Cadillac is finally heading Down Under with the fully electric Lyriq

But does today’s average Australian even know what Cadillac stands for? Bala says market research shows the brand still has good cut-through. “It’s our job now to educate them as to the incredible cars that the brand has got coming, and why they are the right fit for the Australian customer and the market transformation that we’ve got going on here.”

First cab off the rank will be the Lyriq, an upmarket SUV that is slightly bigger than a BMW X5. It is a clean-sheet EV, built on the Ultium “skateboard”, which gives it a long wheelbase and a roomy interior (despite having the hallmark Cadillac long bonnet).

The Lyriq was launched in the United States last year with a rear-mounted motor developing 254 kW and 440 Nm, giving spritely performance and a claimed range exceeding 500 kilometres. A more powerful, two motor, all-wheel drive version is joining the range for 2024.

Most importantly for us, the Lyriq will be built in right-hand drive, not converted after the fact, as is the case with some Chevrolets sold here. The Cadillac brand sells strongly in the US and China; the Australian launch is part of a concerted drive to increase volumes in other parts of the world.

“It’s hard to be a global tier-one luxury brand without right-hand drive,” John Roth, vice-president of Global Cadillac, tells us. “So these vehicles, from the beginning of Lyriq, were designed to be right-hand drive right down to the component level … if you just look at that 33-inch screen in the vehicle, you’ll notice that the curvature and the design of it allows it to sit on the left or the right-hand side of the vehicle by design.”

Roth says Australia will be the first country to receive the right-hand drive Lyriq. When asked what will make Australians buy Cadillacs, he says: “It comes down to these words, we exist to drive big dreams and bold ambitions. Cadillac … is aspirational but obtainable … a bit of a reward to those individuals who have achieved something.”

Roth says Cadillac is working towards “zero congestion, zero emissions, zero collisions” though he can’t at this stage confirm if Super Cruise, GM’s acclaimed semi-autonomous driving system, will be available on our Lyriq. As for the car being at least a couple of years old when it arrives here, Roth says over-the-air updates mean it’s constantly evolving and improving.

The obvious question is: how committed is GM? It launched German brand Opel here in 2012 and gave up after a year, and there have been previous false starts for its premium US brand.

Just before the global financial crisis, Cadillac signs were erected at Australian dealerships, and brochures printed. Yet after the first batch of 100-or-so right-hand drive cars left Detroit, the sudden change in the economy saw the cars diverted to New Zealand and quietly sold there. Is the launch definitively going to happen this time?

“I never guarantee anything,” Roth says with a laugh, before adding that now they have the right product and the right timing.

With the new badge, a new sales model is planned. All selling will be direct to consumer, either online or through Cadillac Experience Stores, with the first three in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. Potential buyers can lodge expressions of interest at cadillacanz.com/register.

Golden era of the 1940s and ’50s

In a curious twist of history, Cadillac emerged from the ashes of the failed Henry Ford Company. In 1909, Cadillac became part of the General Motors conglomerate, by which time Ford had regrouped with the Ford Motor Company and launched the Model T. Cadillac in a more expensive part of the market, having already forged a reputation for high quality and precision engineering. Components were interchangeable, which was highly unusual in those early hand-built days.

The golden era for Cadillacs was the late 1940s and ’50s, when they were bigger, more powerful and more lavishly equipped than almost anything else on the road. The brand pioneered tailfins (inspired by fighter jets) and they grew each year through the 1950s. With the so-called King Fin Caddie at the end of that decade, the tailfins rose to almost roof level.

Even after tailfins lost favour, Cadillacs often included visual reminders of them in the taillights or rear bodywork. For the new Celestiq, a hand-built, Rolls-Royce-priced EV flagship, the designers have used lighting to bring tailfins to mind.

Although visually distinctive and laden with luxury add-ons, the Cadillacs of the golden era tended to share a lot of their base mechanical parts with cheaper GM vehicles. By European standards, they were crude mechanically. And despite its “The Standard of the World” catchcry, the company has been remarkably insular, selling mainly in the US and more recently in China. Its most popular model in the US is often the Escalade, an upmarket version of a massive body-on-frame Chevrolet SUV with a pushrod, two-valves-per-cylinder V8.

Executives now talk about “The Renaissance”, a remaking of the brand for international audiences based on thoroughly modern EVs such as the Lyriq and Celestiq.

“When we look at Cadillac and the Lyriq, and other entries we will announce at a later stage,” says GM Australia and New Zealand’s Jess Bala, “we believe we’ve got all the right pieces in place to allow Cadillac to be a massive success in Australia and New Zealand. I think [Lyriq] will amaze people in all the right ways.”