Prelude to a Preview: Cadillac Lyriq Continues Its Long March to Reality

“Lear-ick” or “lear-eek”? That’s the first question the Cadillac Lyriq brings to mind, the second being who, exactly, was behind the naming of this future electric crossover. Names matter, and if they don’t roll off the tongue easily, that’s a problem. At least for non-Italian brands…

But this writer digresses. On Thursday, which proved quite eventful in terms of product news, Cadillac decided to seek a little limelight of its own.

Specifically, it reminded the public that there is indeed an electric crossover on the way, and that we’ll have our first glimpse of a real, physical product on August 6th. The debut is more of a prelude, however, as Cadillac says it plans to reveal a “show car” that day. Be it a concept, a prototype, or a pre-production facsimile of what we can expect in showrooms, it’s at least something less ephemeral than the renderings shown at last year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Named Lyric, the crossover will be just one EV riding GM’s big green wave. The company now has a platform and battery tech to underpin and power the Lyric and vehicles like it, as well as an assembly plant focused solely on such products. Detroit-Hamtramck has seen its last internal combustion sedan.

The few glimpses Cadillac provided of the actual Lyric (not close-ups of cool Escalade gear designed to burnish the brand’s future-gazing cred) can be seen above; after a bit of lightening, we can see that this vehicle fits the description of what we’ve come to expect from a show car. A physical representation of the rendering, not something’s ready to leave the oven.

According to the accompanying ad, only a Cadillac EV can “move you.” Hmmm. Debatable.

Seen from the side, the Lyric looks like something that drove off the set of RoboCop (hopefully it stacks up to foreign rivals better than the 6000 SUX), though the shots of the car’s lower front fascia jibes with the renderings seen early last year (one of which is shown above).

It’s expected that the Lyriq will enter production next year, going on sale as a 2022 model. General Motors CEO Mary Barra said in May that EV development programs continued amid the pandemic lockdowns, with no changes in store for the Lyric’s production schedule. More details should be forthcoming in early August.

[Images: General Motors]