The Cadillac Lyriq and the Celstiq will be the first two EV models in Cadillac’s EV revolution, but while we have seen our fair share of Lyriqs cruise around Metro Detroit (as well as a recent report that attempted to put a date on the start of production) the Celstiq has remained an elusive ghost and Cadillac didn’t reveal the exact start date of production for the Lyriq. The luxury brand changed that narrative slightly today confirming that not only will the Lyriq start production next week, but that the Celestiq ultra-luxury flagship is on track for its launch next year.
Lyriq and Celstiq, A Potent Duo
Before we take a dive into some of the technology news that was unveiled in Cadillac’s briefing, it seems only fair to start things off with the Lyriq and the Celestiq. The pair will introduce EV motoring to Cadilac but will go about it in very different ways. The Celestiq is the ultra-luxury flagship and will serve as a rolling showpiece of Cadillac’s future. As mentioned, the Celestiq has been an elusive specter, and other than some teaser images, the car has not been sighted in the public eye. The super sedan is slated to introduce Ultra Cruise which is an evolution of the standard Super Cruise system. A key difference is that Ultra Cruise is designed to work both on city roads and freeways versus the freeway-only operation for Super Cruise.
Meanwhile, the Lyriq is slated to begin production next week with Cadillac using a variant of GM’s existing reservation system to put interested buyers into the actual order book in an attempt to eliminate the long wait times seen with other reservation style ordering systems. Buyers can choose from either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive and interest among consumers has surpassed Cadillac’s goal of 200,000 units with the brand revealing that 33,000 extra buyers have shown interest in owning it. However, that number is subject to shrink when you convert interested people into actual buyers, with a Cadillac exec claiming that 10 percent of early adopters enter the buying phase. Despite that, look for the Lyriq to still have over 20,000 orders which would be a noticeable increase over the numbers seen in other ICE-equipped Cadillac models.
Super Cruise To Go Over The Air:
With Ultra Cruise commanding plenty of attention, Cadillac made sure to not leave the latest version of Super Cruise out of the race either and revealed that it will now be available as an Over The Air (OTA) update for existing Super Cruise equipped models. The major catch is that these models are limited to 2021 CT4, CT5, and Escalade models with XT6, XT4, and XT5 all being left out this time around. These models will receive the all-new automated lane change programming, but the Escalade will be the only one that receives the towing portion of the OTA.
Buyers looking to perhaps add Ultra Cruise to their Cadillac via this method are out of luck with Cadillac revealing that Ultra Cruise not only needs the software, but also exclusive hardware that makes it incompatible with the OTA to begin with. We suspect Ultra Cruise will eventually expand to more models including other Cadillac EVs as well as the next-generation Escalade.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.