quattro of course) weighs 5,644 lb.
    Lot less than the Lyriq.
    Adding what Andrew commented, roads will wear more rapidly, taxes going up and what about the tires? More weight, more wear. Replacing them more frequent and more rubber to the trash.
    At this pace, we need to figure out how to create a landfill on the moon.

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    1. Yup, more spent on brakes and tires and suspension components to handle the extra weight.

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    2. The last E-tron C&D weighed was 5843 lbs, so at least the Lyriq is in the neighborhood. That said, the E-tron is not on an EV specific platform, so it is disappointing GM couldn’t cut the weight – I hope the Lyriq isn’t representative of the coming Blazer and Equinox EV’s in that regard.

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    3. The Audi e-tron (SUV) is shorter (both in wheelbase and length) and narrower than the Lyriq, but weighs in at 5765 lbs according to Audi’s website. So, the Lyriq at 5610 is longer and wider but weighs 155 lbs less. Maybe there’s something to this Ultium platform after all.

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      1. I don’t believe there is a RWD E-Tron though, so you have to go by the 5900 lbs AWD Lyriq weight. That said, yes the Lyriq is bigger but I would have expected GM to make more of a difference on weight with Ultium being an EV specific platform versus Audi’s MLB, plus GM really put a dent in weight gain with recent ICe platforms.

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        1. Etron has a smaller battery. And really that is the point. Batteries are the main weight factor.

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          1. 95 kwh vs 100kwh – it’s hardly smaller. Also with 4 years more advancements, the weight of the Lyriq’s pack might be lighter than the E-tron. It’s also a couple hundred pounds heavier than the BMW iX (which has an even larger 105 kwh battery). I guess I was just hoping GM would be able to real progress in controlling vehicle weight and maybe even rival Tesla (but with real interiors).

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        2. Valid points. The Lyriq’s larger size would seem to match the two vehicles’ weight numbers. If Ultium is not a weight saver then it remains to be seen if its dedicated platform provides other benefits – performance, longevity, ease of service, etc. No way to know yet.

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          1. Ultium is a brand name they came up with. If you look into it, there isn’t some magical new thing going on there.
            I’m not putting it down or anything, but it’s no different than Ecotec or Hydramatic.

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  10. Yeah, all of those batteries and electric motors are heavy. Just waiting for them to begin increasing highway fatalities due to collisions with lighter vehicles.

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  11. My turbo-gas powered Equinox gets 30+ MPG on the highway fully loaded and a new full sized Silverado with a 3.0 liter turbo-diesel also gets 30+ MPG on the road. That’s good enough for me.

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  12. GM needs to hurry up and figure out how to lighten these vehicles, for me I’m excited about the future with an electrified Corvette, but I don’t want a 4500lb Corvette I don’t care how fast it is💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

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  13. Anyone know when they going to start shipping the debut edition? I’m excited to see how this car drives.

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  14. Regardless of how pretty, how powerful, or how much range these EV’s have on paper, it will always boil down to real-world mileage and how long it takes to recharge. They might be ok cars to daily drive to work assuming you can recharge them overnight every few nights or so, but they will not be efficient road trip cars IMO. I don’t want to have to stop every few hundred miles for more than the 10-15 minutes that it would normally take to fill up my car with gas. I try to avoid flying wherever I can, so my family usually makes 1-3 long road trips per year.

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    1. It’s definitely not as speedy as refueling an ICE vehicle, but here is the Lyriq’s estimated times: 76 miles of range in 10 minutes and 195 miles in 30 minutes. Not sure exactly what 20 minutes would get you, but while being a different way to road trip a 20 minute break every 2ish hours isn’t exactly terrible. If GM had gone with their 800V arch over the 400V in the Lyriq, 50% higher charging speeds wouldn’t have been out of the question and then the argument over ICE refueling would be even less relevant.

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  15. Regardless of the complaint and or excuse these things are coming. The weigh is no worse than a number of SUV models or medium size trucks.

    As for save the planet I think we all know that is a lie and it matters little anymore as MFGS have little choice to meet the coming numbers. It is adapt or die. If it were up to them and no regulations we would be seeing more V8 engines and RWD cars.

    There will be issues in some areas and there will be advantages but most people today will adapt as they will not take a bus or walk.

    That may not make the guy with the Hummer on his cheap asphalt driveway that sinks in on a hot day.

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  16. The EV craze will end up IMHO being the largest scam portrayed on the american public. National PowerGrid operators recently reported that they will be blackouts and brownouts from the California coast to Indiana this summer. Why? nearly 40percent of our electricity comes from wind and solar which require large battery type storage systems. Wind and solar doesn’t always work which adds additional strain to the grid. Now what happens when say only 10 percent of the us public buys Evs? Or we close more coal power plants and install more wind turbines and solar panels? This only gets worse, not even counting the extra strain on the roads themselves. Not saying it cant eventually be overcome, but man were a LONG, LONG, way away. Its literally about power and control. When will we wake up?

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  17. I find it hilarious reading all the anti-EV rants, like they think they will have any effect on what GM or any other manufacturer is going to decide what to build. We get it, you don’t like BEV’s, so don’t buy one, and maybe take your BP pill.

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