On the afternoon of January 15th at 2:00 PM, Cadillac’s official store “Cadillac IQ Space” located in Shanghai Pudong Kerry Center officially opened.
As the headquarters of SAIC-GM, Shanghai currently has 5 stores, and up to now, a total of 7 cities in China have opened “Cadillac IQ” Space. All commercial areas where the Shanghai “Cadillac IQ” Space is located are in popular areas in Shanghai, showing that the Cadillac market team has put a lot of effort into choosing store locations.
The Difference between IQ Space and 4S Store
Not selling fuel cars is the biggest difference. And here, only Cadillac models born on the General Motors “Ultium” platform will be exhibited, that is, LYRIQ, the pure electric SUV that just debuted at the Guangzhou Auto Show and the China International Import Expo. Other Cadillac electric models will also be exhibited in IQ Space in the future.
Concise Cadillac Branded Museum
Rather than being a car dealership, I think this place is more like a brand image store. In addition to the new LYRIQ car, there are also many famous Cadillac model cars displayed in the store.
In addition, at the end of the store, there is a luxurious antique Cadillac car on display, the 1931 Cadillac V16 FLEETWOOD. This is a 7-seat ultra-luxury sedan. Its convertible version was once selected as the military parade car for the United States president and has served three presidents in total.
Except for the one displayed in the store, I have also seen it before at the SAIC-GM museum. Here, I highly recommend that the manufacturer hire a “Cadillac Historical Teacher” for the store. There is simply too much to tell here.
This is the V16 FLEETWOOD displayed in the super luxury car exhibition area on the second floor of the Shanghai Auto Museum. I strongly recommend that everyone go and see it if they have the chance to experience the imagination of the car designers and top-notch manufacturing technology of that period.
Strong Musical Vibe
In order to avoid too many customers looking at cars at the same time and unable to experience, the store also thoughtfully prepared an AKG headphone product experience area. The music selection is also very stylish, you can just select it directly on the big screen.
But that’s not all, in order for users to feel the music up close, they have also set up a small music hall that can accommodate dozens of people.
On that day, the manufacturer also invited four top musicians from the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra to perform live. According to the manufacturer, such activities will be held frequently in the future. If you are a music lover, I recommend that you pay more attention to their store activities.
So LYRIQ’s sound system should be very strong, right?
After receiving electrification, the concept of the third space in the car is gradually being enlarged, and “audio” as an essential entertainment system in the car has become the key project of competition among manufacturers.
LYRIQ’s acoustic system supplier is AKG, one of the world’s four major headphone manufacturers. Students playing HIFI music should know what these three letters represent. Later, after we get the actual car, we will prepare a good recording equipment to show you.
Then how about the protagonist LYRIQ?
Currently, only the rear-wheel drive long-endurance version of LYRIQ is available for selection and cannot be test driven. We can only have a static experience here, so I will talk about it from the perspective of pricing and configuration.
Start with the Configuration
At a price of 439,700 yuan and with a luxury brand positioning, I think this is a relatively reasonable price, which is also our editorial department’s evaluation of LYRIQ. Here are some of the more important configurations of LYRIQ currently:
- Maximum motor power of 255 kW and maximum torque of 440 N·m;
- 95.7 kWh ternary lithium battery;
- 650 km CLTC endurance;
- 0-100 km/h acceleration in 6.5 seconds.- Vehicle dimensions: 5003mm * 1977mm * 1637mm;
- Super Cruise advanced driving assistance system, “we have experienced the previous generation system on the CT6 model”;
- AKG high-fidelity audio system.
Here, let’s compare it with the NIO ES8, which is also positioned as a mid-to-large-sized SUV. The price of a 100 kWh battery pack has reached 520,000 yuan. Even if the BaaS plan is included, it starts at 390,000 yuan, so from this perspective, LYRIQ’s pricing is very worthwhile.
Static experience – Seat
As the concept car cannot be turned on, we can only experience the seating and interior aspects. First of all, let’s talk about the seats that I care most about. I have to say that this is the strength of American cars. All the seats in the entire car are made of Nappa leather, and the softness and hardness are just right. After we get the test drive car that can be put on the road, we will update the actual driving experience.
Static experience – Driving
The LYRIQ cockpit does not use touch screens exclusively. The designer thoughtfully retained physical buttons that are commonly used, but the overall look and feel was not affected. It’s concise and stylish, and the function partition is set very user-friendly, with no learning costs and easy to use.
Especially for the air direction adjustment here, a metal-textured knob that integrates opening/closing and air direction is used, which is simple and convenient. This is very friendly for blind operation while driving.
# LYRIQ’s center screen uses a one-piece screen, but we cannot see the result here as the show car is not powered on. From what I have observed, this is a combined screen for the instrument panel and center screen without any partition. If you are a fan of undivided screens, this one will definitely please you.
How do you view luxury brands entering the electric vehicle market?
Based on the data released by the China Passenger Car Association this year, fuel vehicles still occupy the majority of sales. However, we have seen that new energy models such as Tesla Model Y, Li Auto ONE, and NIO ES6 have the ability to compete with other luxury car brands. This means that as long as the product is good enough, the market will give you a chance. The new energy market in China is large enough, and there are many different models, which is not a problem.
Although LYRIQ comes a bit late, it is still worthy of anticipation. Compared with other new carmakers with less experience, traditional carmakers have a strong supply chain integration ability, and they are particularly skilled in vehicle manufacturing and tuning, which is what new carmakers are lacking.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.