GM Authority reported in March that GM was developing a new small electric Cadillac crossover model that would undercut the Cadillac Lyriq in the automaker’s burgeoning EV product protfolio. Now our spies have captured the first photos of this future small Cadillac EV undergoing testing on public roads in Michigan, giving us a better idea of what to expect from the future XT4-sized offering.
At first glance, this unnamed Cadillac EV looks like a smaller take on the Cadillac Lyriq with a more upright stance. It appears to have a similar C-pillar treatment to the Cadillac Lyriq, along with a similar rearward-sloping roof, an angled rear window and a subtle ducktail-style mid-mounted hatch spoiler. A prominent styling line can be seen jetting rearward from the middle of the front door and extending into the rear wheel well/fender, however the camouflage could be causing an illusion that’s making this feature seem a bit more pronounced than it really is.
A significant amount of camouflage covers this prototype’s front fascia and it’s also rocking a set of temporary placeholder headlights, so there’s not a whole lot we can learn from this gallery in that regard. We expect this future crossover model to follow the current Cadillac design language, though, so it will likely receive an LED-adorned faux front grille with animated lighting signatures – just like the Cadillac Lyriq and the Celestiq Show Car. We’re expecting the rear fascia to also look decidedly Lyriq-like with an LED light bar of some type and adjacent vertically-mounted LED accent lights.
A report published earlier this week indicated this future small electric Cadillac crossover will arrive in late 2024 and will be built at GM’s Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico, although GM has yet to confirm these rumors. GM has filed a number of trademark applications for names that could be used on this new small crossover, as well, including Vistiq, Ascendiq, Optiq, Lumistiq and Symboliq.
It’s likely this Cadillac XT4-sized EV will utilize a downsized version of the GM BEV3 platform that underpins the Lyriq, as well as GM’s Ultium modular battery pack design and Ultium Drive electric motors. We imagine it would also have a similar driving range to the Lyriq, which boasts a GM-estimated 300 miles of range on a full charge thanks to its 12-module, 100.4 kWh battery, along with similar performance. The single motor, rear-wheel-drive Cadillac Lyriq produces 340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque, for reference.
GM Authority will have more information on this future small electric Cadillac crossover as it trickles out. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe for more Cadillac Lyriq news, Cadillac news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
I’m sorry but no Cadillac should ever be built in Mexico.
I am not apposed to GM building vehicles in Mexico and Canada but NOT Cadillac vehicles in my opinion.
Building them in Mexico means they can export them to other countries without tariffs especially China.
so we should simply fix the china issue.
What issue would that be?
Xt4 sized yet it has 6 lug wheels. Can it tie my fifth wheel with those?
Nah, EV’s just weigh a lot.
So do big trucks. Weigh tons more.
Building them in Mexico or Canada still makes them American because both nations are in North America. So what do you call a vehicle made in the U.S.?
so more like Equinox EV sized?
Yeah if you compare the bodylines they are almost exact except for the C-pillar and back and the very front clip
And it makes for more profits and bigger bonuses for GM execs. That’s a priority for the corporation and provenance only matters with a prestige brand.
Of course I do agree with you but GM isn’t serious about rebuilding Cadillac, only serious about short-term profits.
Ci2Eye:
I posted a reply earlier today but it contained a word the mods apparently didn’t like.
But you’re sounding a bit like a So****ist. Does Tucker know?
You’re talking about badge engineering. The Lyriq and Blazer EV are good examples of where you can use the same platform and create two very different looking and behaving vehicles. I think the same holds true with the Equinox EV and small Cadillac EV. The interiors will be vastly different. Performance, suspension, etc. will be different as well. So, the only thing that is really the same is the base Ultium platform which all Ultium base EVs share.
The following is my opinion:
This is why GM is so gung-ho on electrics. They’re the ultimate badge engineering products. They take generic electric motors probably made in China with a likewise common battery pack and the same skateboard and they can build anything. And they will eventually do it very cheaply.
At one time a Cadillac was a wholly different product from a lowly Chevy with a V16 instead of a four cylinder, it was much larger and more opulent riding on a longer and completely different frame. They were built by the same company but they didn’t share parts. Those were the glory days when the Standard of the World was a legitimate designation.
In GM’s all-EV future they’ve made the mechanicals unimportant and don’t want to talk about them much anymore because they’ll all be shared. A robo-taxi and a Cadillac will share essential parts as will the Caddy and a Chevy. The body and interior will be the differentiating factor. It’s where GM has wanted to go for decades. Scale up or scale down, share everything, build them cheap, sale them high. Charge an even steeper premium for the upscale bodies with the Cadillac name and load them all up with techno features that’ll take in permanent and pricey subscription fees.
This is why GM sees big profits ahead and why they’re so eager to use the guise of the environment to push ahead to an all-EV future. Mary Barra and GM don’t care about the planet. If they did, they wouldn’t keep building Escalades and Suburbans and prioritize them for production while eliminating the Volt, Sonic, Spark, etc. that were more planet friendly.
This future will be all about branding and image applied to the same rudimentary parts. We’re witnessing the end, after one final hurrah with the Omega CT6 Blackwing, of the true Cadillac. Even the $300,000 Cellistiq will just be a grossly overpriced body and interior package for a generic Ultium vehicle. They’re trying to mesmerize buyers with tacky LED light shows inside and out and labeling it as luxury but what lurks beneath is all the same. Luxury used to mean superior engineering and something magnificent under the hood. Soon it won’t. At least not at GM.
I see the exact opposite. By using common components those components can be higher quality because you make a lot of them, and they are the same.
The difference between vehicles comes down to tuning. I guarantee the Lyriq will feel different to drive than the Blazer SS. Will the Blazer have 5-link suspension all around. And will the Cadillac have Brembo brakes up front. The interiors can be better, because you spend less time and money on the engine, transmission and related mechanicals. You don’t have to squeeze out an extra 80HP by added a turbo to an ICE and doing expensive emissions testing. You just select 1 of 3 different motors in 1 of 5 drivetrains. You manage the power delivery via software.
Dude, wait until you hear about what GM did in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. No electric powertrains involved either.
The motors are made by a joint venture between GM and LG Chem (South Korean company) called Ultium LLC, and the Ultium LLC factories for North America production are in North America, not China.
Exactly, gm is releasing their EVs in pairs – a regular version and an upscale version. We already have the Blazer-Lyriq, Silverado-Sierra, and now the Equinox-small Cadillac CUV EVs. This Cadillac is the upscale Equinox.
So no comments on that back window?
Don’t see a wiper but that “sharkfin” and the camo treatment should cause some questions.
The Lyriq doesn’t have a wiper. It has a spoiler to direct air from the roof onto the back window.
I expect the smaller Cadillac to start in the $45,000 range, and become competitive against the electric imports.
funny that they can make a full EV much more cheaply than the Volt-based ELR. They should do very well. Jay Leno says the Lyric is what a Cadillac should be.
After watching the video, I think he had his tongue in his cheek.
The latest spy shots validate the GM Electric Plan we saw 2-3 years ago:
Centroid entries: Cadillac Lyriq (lead entry) and Chevrolet Blazer
Shared Autonomous Vehicle: Cruise Origin
Light Commercial Vehicle: Brightdrop Zevo600
Luxury Low-Roof Car: Cadillac Celestiq
Compact CUV: Chevrolet Equinox
Luxury Compact CUV: the car spotted
We’are about to see the others previewed:
SUV-Large (7p): Chevrolet Traverse/Enclave sized
Luxury SUV-Large (7p): XT6-sized
SUV-Small: note the difference GM uses between CUV and SUV here. Is that a GMC or Chevy?
Low-Roof Efficient Car: Camaro or Malibu/Impala sedan?
And a sedan with an accesible price? When? Not everybody likes SUV´s or crossovers.
Seems like they have an Ultium based sedan concept.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/11/all-new-chevy-fnr-xe-concept-sedan-debuts-in-china/
I get it, they want a smaller Lyriq but don’t forget about your ICE vehicles. I saw photos of the XT4 refresh of the front, rear with an all new interior but where are spyshots of the all new XT5 that they keep talking about? The new XT5 should look alot like the Lyriq and the XT6 should get the same treatment as the XT4 with a turbo V6 option.