Cadillac is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the V-Series sub-brand, marking two decades since the debut of the CTS-V.R in the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge GT race at Sebring. Over the years, Cadillac’s V-Series models have offered a combination of luxury and track-ready performance, which is now set to continue into the all-electric space, most likely with the new Cadillac Lyriq-V, as GM Authority was the first to report. Which raises one very interesting question – will EVs be the better expression of the Cadillac V-Series than the ICE models that came before?
Before you grab the torches and pitchforks in the comments section, let’s explore the idea. For starters, EVs are quick – very quick, in fact, a characteristic that definitely falls in line with the Cadillac V-Series brand. Chalk it up to a vertical torque curve and huge power levels, and EVs can be insanely quick in a straight line.
But what about in the corners? Although EVs tend to be quite heavy, a lot of the heft is mounted low thanks to flat battery packs under the floor. As such, EVs can handle surprisingly well for how heavy they are. Throw in a set of super-sticky tires, and EVs can have a tenacious grip on the road.
Even so, all that doesn’t necessarily translate into quick lap times. Sometimes, though, it does. The all-electric Porsche Taycan, for example, set a new EV lap record at the infamous Nurburgring race track in Germany earlier this year, blazing around Nordschleife in a mind-bending 7:07.55. By comparison, the ICE-powered Chevy Corvette Z06 lapped the ‘Ring in 7:12.64.
Which brings us to perhaps the most controversial aspect of EVs, at least for performance enthusiasts – the sound. It goes without saying that an uncorked internal combustion monster sounds amazing, and always will. But that’s not to say all EVs sound terrible. Sometimes, battery-powered models can even sound cool – in our opinion, the GMC Hummer EV’s various sound patterns are a decent example of this.
Either way, the EV versus ICE debate is sure to rage on endlessly, and it remains to be seen if the market prefers an EV Cadillac V-Series over an ICE-powered Cadillac V-Series. For now, at least.
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Comments
A big NO.
No manual, artificial/no steering feedback, heavy weight, no supercharged V8 sound/whine, no high hp RWD fun and no sense of mechanical feeling. These are the things that make V-Series so sought after and adored by the enthusiasts.
Why not name the EV’s ” Edsel” and see what happens.
EVs are superior in every characteristics of any vehicle. This is why there are the best on any planet or moon, including our Moon and on Mars.
Jonathan, just ignore the naysayers. Their great-grandfathers did the same when the first gasoline autos arrived over 120 years ago. By 2050, gasoline engines will be museum pieces just as steam engines are.
EV’s were out 100 years ago and they FAILED, TWICE. 3 strikes and your ouuuuuuuttttttt!
-The Ice MAN
Aside from the cold weather that drains the batteries, the long charging time, the limited range vs. ICE vehicles, the higher cost to insure, wearing tires out twice as fast as an ICE vehicle, higher insurance costs, and tens of thousands to replace a defective battery, you are right- EVs are superior.
* deaf ears* Waste of bandwidth to even ask.
Who cares? Cadillac will be gone in the next 5 or so years…..
Please explain this Thesis, I am curious the thought process that went into this comment
Just put the electric car in there own class
Where’s the tangible / meaningful “benefit”?
Sacrificing the primary benefit of the original V brand for a secondary one dilutes it…reducing it to simply badging, emblems and decals.
LOL…no
Has anyone noticed the large amount of used Teslas on lots lately? The fact that they’re so expensive to repair and replace batteries doesn’t make sense to the real world. And the first initial discussion that Porsche is about $200,000 and that’s what it takes to have something in EV format that handles just as well. We’re not ready yet. I like them, but we’re just not there yet. They’re just not affordable enough for the real world. But once again jam it down her throats force us and the majority of the sheet will conform. I enjoy my ice vehicles the way they sound and the way they handle. I don’t want to be another individual sitting at Wawa for half an hour every other day so my vehicle can charge. Just saying
slot car racing, no thanks. I have a Vagon, and may be buried in it from the way things look for future cars.
The problem with this hypothesis is it’s coming from the top down – meaning that GM is pushing the talking points, not its customer base, to which the EV’s sitting on the lots longer then do their ICE counterparts is proof that the population at large are avoiding buying them. If GM decides to go fully EV’s for its V and Blackwing series and not offer ICE, they may benefit from a niche market of EV buyers, but they will we loosing a majority of Americans who love ICE and what can be done to modify their performance.
Ice is the only way to go!! 👍
NO!!!! GM scrap the EV nonsense right now and look into Hybrid powertrains!! This woke agenda needs to stop
I need the engine sound and transmission shift feeling.
Sell me a GTP Hybrid power train and we can talk about electric. I am an electrician and it is foolish and short sited to think that the very old American infrastructure could support a massive EV market.
Ev’s Do not meet the traditional American market. Cars have never been about what we need. It’s about what we want. I for one love the idea of an ev …. But I need 350 to 400 mile between charges with full winter/summer temp control, and all the fixings in full operation. And I need the charging system installed as part of my purchase. Not to mention I would need a charge time of less then 10 minutes for less then $50 no matter where I stop.
We’re still to far way.
Look I get it. The S model Tesla has proven profitable and popular at the high price it is. But yet it is not a car for everyone.
Same applies here. If you want a EV V series that is fine and sell it to those who want it. But the trouble is many of us still prefer the noise the feel and the excitement of the ICE models.
I get it we may end up with no choice but we need a Government that will continue to let the people buy what they want not what we are forced to accept.
The next 10 years are going to be a big problem. GM is set to sell both EV and ICE. but in about 11 years there will be no choice. This is not GMs fault but the voters not paying attention to the people they vote in and who they appoint.
The automarket is in for some crushing years. The automakers and dealers are struggling to sell new or used cars. FOrcing us into poorer and more expensive ICE by the government is just playing into the hands of the Chinese and their bent to destroy our industry.
The government is not mandating GM make only EV’s by 2035! GM made that decision. And if they don’t sell: GM will shift focus to ICE or Hybrids. And I’m betting they will do that WAY before 2035!
Funny you mention the S in this context. Until a couple of years ago, it could barely make it around the ring due to battery overheat. I also saw a S on an open COTA day. It was only there for a couple of laps. Probably nowhere to charge it and you are really braking on these courses, not regen-ing so batteries go fast.
Also for those thinking Hybrid. Sorry that is not the answer. Hybrids are worse than a EV.
Hybrids you are still dealing with all that is ICE. Maintenance and testing in states testing. Then you pay extra for the Hybrid model that will take you a while to get the savings back in gas if you ever get it back.
Then once the battery fails it can be $2000 to $12,000 or more to change the battery out.
I was just in my buddies shop and he had a Malibu Hybrid that was out of warranty. It needed a $4000 battery.
The trouble is the car even in good shape was not worth much more than the cost to change the battery out. So you are stuck with an old car with lights on the dash and no hybrid system. No real trade value here.
This is like reaching 100K miles and the car needing to have an engine replaced. Would you buy a car like that? Well people are buying Hyundai cars with exploding engines.
The Prius is one of the few worth repairing.
OMG, “NO! NO, NOOOO!”
State of the Art EV Performance : Formula E .
A joke .
Like T-Ball compared to MLB .
No thanks. Blinged up golf carts are not my style.
They can stick EVs up their ass for more reasons than I can write here!
Look guys I am a car guy who far too long ago was a professional racer and love to rip thru a curve, tail hanging out. But get real. We all are living on space ship earth whose life support system is rapidly deteriorating due to climate change. Yay, it’s fun to blast through the gears pinned deal in your seat, but we have to give up IC if we want a decent life for our grandchildren. My hope is we stop trying to send humans to Mars and spend the money on fusion, so we stop powering our EV’s with electricity generated by burning fossil fuel. By the way, I just bought a Lyriq.
Earth will be fine, humans may have a die off event though. When the Dino’s roamed, earth was much much much hotter. Fundamentally, we overpopulated to the point earth cannot sustain this many of us and as a result, we are impacting it. It is not just CO2. We are also way overpumping water. Look at central valley in CA. What like 20 feet land sink. Many of those coastal areas if you look at the numbers, it is not sea level rising that is their big problem. It is pumping too much underground wells causing land to sink. Mad max here we come. It’s ok though, the billionaire class will be on their islands with their private military’s watching hunger games.
If you truly worry about the planet, you shouldn’t waste resources buying a car. Walking or biking is your best path forward. Bus when you have to cover distance.
Sorry to see that you drank the climate change Kool Aid. If you were to replace every single ICE vehicle with an EV, the net effect on the planet would be ZERO. China is still building a coal-fired power plant a week to charge these vehicles, and other countries like China, India, and African nations could care less about the environment. News flash: the hatred that people have toward each other, the geopolitical volatility, and the “woke” agenda will destroy this world a lot faster than carbon emissions.
From a speed perspective, you have almost 10,000 pound ev trucks that can go 0-60 in 3 seconds so yes Ev can and will easily surpass ICE caddys as far as speed goes but there are many more things to consider. To answer your question, I do think it’s possible because Evs are especially powerful but it will depend on Cadillac. They seem to struggle with execution as of late.
Real people express themselves with a real voice. As with real cars it’s VROOM not vreem
Rocket cars are so much more exciting
Absolutely no to the Cadillac V being transformed into an EV only…!!!
Hydrogen fuel cells and synthetic fuels are a far more likely future scenario than EVs replacing internal combustion engines. People by and large do not want EVs. EV sales plunged last year, a harbinger of what is to come.
Just put the electric car in there own class
Ice is the only way to go!! 👍
There’s a reason they don’t broadcast Formula E live on National Cable or Satellite like Formula 1 or NASCAR …
It’s too embarrassing for the climate paranoids’ “Political Movement” .
EV will never replace ICE! You are right on being quick from a to b, but it is really bad from a to z takes to long to charge!!
NO, electric Cadillacs.
I have had 5 Corvettes in a row, the last being a 2016 C7. Currently have a 2023 Camaro SS.
I really like performance.
Took delivery one month and 2,000 miles ago of a 2024 Cadillac Lyriq Luxury 3 AWD.
It is outstanding. 500 HP. The torque is simply incredible. As much fun as driving my Corvettes and Camaro SS. Of course it does not have the 6.2 liter V8 sound.
The Super Cruise is absolutely outstanding with Automatic Lane Change.
I would encourage anyone with thoughts about EVs to actually drive one and then discuss their facts about the experience .
What could be simpler then plugging in to one’s home charger to be always ready to go the next day.
Cadillac Lyriq — I love it!
Oh, hi Mary. Welcome to GMA!
What doesn’t make sense is buying the first generation of something really new.
When ICE production stops, it will be interesting to see If used ICE vehicles go up in value, at
least for awhile until EV’s are more perfected.
You didn’t read my post very well. I am not a treehugger but a not very reformed bad ass racer. I will be driving as fast as I can the day I die, unless I’m in jail. The point of my post, guys is you have to wake up to why we are facing the end of ICE’s. I will miss them more than most of you. Stop having a tantrum and wake up to the fact that we are screwing up the only planet we have to live on. I wish Elon Musk bonvoage on his trip to Mars. In addition to being a former professional racer I am the retired president of a consulting engineering corp. who’s multinational clients paid me very well to lokk past the obvious to solve their long range problems. Well., children, we have a bad one with is going to get geometricly worse. The ice cap that is melting five times faster than predicted, and will stop reflecting back the infared radiation from the sun. Then the permafrost will thaw even faster and relase methane which is 10 times worse than CO. Ya, I can get my jollies with my Lyriq. Tomorrow I’m going to sit on the brake pedal and floor it to see if that will work as a launch control. I am going to go for the torque upgade to see if I can tickle 3.0 sec. 0-60.
Stop bankg your feet on the floor with your tantrums aabout not haveing a big roar when you press you foot down and act like men who care about the world their children and grandchildren will inherit.
Do you want sugar or Sweet n Low with that Kool Aide?
Okay, Greta .
Yah, because lithium mines are so benign. Fortunately for the children of Africa and South American, it looks like we aren’t going to require cobalt.
I’ve had five Corvettes and currently a ‘23 Camaro SS. Took delivery last month of a Cadillac Lyriq Luxury 3 AWD. It has 500 HP and incredible torque. Very fun to drive.
I’ve driven it 2,500 miles.
The Super Cruise with Automatic Lane Change is outstanding.. It is so convenient to charge up in my garage with the home charger.
Very fun to drive. I love it!
Fun until you drive it from Dallas to LA in two days or get off the interstate in the Rockies or someplace like Yellowstone NP, Glacier NP or maybe a run through the Cascades. The long range EVs are very expensive at this point. And if you are unlucky enough to not be able to find a quick charger when you’re really low on charge, it’s going to take quite a while to charge the deal.
BAH!
Hey GM owner up above, next time I go to the moon or Mars I will be sure to buy an electric car. ELECTRIC CARS THE BIGGEST CON OF THE CENTURY. Oh yeah will be sure to take an electric rocket.
As an instructor at HPDE’s at VIR I can tell you EV’s do not cut it around the track. A few of us instructors have had students with Tesla’s. They can only make a few laps. The batteries cannot take the drain and then performance is seriously reduced until they lose so much battery getting to a charging station is problematic. They cannot make 20 minutes on that track being driven hard. I could watch the battery on the screen go from green to amber to red. They are quick for a short time, but with battery drain and heavy weight they are no track car. Cadillac’s current Alpha cars are great track cars. They have the goods, the sounds and the feeling to make a great experience on track.
I would trust a Porsche EV to make a few laps around the track without having issues or running out of electrons. But, as noted above, the price is and will be a huge pill to swallow. That Porsche was faster than the Z06, but there was probably at least a $50k price difference. The Z06 would be able to pull off the track and drive home, the EV, probably not until the battery was sufficiently recharged. Range limitations are the problem for me as we use all of our cars for various long distance trips. I did get a ride in a Tesla S Plaid. It was big time fun. We only played hard in a straight line, the handling didn’t seem to be impressive.
When I look at high EV pricing and see the stories about the auto makers losing money at that price level, I assume that ICE vehicle sales are what’s keeping them in business at this point. When ICE vehicles are no longer sold new and the only choice is EV, I can’t help but wonder what pricing will look like at that time.