Why Paris? There was a bit of shuffling of feet before “It’s the shop” was proffered. Shop? Good grief, is a shop the height of European ambition for one of the world’s oldest car makers? Why not tell us that the Cadillac is in Paris? After all, the car company is named after the 18th-century French explorer and founder of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had adopted his title from the town of Cadillac-sur-Garonne in south-west France.
Cadillac and France are inextricably linked but they’re in Paris to sell cars, battery electric cars in fact, as a spearhead for General Motors’s mooted return to Europe.
Some of us revere Cadillac’s years of pomp, when designer Harley Earl was head of the “art-and-color” division at parent General Motors, where models such as the 1959 Series 62 grew fins like sailfish. In 2024, there are a couple of modern cars in the new Cadillac City Paris showroom/experience centre, located on the fashionable Place de l’Opéra in the City of Lights.
Those fans of Cadillacs of yore should note that neither of these cars was entirely new, both were powered by batteries – and fins were noticeable by their absence.
Wax Lyriqal
First was the Lyriq, a 16ft-long, battery-electric SUV designed by Magalie Debellis, Cadillac’s French-born head of advanced design. Launched in 2023 and ramping up nicely, with this year’s sales so far of 10,000 comfortably exceeding the previous year’s 9,000, it is sold in China and the United States. It will be the second car into Europe, gunning for rivals including the Audi e-tron and BMW iX.
Parked alongside was the Lyriq’s baby sister, the Optiq, a 15ft 9in contender in the premium mid-sized SUV market, aimed at cars such as the Audi Q4 e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC and BMW iX3. It was initially billed as being all new, which is not quite true as it has been on sale in China for the past year – and is also doing well there.
“We’re taking it easy on the European introduction,” says Jaclyn McQuaid, the president and managing director of General Motors Europe. She explains that each national market is different and that will dictate the pace and style of the introduction.
McQuaid used to be chief engineer on GM’s full-size truck programme and she’s as direct and forthright as one of those monster pick-ups backing over a brick outhouse. Her identical twin sister is the executive chief engineer of GM’s truck division. I’m not surprised the company keeps them on either side of the Atlantic.
“Is it a tough market?” she asks rhetorically. “Of course it’s going to be tough to bring in a brand-new vehicle. Our strategy? We ask our customers what they don’t like about their current cars and what they aren’t getting, and we put those things right.”
Over here
Don’t you just love “The General” when it’s on a mission? Then she delivers the coup de grace and tells us that both EVs will be arriving in the UK at the end of the year and that they’ll both be in right-hand drive.
We have been here before, of course. Back in the 1980s, GM president Jack Smith told me that missing the important right-hand-drive markets (such as the UK) “would be crazy”. Since then, various GM head honchos including Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner have expressed similar sentiments, but not much has happened.
General Motors pulled out of Europe seven years ago, leaving only Cadillac and Corvette as vestigial reminders of its once mighty presence with Opel and Vauxhall, plus Saab. Since then, it has had a rethink, creating a European headquarters out of its old marketing organisation in Zurich in 2021 and planning an all-electric return with Cadillac at the forefront, part of an all-electric GM line-up by 2035.
Steering wheel on the right
But after so many false starts for Cadillac, do we seriously believe any of this?
John Cockburn, the chief engineer on the Optiq, seems a trustworthy cove and happily confirms it. “Right-hand drive? Sure, I’m working on it right now; we’re driving the car in England in a couple of months.”
While Cadillac won the Dewar Trophy for the accuracy of its interchangeable and therefore consistently machined parts back in the 1930s, it’s the interchangeability of GM’s Ultium platform which allows the Lyriq and Optiq to be easily converted to right-hand drive. It also allows the platform to be used in a bewildering variety of vehicles, everything from a Silverado pick-up to a GMC Hummer EV.
“When the design and product renaissance started, the decision was made to share the Ultium wiring and platform architecture so that it could be used in left- and right-hand drive markets,” says John Roth, Cadillac’s global vice-president. “The centre screen is shared and the heating and air-conditioning have their own buttons so they’re not a problem.”
“There are a few IP issues moving from left- to right-hand drive,” says McQuaid, “but it’s fairly straightforward.”
Optiq first
The Optiq arrives first in the UK and is likely to create the most interest of the two. It’s 15ft 10in in length, so a bit bigger than the 14ft 9in-long standard family SUV in Europe.
Billed as “a reimagination of what entry to Cadillac luxury can be”, the Optiq is targeted at increasing growth among younger buyers to the marque and “attracting luxury EV intenders”, whoever they might be.
Due to it having a shorter wheelbase than the Lyriq, Cadillac is claiming more wieldy handling and its minimum kerb weight of 2,355kg means an estimated range of 300 miles from the 85kWh (useable) lithium-ion nickel cobalt and manganese battery in the floor.
The 300bhp/354lb ft 4x4 powertrain consists of a front permanent-magnet motor and a rear induction motor. It’s the opposite way round from normal European practice, where the weaker but lighter induction motor sits in the front. This helps with steering balance and allows the vehicle to be predominantly rear-wheel-driven if the induction motor is disengaged. The Optiq will disengage the rear induction unit when cruising and so will become a predominantly front-wheel-drive vehicle.
There will be just two trim levels: Sport and Luxury. The equipment levels are expected to be high for the class.
“We don’t want people to feel they are continually upsold with these vehicles,” says Roth.
No prices yet, but the Lyriq is about €81,000 (£68,900) in Europe depending on spec.
The Optiq has a one-pedal driving facility and a regeneration-on-demand braking, via a steering wheel paddle, which can bring the vehicle to a halt. There’s intelligent cruise control to SAE Level 2 autonomy, where you need to keep your hands on the wheel and look at the road ahead. Drive modes include Sport, Individual and Snow/Ice, but while all four wheels are driven this is principally an on-road vehicle.
The chassis is surprisingly conventional, with coil-sprung MacPherson struts at the front and a five-link independent system at the rear, with 21in wheels. Damping is also passive, although Frequency Selective Damping units should allow a softer ride quality while retaining sharp handling.
“We wanted a fine handling car,” says Cockburn, “and asked the engineers for this sort of chassis.”
Appeal to buyers
As ever, Cadillac ploughs its own furrow and the Optiq seems to come from a planet close by Europe but without visitation rights. It’s comfortable and seems spacious, especially in the back, with a decent-sized boot under the powered tailgate, but in other ways it’s a bit of a throwback with slightly clunky looks and a strange trompe l’oeil-type rear pillar which Dillon Blanski, the lead exterior designer, claims is “Mondrian inspired”.
Even so, there’s a depressing familiarity in a lot of the German machines in this market, so for the urban monied classes who buy these all-hat-and-no-cattle SUVs, Cadillac might just offer enough novelty (and dashboard buttons) to entice them.
As for the shop in Paris, it’s a gimmick, but Cadillac thinks it’ll shift the tin. At heart the sales centres are a sort of contact point for buyers and a design shop window, where perambulators and tourists get up close and personal with the advanced styling ideas coming out of studios around the world.
The favourite site for them is the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, with Jeep the latest marque to join Toyota, Peugeot, Citroën, Renault and others to open glass-fronted, achingly hip space neighbouring the handbag and multinational luxury emporia. Jeep flew in US journalists to the opening of its store two weeks ago, where it showed the late-to-4x4 Avenger and an electric version of the Wagoneer.
UK sales strategy
Whether Cadillac uses this prestige showroom-based, non-dealer sales strategy in the UK remains to be seen. GM has two stalwart suppliers/agents in the UK, PartsUSA in Stockport and Ian Allan Motors of Virginia Water, Surrey, but Cadillac is not saying anything about its plans.
“Let us be clear,” says McQuaid, “EVs are growing in Europe, but while we never expected the growth to be linear, we believe that EVs are the future.
“Companies are too easily distracted by what their rivals are doing, but we will be concentrating on what we are doing. As to how we will sell this new generation in Britain, well, leave me something on the table.”
And that, as they say, means: “Watch this space”…
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