Cadillac Lyriq order books open in May, Celestiq coming next year

During a briefing with the media, Cadillac executives provided a rough outline of the business and near-term product plans. The most interesting tidbits revolved around the brand's electric cars, the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq and the later Celestiq, and its advanced driver assist systems, Super Cruise and the upcoming Ultra Cruise.

We'll start with the Lyriq and Celestiq. The Lyriq is finally going into production next week, and it will be available to order on May 19 in both rear- and all-wheel-drive versions. This isn't just a reservation system, it's the actual order book, so there won't be additional waiting to convert one's reservation into an official order. Cadillac is expecting fairly strong interest. The brand was aiming for around 200,000 hand-raisers for Lyriqs (people that said they would be interested in a Lyriq, but didn't pay anything to hold a place for ordering), and they managed around 233,000. The executives said that roughly 10% of hand-raisers end up placing an actual order, so Cadillac may end up with more than 20,000 orders. To put that into perspective, Cadillac's best-seller last year, the Escalade, sold around 40,000 units, the second-place XT5 sold 28,000, and the third-place XT6 sold about 20,000.