Has Cadillac been worth the wait? We drive its first Aussie model

The Australian luxury car market is dominated by two brands – BMW and Mercedes-Benz. They have brand recognition, heritage and reputation as well as an expansive and diverse line-up of vehicles. Over the years many brands have tried to compete with them, but most have failed.

Cadillac wants to change that.

While it has no official history in Australia, it has brand recognition, heritage and reputation, and it plans to offer a range of vehicles in the not-too-distant future. So does it have a serious shot at breaking through the establishment? We drove its first Australian model, the Lyriq, to find out.

One thing to understand from the beginning is that success for Cadillac isn’t out-selling BMW, Benz or even Audi, Lexus or Volvo. Cadillac, which falls under the General Motors Australia umbrella, is focused on a slow and steady build up, with the Lyriq set to be joined in the near-future by the Lyriq V-Series performance variant and then the smaller Optiq and larger Vistiq SUVs. Cadillac won’t even report its sales figures in 2025 as it knows they will be low and don’t want to distract from the long-term goals.

Instead, success for Cadillac will be luring one new customer at a time to experience its take on modern American luxury. And the first impressions are good, the Lyriq is a large, five-seat SUV, featuring Cadillac’s latest design language that gives it a fresh and unique look in the luxury market. It’s a distinctive vehicle that really stands out and looks premium even when standing still, especially with the large Cadillac shield-style grille.

Inside it looks premium, with the now-standard luxury combination of technology with large digital screens and high-quality materials. Notably, unlike the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Yukon that are built in left-hand drive and converted to right-hand drive in Australia, all Cadillacs bound for Australia will come out of the factory with the steering wheel on the right side.

So from a brand and design perspective, Cadillac has certainly ticked some key boxes in its attempt to make its mark on the Australian luxury market… but now we come to the big catch – the Lyriq is electric.

Timing is everything in the car industry and Cadillac has chosen a difficult time to join the market. Electric vehicle sales have cooled right off and the Lyriq’s most obvious rivals are all very modest sales performers. Audi has sold just 23 examples of the Q8-etron in the first four months of 2025, BMW hasn’t done much better with just 108 iX sales, while Mercedes has managed a respectable 377 sales of the EQE. Those are all sales declines, as it seems the initial surge towards EVs has slowed down despite the increased availability and diversity.

Cadillac has said it is committed to this electric path in Australia, with a clear long-term vision rather than any specific short-term hopes. Which is both good and bad, because there’s actually a lot to like about the Lyriq, including its electric powertrain, but sadly that will almost-certainly rule it out for so many potential luxury buyers.

For starters, it’s quite competitively priced, with the Lyriq Luxury starting at $122,000 and the Lyriq Sport from $124,000 (all prices exclude on-road costs). That may sound like a high starting price, but when you compare it to its competition, it looks appealing. The Mercedes-Benz EQE range is priced from $134,900, the BMW iX line-up starts at $136,900 and the Audi Q8 e-tron begins at $153,984. Even the much-older Jaguar I-Pace is still priced from $144,125, while the closest Lexus rival is the RX450+ plug-in hybrid that starts from $123,500.

For the asking price you get all the goodies you should expect on a luxury car, including 21-inch alloy wheels, adaptive headlights, tri-zone climate control, a curved 33-inch display, a AKG Studio 19-speaker sound system and a glass roof with power sunshade.

Underneath GM’s ‘Ultium’ electric powertrain motivates the Lyriq, with its dual electric motors making 388kW of power and 610Nm of torque, to provide it with effortless performance – which is another luxury standard. It’s by no means sports car-like performance because the Lyriq weighs 2774kg, but it doesn’t struggle to build speed and you should expect that in a luxury vehicle.

The range from the battery pack is a claimed 530km, and based on our experience that seems reasonably achievable under the right circumstances, although somewhere in the high 400km region is a more likely consistent real-world figure.

The driving experience is good too, with the electric motors providing quiet and relaxed performance and the chassis feeling taut but comfortable, without feeling overly sporty. It’s certainly on-par with its more established competition.

It’s not perfect, by any stretch, despite being factory right-hand drive, we noticed some uneven shut-lines where the doors meet the dashboard, which is disappointing on a car costing more than $100k. Hopefully it was something that was unique to our test car, so it’s not a deal-breaker.

Still, Cadillac will face tough challenges in what is both a very tough luxury market and a difficult EV market. GM will need to be patient and let the brand grow slowly and steadily, but based on our initial drive of the Lyriq there’s a lot to like. Most importantly, Cadillac adds a new dimension to the luxury market and more choice and diversity can only be a good thing for luxury car buyers.