2025 Cadillac Lyriq Sport review

After decades of false starts, pulled plugs and what-might’ve-beens, Cadillac is back in Australian showrooms.

We say back in showrooms, because it has had a presence here before. There’s evidence of right-hand-drive Cadillacs being built here in kit form in the 1920s and 1930s, and suggestions that a number of two-door Eldorados were imported through Holden dealers in the 1960s.

But the Cadillacs officially offered in Australia in 2025 are a world away from the most iconic cars of the company’s history.

Gone are the massive coupes dazzled in chrome and fins, and replaced by a growing range of prestige electric SUVs aimed at the luxury-car establishment led by Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

First to arrive is the Lyriq, a five-metre-long, five-seat all-wheel-drive SUV similar in size to a petrol BMW X5 – or the electric BMW iX.

It is the first General Motors five-seat passenger vehicle factory-built in right-hand drive for Australia since the demise of Holden five years ago.

Cadillacs are sold in Australia online or through a network of boutique showrooms – of which, for now, there is only one store (Sydney) and one test-drive-only centre (Melbourne); customers elsewhere can have their car delivered to them at fixed prices.

Has America’s take on a luxury car been worth the wait, or did it waste its time making the trip? We’ve had our first formal taste of the car on Australian roads to find out.

Two variants of the Cadillac Lyriq are offered in Australia: the $122,000 plus on-road costs Luxury, and $124,000 plus on-road costs Sport (both up $5000 in recent months).

The model grades are differentiated by trim only – the Luxury’s chrome is blacked out on the Sport – and are otherwise aligned on features, size, and their combination of dual electric motors and a 102kWh battery pack.

On test in this review is the Sport, optioned with Stellar Black Metallic paint for $1250, and the nappa leather package for $3000 with nappa leather seats and armrests, a soft-touch upper instrument panel, and Dark Ash illuminated décor.

That nappa leather interior is offered in Oxford Stone beige and Juniper dark green colours; the regular upholstery is synthetic ‘Inteluxe’ material in Noir black or light-coloured Sky Cool Grey.

As optioned, the price of the Lyriq we tested comes to $128,250 plus on-road costs, or $136,665 drive-away if picking up from the Sydney showroom. Buyers elsewhere may need to pay more – on top of region-specific on-road costs – due to the $1400 delivery fee.

Cadillac is currently offering MY25 Lyriqs with a hefty discount of nearly $16,000 – equivalent to Luxury Car Tax and all on-road costs – cutting the drive-away price of this vehicle to $120,724 in NSW, but it's a limited-time offer that expires on September 30 (unless extended).

There is only one Cadillac showroom for now, in inner Sydney, but another is coming in Brisbane, while Melburnians can test-drive or take delivery from a pop-up location at GM’s Australian head office in Port Melbourne.

The Lyriq undercuts similarly sized competition from established brands: the Audi Q8 e-tron 50 (if you can find one left in dealers) is $140,090, the BMW iX xDrive 45 is $142,900, and the all-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz EQE350 SUV is $146,700, all before on-road costs.

However, it’s hardly a bargain. An Audi Q6 e-tron quattro ($122,500) is slightly smaller on the outside, but comparable inside and has a longer range, while a Lyriq-sized Polestar 3 Dual Motor starts from $131,054 before options, and a Volvo EX90 starts from $124,990.

Even a Porsche Macan 4 all-wheel drive – again, slightly smaller and before options, but it wears that badge on the grille – starts from $134,400 plus on-roads, and it’s twice the price of a similar-sized mainstream electric car like a Tesla Model Y.

Standard features in the Lyriq include 21-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, a 33-inch dashboard screen integrating infotainment and instruments, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 19-speaker AKG sound system, heated and ventilated front seats, a glass sunroof, tri-zone climate control, and more.

The Sport adds dark exterior trim, a unique front grille insert, and black chrome front and rear highlights.

However, there are some features missing. There is no lane-centring assist, head-up display or adaptive suspension – air springs or otherwise – while satellite navigation and phone-app connected services are not due until later this year.

Buyers are offered one year of free access to the Chargefox public charging network, and can choose between either an extension to three years’ free, or the supply and installation of a 7.4kW Jet Charge home wallbox.

Big, that’s for sure. Measuring 5005mm long, 2209mm wide (with mirrors extended) and 1620mm tall, on a long 3095mm wheelbase, the Lyriq has plenty of road presence, and is in the same realm dimensionally as its BMW iX, Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and Polestar 3 rivals.

There are only five seats, so buyers who need a third row will need to wait for next year’s even-larger Cadillac Vistiq SUV.

The Lyriq makes a strong first impression after stepping into the cabin, as the instrument cluster, infotainment screen and a small panel of further controls are combined into one curved 33-inch display ahead of the driver that looks fantastic.

It’s well presented, with metal-look finishes on the switchgear, wide nappa leather seats, and speaker grilles for the AKG stereo running up the doors.

Start to touch things, however, and the prestige feel falls apart.

The materials Cadillac has used in most places feel nice, with soft-touch surfaces on the doors, armrest and dashboard, and the centre console unit doesn’t wobble around if you shake it.

But even the materials aren’t any more lavish than what BYD fits to $50,000 cars, the climate control buttons that look like metal feel (and wobble) like the plastic they are – as with other metal-look, but actually-plastic finishes including the cupholder trim and infotainment garnish – and the pop-out tray under the central air vents doesn’t feel very solid.

Quality issues with this test car include the trim panels on the forward edge of the centre console, which were loose, and could be flexed so much I initially thought it was a storage compartment that could be opened.

Despite only about 500km on the odometer of this test car upon collection, we heard creaks from the right side of the dashboard, and left side of the sunroof frame, while there was an intermittent crackle from the sound system that was so annoying I stopped listening to music in the car for a few hours (and different drives) until it went away.

There’s some attention to detail lacking in the switch to right-hand drive. Cadillac hasn’t swapped the grab handle on the windscreen pillar to the left side – so it remains on the right side where the passenger would be in a left-hand-drive car – while the brake pedal is hinged from a 45-degree bar stretching across the left of the footwell, meaning it can be pressed by your left foot on the footrest.

The Lyriq is not a box-fresh car globally – it went on sale in the US three years ago. It’s a shame these quality issues haven’t already been sorted, and even if they were, rivals – from Audi to Genesis – nail the feel of a luxury-car cabin, not just the look.

There’s appeal to the rest of the cabin. The front seats have eight ways of adjustment for the driver, six for the passenger, as well as heating, ventilation and massaging functions, controlled on the doors like a Mercedes-Benz – but the seats themselves are quite flat, lack side support, and the nappa leather Cadillac has used doesn’t feel as supple as rivals’ versions.

The driving position is good, though, with ample space for taller occupants, and power-operated height/reach adjustment in the steering column.

The steering wheel is trimmed in a supple-feeling leather, and once you’ve gotten used to the huge spokes – with touch-sensitive controls, which can be fiddly but are far enough away from where your palms rest not to annoy – it’s good to use.

There is no start button. Just sit in the car, place your foot on the brake, and pull the right-hand stalk – forward and up for reverse, and forward and down for drive, rather than just up or down, weirdly – to go.

Physical controls have been kept for key functions, including most climate-control functions – such as air temperature and fan speed – below the screen, and a volume roller dial. Other lesser-used features such as temperature sync are a few taps of the screen away.

Amenities include wireless phone charging – stored in a handy pocket so you’re not tempted to touch your phone while driving – tri-zone climate control, two USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket, multi-colour ambient lighting, keyless entry and start, and a panoramic roof.

There’s plenty of open storage around the centre console to stow items, but other storage areas are modest, not cavernous. The glovebox is an acceptable size, the door pockets are large (with a bottle cutout), but much of the space is out of sight behind the door trim, and the under-armrest centre console storage isn’t huge.

At 186cm (6ft 1in) tall, I have ample knee room behind my driving position – but far from class-leading – and a bit of under-seat toe room, but not a huge amount.

The issue for taller occupants in the rear seats is head room, as I cannot sit up straight without hitting my head on the roof structure. Six-footers will fit if they slouch, but there is no reason an SUV of this size should be as tight in the rear as it is.

Comfort in the seat base is also a mixed bag – the outer seats (which are heated) have some sculpting to them, but the middle position is flat, and the covers for the ISOFIX anchors on the outboard seats can dig into passengers’ bottoms.

The floor is flat, at least, and amenities are well catered for, with air vents, a climate-control panel for the rear zone, a fold-down armrest with cupholders, two USB-C ports, bottle holders in the doors, two map pockets, and three top-tether child-seat anchors.

Boot space is quoted at 793 litres, which would give the Lyriq one of the largest load areas in the class, but we suspect that has been measured to the roof, not the cargo cover as with rivals.

There is enough space for suitcases and large items – with more available if you drop the rear seats, which can be done from the boot – and the kick sensor on the power tailgate works reliably, if you don’t want to press the normal release (the Cadillac badge).

Amenities in the boot include a 12-volt socket, modest under-floor storage for charging cables – needed, as there’s no under-bonnet space – and a retractable cargo cover, plus pockets on the side, but as with most EVs, there is a repair kit in place of a spare wheel.

The centrepiece of the Lyriq’s cabin is a 33-inch screen that incorporates the infotainment suite, instrument cluster, and additional controls to the driver’s right side.

It looks stunning, and the infotainment portion – controlled through touch, or a rotary dial on the centre console – exhibits quick load times and sharp graphics, though this is the same software you’ll find in a Chevrolet Silverado pick-up, rather than a Cadillac exclusive.

Alongside physical controls below the screen, there is a row of customisable shortcuts along the bottom of the screen for commonly used apps, as well as functions such as the one-pedal drive mode and the glovebox release – the latter only operated through the display.

There are a lot of menus to learn, though, and the layout of them can be confusing. For example, there are three settings menus – Controls, Settings, and Vehicle Status – each with different functions within them, but no way other than trial and error to figure out what is where.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are on offer – the former working flawlessly on test, though the shape of the screen means it doesn’t fill the whole display, and sits awkwardly as a small-ish window in the middle – as well as AM, FM and DAB radio.

But there are a number of omissions: over-the-air updates, embedded satellite navigation, a voice assistant, and connected services linked to a phone app. The last three are due later this year for new and existing vehicles, but the phone-app support will not be as comprehensive as rivals’ systems.

The instrument cluster is crisp, easy to read, and can be swapped between different views – from a power gauge to a ‘clean’ view with the speed only – but it’s not as customisable as rivals, particularly in showing a map (as there’s no navigation yet).

On the right side of the screen are controls for the headlights, instrument cluster view, and the trip computer. It’s a bit fiddly to use at first, but after setting the headlights to automatic and configuring the gauges to your taste, few drivers will touch it again.

Intermittent crackling aside, the 19-speaker AKG sound system in the Lyriq is excellent, and is aided by speakers in the headrests. If we’re nitpicking, we’d love a bit more bass, but we wouldn’t say it’s lacking in this area.

The Cadillac Lyriq is yet to be crash-tested by ANCAP, nor has its European counterpart Euro NCAP assessed it or any other left-hand-drive Cadillac model ever sold in the region.

The Cadillac Lyriq covers the basics in terms of safety technology, from autonomous emergency braking and lane-keep assist to a driver attention monitoring system, as with many new cars.

However, two key features are missing: lane-centring assist and traffic sign recognition.

These features are standard on a $30,000 Kia – as well as the Lyriq’s rivals from BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz – but they are absent here.

Time will tell if speed-sign technology comes with the addition of navigation later this year – allowing the car to pull the speed limit from the map – but lane centring may take a while, as Cadillac may not offer a system outside of its Super Cruise technology in the US.

Super Cruise allows the car to pilot itself on thousands of kilometres of mapped motorways in the US with the driver’s hands off the steering wheel – but eyes still on the road. It is yet to be made available in Australia.

The autonomous emergency braking system worked well on test, as did the adaptive cruise control. The lane-keeping assist tech can be pushy at times, but it was not annoying enough to make us turn it off.

It is the driver attention monitor, however, that proved frustrating to live with. The system will go off on even a quick glance away from the road – or, sometimes, when the driver is looking ahead but perhaps not dead-straight ahead.

Whereas other systems can detect when the driver puts on sunglasses (even non-polarised ones) and disable automatically, the Cadillac does not, and the tech will activate every 10 to 20 seconds, no matter where you look. It is genuinely unusable with sunglasses on, and we turned it off on every drive.

One quirk with the Cadillac is how, by default, it delivers its safety alerts: by vibrating the driver’s seat base. It’s something former Holden owners may be familiar with, and it’s fine if the warnings are occasional, but after a few activations of the driver monitor, it becomes an unplanned massage.

Owners can switch the vibrations to audible alerts, which is something we did after 15 minutes behind the wheel.

There are plenty of cameras and sensors to assist with parking such a large vehicle, and the quality of them is good.

The Cadillac Lyriq is covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre vehicle warranty, plus eight years or 160,000km of coverage on the high-voltage battery pack, whichever comes first, and five years of roadside assistance.

The first five years of servicing are currently being offered for free, set at 12-month or 12,000km intervals – shorter than the petrol-car industry average of 12 months/15,000km, and the two-year gaps of many electric cars.

Cadillac is yet to announce servicing locations for its vehicles in Australia, but multiple locations are planned across the country and focused on major cities.

Five years of servicing is also free with a Polestar 3, while BMW charges $3475 for six years of prepaid servicing on the iX.

Our go-to insurance calculator – a leading provider – lists a year of comprehensive coverage at a steep $4483, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

It compares to $3649 for a BMW iX xDrive45, and as a point of comparison, $3468 for a diesel BMW X5 xDrive30.

Cadillac claims 530km of driving range in European WLTP lab testing – competitive with key rivals – thanks to a large 102kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery pack.

Energy consumption (on a slightly different WLTP-rated procedure) is claimed at 22.5kWh per 100 kilometres. Over 750km of testing – across city, highway and country-road conditions – we returned 24.4kWh/100km, which is high by electric-car standards, but not outrageous given it weighs as much as two Toyota Corollas.

The Lyriq only displays energy consumption in kilometres per kilowatt-hour in its metric mode, rather than the industry standard of kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometres. The car can display energy use in miles-per-kilowatt-hour, but that’s even less useful.

While we’re talking about annoyances with the trip computer, there is no battery state-of-charge percentage visible while driving.

There is a bar gauge to show you how much energy is left, but it’s hard to read precisely – and you can’t see the exact percentage until the car is stopped and turned off. It’s a frustrating omission that is very easy for Cadillac to address.

In the car’s terms, we returned 4.1km/kWh (24.4kWh/100km) over our time with it, derived from about 3.3km/kWh (30kWh/100km) in performance driving, and 4.3–4.5km/kWh around town (22.2–23.2kWh/100km).

In optimal conditions – a downhill drive at 60km/h to 80km/h speeds – we got consumption as astoundingly low as 7.5km/kWh (13.3kWh/100km), but that’s the exception, not the rule.

Translation: expect a real-world driving range of 400km to 450km from the Lyriq, depending on where and how you drive it.

Over our 110km/h, circa-250km highway range-test loop, we returned 4.2km/kWh (23.8kWh/100km). It consumed 3.5km/kWh (28kWh/100km) on the partially uphill direction of the drive, before recuperating plenty of energy on the way back.

On a comparable test loop, we’ve seen 19.1kWh/100km from an Audi SQ6 e-tron, and 14.5kWh/100km from a Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD – both smaller and lighter vehicles, so the Lyriq’s result is acceptable, and equates to a highway range of about 430km.

DC fast charging performance, on the other hand, was less impressive.

Cadillac doesn’t quote a fast-charging time, just a peak of 190kW, and “up to 200 kilometers of range in 15 minutes of charge time”.

We saw a peak of 188kW on the charger at 30 per cent, but it dropped off to about 150kW, before tanking to sub-100kW from 50 per cent.

Our test took place in moderate-to-heavy rain and a thunderstorm, with other cars on some of the adjacent chargers, so the conditions were far from ideal – but our 10 to 80 per cent as-tested charge time of 41 minutes is one of the slowest we’ve ever tested. Overseas tests suggest a time closer to 30 minutes should be possible.

For context, we’ve tested an Audi SQ6 e-tron from 10 to 80 per cent in less than 25 minutes, at a peak of 276kW, thanks to an 800-volt architecture. Even at its best, the Cadillac is far from class-leading when sucking in energy.

AC charging at up to 22.1kW is available, claimed to enable up to 94km of lab-tested range to be added per hour, or an estimated empty to full recharge in under five hours.

You may have preconceptions about how a Cadillac drives. A soft, floaty yacht for the road like a 1960s classic? A truck-like ‘king of the road’ like the Escalades in music videos? The Lyriq is neither.

In some ways, that’s a good thing. In others, we feel it misses the modern brief of a luxury car.

The highlight of the Lyriq experience is felt on a smooth, straight road. Dual electric motors combine for 388kW and 610Nm, which are prodigious outputs that translate to a surge of acceleration on demand, albeit tempered by its hefty 2.7-tonne weight.

Fittingly for a Cadillac, it’s not aggressive or in-your-face; the power rolls on smoothly and in a measured manner. It can be inconsistent at times – it can feel modest accelerating from a standstill, but much stronger if you floor it at 50km/h – but it’s generally well calibrated.

We timed the Lyriq from 0–100km/h on our satellite-based timing equipment in 5.5 seconds – brisk for the class, but not as quick as the mid-three-second sprint the upcoming Lyriq-V performance model claims to be capable of.

The Lyriq blends power with the electric motors’ regenerative braking well – as you modulate the accelerator pedal – and there is a broad spread of regen modes (more on that later).

Noise isolation is a highlight, with luxury car-typical suppression of wind noise and tyre roar – aside from some unavoidable rustle on freeways, or road rumble on coarse-chip roads.

It is in corners – and over bumps – where the Lyriq’s polish starts to fall away.

Australian-delivered models sit on a suspension tune shared with European examples, which is firmer than the soft and boat-like ride of US-market Lyriqs, to better suit what buyers coming out of BMWs and Audis would expect.

It feels well controlled over speed humps and more gentle bumps in the road, and at higher speeds, the body feels settled and sure-footed over undulations.

However, it struggles to deal with potholes, expansion joints and sharper bumps in the road, especially at lower speeds. Imperfections that an Audi Q6 e-tron on air suspension would glide over instead bobble the Cadillac around, and emphasise its immense weight.

That’s because, in part, the Lyriq sits on traditional coil springs – not air suspension – without any adaptive functionality for the driver to adjust the firmness of its dampers. That would allow drivers to soften the ride in the daily grind, and stiffen it for sporty driving.

It does have frequency-selective damper technology – which allows the suspension to react differently based on the size of the bump it’s just hit – but it doesn’t make for the supple and finessed ride we’d expect of a luxury car.

Another weakness of the Lyriq is its steering. It’s reasonably linear in its response, but quite slow – with well over three turns lock to lock – so drivers will find themselves going hand-over-hand more often than they’d expect, and it makes the car more cumbersome to pilot around tight city streets. The ute-like turning circle doesn’t help, either.

The steering is well weighted in Tour mode, at least, but it’s a touch too heavy for some tastes in Sport, and the wheel’s spokes – and diameter – are large, which takes some getting used to.

Cadillac’s image isn’t associated with fun-to-drive cars like that of BMW, so on a winding road the Lyriq is safe and secure to steer, rather than outright enjoyable.

Good grip from the Continental tyres and well-managed body roll make for a predictable feel when driven quickly, but the tyres are not performance rubber, the slow steering makes the driver work hard on twisty roads, and the front seats lack side support.

Most buyers won’t be too bothered, but rival vehicles – the Audi Q6 e-tron in particular – manage to be more comfortable over bumps around town, yet more fun to drive in the country.

The brake pedal is reasonably well weighted, but there is a range of regenerative braking modes that mean drivers won’t need to use it much.

Two settings of one-pedal driving (which bring the car to a full stop without touching the brake pedal) are available, but both are very strong, even by electric-car standards.

We spent most of our time in the Lyriq with these modes switched off, instead sticking to the more natural standard setting – combined with the ‘Regen on Demand’ paddle behind the steering wheel, which does as it suggests: dials up the regen braking the more you pull on the paddle. It’s weird at first, but it gets easier to modulate the more time you spend behind the wheel.

Emergency braking performance is excellent for a car of this size and weight, pulling up from 100km/h in 37.5 metres on our satellite-based timing equipment.

The Lyriq is rated to tow up to 1588kg braked and 750kg unbraked.

Cadillac quotes a payload – the maximum mass of people, cargo, and accessories the car is legally allowed to carry – of 513kg, enough for five 100kg passengers and some luggage.

As brands such as Polestar and Genesis can attest, convincing Australians en masse to open their wallets for a six-figure luxury car from a new-to-market brand is a slog.

It has taken Lexus 30 years to do it, a process that started by having a great product – a best, or near-best-in-class, car that can go toe-to-toe with the established Germans buyers will be cross-shopping.

But the Lyriq is not that.

There’s plenty of appeal to Australia’s first modern-era Cadillac. It’s cheaper than its key rivals, looks imposing on the outside, offers big screens inside, and delivers on its driving range claim.

However, for a brand with a mountain to climb, the rough edges on the Lyriq experience suggest it may run out of power halfway up.

It lacks the supple ride of a luxury car, nor handles with the agility of one, the cabin isn’t as roomy as it ought to be, it’s missing features fitted to cars $100,000 cheaper, the safety aids are overzealous, and it takes a lot of electricity to extract the range it does.

Even if it nailed all of those things, the build quality is not up to scratch for a car that has been in US showrooms for three years, over which time this should’ve been ironed out.

And there are the concerns that come with taking a $130,000 punt on a new-to-market brand – chief among them how much the car will be worth in five years’ time, assuming the badge on the grille is around.

There aren’t many places to touch, feel and drive what you’re about to spend that much money on, either.

Cadillac’s presence in pop culture may give it a head-start in building familiarity with Australian buyers, but it will take more than a few music videos – and a slightly sharper price than rivals – to steal meaningful sales from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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