Cadillac EV SUV Revealed, Will Take On Tesla Model X In Luxury Car Market

General Motors on Thursday unveiled its first luxury electric vehicle (EV) -- the Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover -- designed to challenge Europe's storied car makers in the global luxury EV market.

The Cadillac Lyriq will first go on sale in China in 2021 with a U.S. release scheduled for either 2022 or 2023. No word yet on when this machine reaches European shores.

Lyriq is of absolute importance to the Cadillac brand, which has long been associated with luxury and high-quality. GM and its Cadillac division are committed to maintaining that reputation in the new era of electri vehicles.

“The Lyriq sets the benchmark for future Cadillacs,” said Michael Simcoe, GM’s vice president of global design, during the unveiling.

Europe's current leaders in the luxury EV market are the Audi e-tron fully-electric mid-size luxury crossover SUV first delivered in May 2019, and the Jaguar I-Pace electric crossover SUV that hit the market in June 2018. Mercedes Benz is off to a slow start with its EQS EV still under development.

And, by the way, there's also Tesla with its Model Y mid-size all-electric luxury SUV and the Model X five-door luxury electric sedan.

Cadillac counters with the Lyriq, which reinforces the brand's reputation with a “black crystal” grill, a jewelry box-styled drawer on the dash and a 33-inch vertical LED touchscreen that can display up to 1 billion colors, among many other fine touches.

“It's no secret they want to elevate their brand; they want to compete with the European luxury automakers, and it seems like they've tried various avenues like performance,” noted Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds.com.

“So I wonder if this is one of those ways that they want to differentiate themselves, but it's not necessarily going to materialize into anything that is long-lasting.”

One of those differentiators is the Lyriq's luxurious lighting system. Stylish LEDs sit on its vertical headlights, on the grill, and on the logo, which is animated on startup.

Lyriq's face will light-up as its owner approaches. The interior lighting is equally impressive. Lights encrust the logo on the steering wheel. The wood veneer over aluminum door panels are all backlit.

Dominating the interior is the curved, 33-inch combination digital driver display and infotainment center using advanced OLED technology. The display has the “highest pixel density available in the automotive industry today.”

Cadillac says it can reproduce over one billion colors, or 64 times more than the display on any other vehicle. Lyriq offers the same infotainment system as the 2021 Escalade.

Other tech specs for this elegant EV include:

* Over 300 miles of travel on a single charge.

* A new generation Super Cruise advanced driver assistance system that permits limited hands-off steering-while highway driving. It also changes lanes automatically and might be capable of supervised remote parking.

* Two drivetrain configurations: rear-wheel drive and performance all-wheel drive.

* 150 kilowatt DC fast charging with a Level 2 charging rate of up to 19 kW.

* Over-the-air updates.