Cadillac confirmed for Australia in 2024

This time it should happen.

General Motors’ American luxury brand Cadillac will return to Australia, it has confirmed this week – 15 years after the global financial crisis prompted a last-minute bail-out of a planned local launch.

The Cadillac Lyriq large electric SUV will spearhead the brand’s global expansion, which will include Australia and New Zealand from late 2024, along with Japan, the UK, and parts of Europe.

Cadillac plans to be an all-electric brand by the end of this decade, with the reduced complexity of EV production making it easier for cars to be built in both left- and right-hand drive configurations.

GM will split its sales operations set-up in Australia, with Cadillac established as a separate, EV-only brand while ICE models sit under the GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV) banner that was introduced in 2020 following the demise of Holden.

GMSV recently announced the V8-powered GMC Yukon Denali large SUV would join the Chevrolet Silverado full-size pick-up and Corvette sports car ranges.

While the Yukon will join the Silverado as a model converted to right-hand drive by GM’s local partner Walkinshaw, Cadillac will build RHD models at its US factories for export as it looks to establish itself as a truly global luxury brand.

GM Australia and New Zealand said several key factors made 2024 the right timing for the first official return of the 121-year-old Cadillac brand since its iconic tail-fin cars were sold locally in the 1960s.

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“I think this time around the evolution that the Cadillac brand is taking is really bold with what we’re doing,” GM ANZ managing director Jess Bala told Wheels in an exclusive interview.

“GM’s investing a lot in EVs, which we’ve publicly talked about across all the brands, and for Cadillac in particular, as the luxury brand, it’s really spearheading that.

“And if you look at the markets here in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve got a lot of tech-savvy customers, a lot of luxury customers, and we feel very confident that the timing now is right to introduce Cadillac here.

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Cadillac Australia chief, Jess Bala. | © Wheels Media

“[GM has] been very public that we want to be a global company, and you can’t be global if you don’t have right-hand drive because there are still many major markets that are right-hand drive with considerable volume in it.

“GM’s invested a lot in the modular [800-volt] Ultium platform, which is the foundation for all of our EVs across all of the GM brands, and it does make it a lot easier to therefore do right-hand drive.”

Cadillac will launch with the Lyriq initially before expanding the line-up. The company is billing it as a mid-size luxury SUV, though in Australia its 4996mm length puts it squarely in the Large SUV camp.

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2024 Cadillac Lyriq

In the US, the Lyriq currently features a 102kWh lithium-ion battery and is available in single-motor/rear-drive and dual-motor/all-wheel-drive formats.

The Lyriq RWD produces 255kW and 440Nm, and has a maximum driving range of 505km. The AWD model increases power and torque to 373kW and 610Nm, while range drops only marginally to 494km.

Cadillac says DC rapid charging of up to 190kW allows for 124km of range to be added in just 10 minutes.

With battery technology continuing to advance at a fairly rapid pace, and the Lyriq yet to be homologated for Australia, expect the above figures to vary by the time it reaches Australia in about a year’s time as a ‘2025 model-year’ (a 2024 model in our market language).

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If Australia mirrored the Lyriq range in North America, there would be a Tech entry model, mid-spec Luxury, and the flagship Sport.

Cadillac brought the full-fruit Sport model to Australia for the mid-November media announcement, flying it in especially all the way from its Tennessee factory via Hawaii.

Pricing for the Lyriq is a long way away from being confirmed, though US prices virtually guarantee six figures. Its dimensions also put it on a collision course with Audi’s Q8 e-Tron, BMW’s iX, and Mercedes-Benz’s EQE, as well as Tesla’s Model X (presuming it returns to Australia).

Germany’s large electric SUVs range between $131,000 and $146,000 in starting prices; Tesla’s Model X started from about $140-150K before local orders were stopped when the company ceased production of right-hand-drive versions.

GM ANZ is not yet confirming which other Cadillac models will join the Lyriq here “not long after”, though local trademarking suggests we don’t need any budding Sherlocks.

GM has registered both the Escalade IQ and Optiq names in Australia – the former a freshly unveiled, fully electric version of the brand’s halo-model full-size SUV; the latter another electric SUV that’s slightly smaller than the Lyriq. Check the page opposite for more details on these models.

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Bala also dropped some heavy hints at the potential for more affordable Cadillacs than the Lyriq.

“I think there can be a [pricing] span depending on different size of vehicles and what the entries are,” she said. “[The Lyriq is] our mid-size – [if] on the bigger side, especially for here – but knowing that there’ll be more opportunities for different vehicles to come should be able to give us some leverage from a [price] bandwidth standpoint, too.”

While GMSV products will continue to be sold through dealerships, Cadillac will follow the Tesla (and Genesis) ‘direct to consumer’ formula. The Lyriq and subsequent models will be sold online or via Cadillac Experience Centre stores, which initially will be set up in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

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Cadillac CT4 Blackwing

Cadillac’s EV-only focus means bad news for any Australians planning to order either of the CT4 and CT5 mid-size and large sedans, especially the appealing ‘Blackwing’ high-performance variants.

The CT4-V Blackwing produces 352kW from a twin-turbo V6 and has a claimed 0-60mph (0-97km/h) time of 3.9 seconds, while the CT5-V Blackwing is an HSV throwback with its supercharged 6.2-litre pushrod V8 and 498kW power output.

Cadillac’s history is rife with famous sedans – as well as coupes and convertibles – but the CT4 and CT5 are expected to be phased out by 2026. Performance fans will be placated by the development of a more focused Lyriq V model, slated to develop 410kW.

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2025 Cadillac Celestiq

When asked by Wheels, GM wouldn’t confirm whether a four-door body style had a place in its future line-up beyond the Celestiq outlier.

US industry journal Automotive News reports that an electric sedan is possible for around 2027, otherwise Caddy’s future range looks set to be dominated by SUVs and crossovers.

The Lyriq, at least, impresses in the metal. With its Rangie Velar-like profile, short overhangs, and a glass-to-metal ratio heavily skewed towards sheetmetal, the electric Caddy SUV is strikingly designed and delivers a commanding presence.

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Cadillac name-checks the German luxury-brand triumvirate – Audi, BMW, and Mercedes – as natural targets

Our studio model’s black exterior paint added a suitably sinister element for a brand that’s had its fair share of appearances in mobster films and series, including The Sopranos and Goodfellas. But bolder colours are available, such as Emerald Lake green, Opulent Blue, or Radiant Red.

Cadillac name-checks the German luxury-brand triumvirate – Audi, BMW, and Mercedes – as natural targets, as it talks about competing in the “tier one luxury” realm. It also admires compatriot Tesla that has “dominated the EV space”.

Many challenger luxury brands have struggled outside of the US, but Cadillac’s global boss, John Roth, told Wheels the brand is confident it can stand out in the luxury-car space.

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2025 Cadillac Celestiq interior

“Cadillac has always been a leader in innovation for the consumers and there’s an opportunity on a global stage to bring that Cadillac luxury brand [experience]. Only Cadillac can do American modern luxury in the marketplace,” said Roth.

“When you go back in time, Cadillac in 1910 had the first fully enclosed vehicle with the H model. You look at 1912 and we had the first electric starter … in 1928, the first curved shatterproof windshield… All those ideas start to apply to our thinking [today] of what a luxury customer really looks for in a vehicle.

“Beyond the luxury touchpoints that need to exist in the vehicle, [today] you get into the software enablement that’s inside the vehicle. And on a US basis, there are elements like Super Cruise [autonomous driving], heads up display, 33-inch screen, and all the technology that a [luxury] consumer would ask for in a vehicle like this – because that’s what Cadillac stands for.

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Local boss Bala believes factory right-hand-drive Cadillacs will also be a significant factor for Australian luxury-car buyers

“There’s just a great opportunity with a [vehicle] like Lyriq and with an overarching brand like Cadillac for us to really step into the Australian and New Zealand market and have that same kind of momentum and growth that we’re seeing in other parts of the world.”

Roth said Cadillac was achieving strong year-on-year growth in the US, as well as countries including China and Canada.

Local boss Bala believes factory right-hand-drive Cadillacs will also be a significant factor for Australian luxury-car buyers, contrasting with the imported GMSV models that are converted here from left-hand drive.

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Cadillac CT5 Blackwing

The flexible, modular Ultium platform also creates the potential for more GM brands to follow Cadillac here as separate entities, though it remains to be seen whether GM will be ready to play again in the high-volume segments it once occupied outside of the US with the likes of Opel, Vauxhall and, of course, Holden.

The chances of a dedicated Chevrolet brand with models such as the Blazer EV that’s a twin to the Lyriq, as well as the smaller Bolt EV, are played down for now.

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Cadillac CT5 Blackwing

“I’d say that consistently over in Michigan, the [GM] team’s always looking at opportunities, what’s possible, and what makes the most sense for the company as well,” said Bala.

“Obviously the Ultium platform is going to allow us to be a lot more flexible when it comes to those sorts of [decisions], but as of right now [a separate Chevrolet brand] is not something we’re planning on doing. But we are constantly looking at different opportunities, especially for the GMSV line-up.”

The confirmed re-introduction of America’s most famous luxury car brand, however, can be seen as a statement that General Motors, just three years after the painful closure of Holden, is ready to get serious about Australasia again.