GM to begin production next week brand’s first EV

DETROIT – General Motors is gearing up to deliver Cadillac’s first electric vehicle to drivers, announcing Tuesday that it will begin production next week on customer units of its EV crossover, called the Lyriq.

Production of the vehicle will start as planned, despite the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips that’s been causing sporadic plant shutdowns, according to Rory Harvey, vice president of Cadillac.

“Lyriq has been protected as we worked our way through it,” Harvey told reporters Tuesday.

The Lyriq, starting at $59,990, is the first of a new lineup of electric cars and SUVs for the brand as it plans to exclusively make all-electric vehicles by 2030. The on-time start to production, despite significant challenges, signals the importance of the vehicle to the brand.

Harvey said after production starts on Monday at a plant in Tennessee, Lyriqs are expected to begin arriving on dealer lots by May.

Cadillac unveiled the vehicle in August 2020 as one of its first vehicles to launch with GM’s next-generation Ultium electric vehicle architecture. The company has called the vehicle its new “technology spearhead” to take on Tesla and other legacy automakers that are releasing EVs.

Harvey said the company has seen “massive” interest in the Lyriq, citing more than 220,000 “hand raisers,” or people who have asked for additional information on the vehicle. He declined to comment on how many reservations the company has received for the vehicle.

“With the level of demand that we think that we’ve got for the Lyriq, we’re looking to increase capacity fairly significantly from where the previous plan of record was,” Harvey said.