2024 Cadillac LYRIQ Sport AWD Road Trip

I had the pleasure of driving the Cadillac LYRIQ a few times over the past year. The local GM dealership in town had gotten one 2023 model, which came fully loaded (minus AWD) and gave me a little taste of what GM's next-generation electric platform had to offer. I had to wait quite a while before getting the chance to drive the LYRIQ again but I'd say it was well worth it. Timing couldn't have been better, as my booking with this 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ Sport 3 AWD in Radiant Red happened to coincide with the Canada Day long weekend, giving me an extra full day with this mid-size luxury SUV EV, and an opportunity to road trip it.

Before we get into the fun of our trip, let's go over some important information first. The LYRIQ is a luxury-class electric vehicle, with a 102 kWh lithium-ion battery and a dual motor set up, this vehicle is rated for 494 kms of driving, 500 horsepower, and 450 lb-ft of torque. Our vehicle was priced at $97.374.00 CAD with the premium paint, AWD, and the upgraded 19.2 kW on-board charger. The Sport 3 is the most optioned version of the LYRIQ at this time, with features you'd expect from a luxury brand including remote starter, keyless entry, heated and ventilated front seats, driver memory, dual-zone automatic climate control, a large panoramic sunroof, 360º cameras, a digital rearview camera, and Super Cruise. The only real tech feature missing is a Head-Up Display.

The LYRIQ's design isn't like anything else on the market currently, while it's technically a crossover vehicle, the overall proportions are closer to a wagon, or dare I say a hearse. The interior space is excellent, with plenty of leg, head, and shoulder room for both rows. The tunk is very generous, with plenty of space for luggaed. We packed light, but we easily could have fit 4 large suitcases in the back with extra space for more.

Which brings us to our road trip. For the Canada Day long weekend we wanted to push ourselves outside our comfort zone when it comes to electric vehicles. Typically, during any given week I pick up my press cars and spend the rest of my time around home allowing me to maximize my home charging capabilities, and never using public stations. Travelling from St. Thomas, Ontario to Bay City, Michigan meant I needed to use DC Fast Charging stations throughout the weekend, testing the capabilities of the grid in Michigan, and our abilities to drive efficiently with the LYRIQ.

Since our trip would be short, we wanted to pack in our 3 days with as much as possible. After a stop for lunch after crossing the border in Port Huron we made our way just north of Flint to the Crossroads Village & Huckleberry Railway, a pioneer village and historic town that happened to be hosting a punk rock/witch/hearse event that weekend. We had missed the opportunity to take a ride on the steam train they had, but we did get a chance to watch it pass by. The village itself was cool, with some interesting history to learn from on-site guides located within the different buildings. The area itself was quite large with some things to keep kids busy, like the fastest indoor merry-go-round in the state, along with some other kiddie rides.

Since we ended up arriving during a heat wave we only hung out for about an hour and a half before making our way back to the car. Unfortunately this site didn't offer any sort of EV charging, so we made our way to our hotel located in Bay City, which didn't have a charger either. I'll give Expedia credit for at least having the option to filter hotels with charging stations available, however next to no hotels actually offered them. One in Saginaw had a L2 charger with a $2/h cost, but the location wasn't ideal. Luckily the hotel in Bay City was close to a Meijer, one of the greatest stores we had never heard of.

Electrify America has installed DCFC stations throughout Michigan at local Meijer locations. The best way I can describe this store is that it's like a Target, but not trashy. The store was clean and well organized, prices seemed very reasonable, and the selection was incredible. Home wares, clothing, grocery, alcohol, toys, and more. I mean they had everything. We plugged our LYRIQ with about 51% state of charge in and made our way to shop. One downside to road tripping with this Cadillac was the inability to use the MyCadillac app, something GM Canada should consider providing journalists in the future. The lack of that app along with Electrify America not communicating with Electrify Canada meant our only notification about our charing would come once we hit 100% via a text message sent to my device.

That's more of a me-problem than a normal problem, as someone who buys this Cadillac would naturally have access to the app and get real time updates about the charging process, however it would have been nice if my Electrify Canada app worked in the USA, the same way my ChargeHub, or Flo apps do.

Now this also brings up a point many people complain about when using public charging, the wait time. Since we hadn't ever shopped at a Meijer before we used our time well and spent a good 45 minutes shopping before heading back to the car with approximately 90% SOC. At no point were we bored, nor did we have to wait at the car once we arrived after our shopping spree as the vehicle had achieved a satisfactory charge level during our time away from it.

Our first day of driving consisted of 396.7 kms of driving, $57.07 total in charging costs.

Day two was much cooler than our first, thankfully. The heat wave had moved out of the state and we woke up to beautiful weather. Our plans for today were quite a bit longer than our first, with several destinations queued up based on a quick check of available DCFC sites. Stop number one was right up the street in Bay City, at the U.S.S. Edson, a Vietnam-era Destroyer.

Price of entry was very reasonable and we spent a good hour on the boat exploring the various decks and hallways. We had arrived shortly after they opened so it wasn't busy, but started to get some more visitors as we had made our way out. Once again no charging solutions on site. If you're interested in naval warfare I'd definitely recommend checking this site out and exploring the history of this vessel. The three of us enjoyed the experience learning about the boat along with life for the service people who had served onboard.

Our second stop of the day came completely by accident. As we planned very little about our trip, we had opportunities to find local activities during our downtime. Case-in-point, the local news that morning highlighted a historic airplane show at MBS International Airport, about 15 minutes from our hotel. While cost of entry was a bit on the high side, it was worth being able to get up and personal with some WWII-era aircraft, including this Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 'FIFI'. Several other combat fighters were on display, with at least one being available for enthusiasts to ride as a back seater and actually go up in it. It's an experience I'd have loved to partake in, but I imagine it would have been prohibitively expensive.

Next up was a lot of driving, we hit the road and made our way up to Cadillac to film our introduction for our video. While the town wasn't named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, it was still fun to visit this little town made famous by the band KISS in the 1970s. We filmed, ate lunch, and did some exploring before visiting our second Meijer and Electrify America charging station just on the outskirts of town. This time we started our charge with 31% SOC and maxed out at 150 kW right off the batt, maximized with the on-board pre-conditioning the LYRIQ performs when travelling to a DCFC station.

While the Cadillac Meijer wasn't as big as ours in Bay City, we still managed to kill a good 45 minutes before heading back to the car. Once again we wanted to get at least 90% charge as we didn't have another stop before wrapping up this leg of our trip.

From Cadillac we made our way north to Traverse City, specifically a peninsula on Grand Traverse Bay where we'd visit the Mission Point Lighthouse. This is a great time to talk about the overall comfort of the LYRIQ. The upgraded nappa leather seats are well worth the price, as we were all comfortable throughout our drive. The rear seats do have a bit of a hump along the bottom for the ISOFIX child seat anchors, my 10 year old daughter found them to be annoying but not painful. I sat in the back for a bit to try them out, and while I felt them, they didn't bother me. The front seat massage functionality was ok, nothing dramatic, but a nice little pulsation on long trips never hurt.

Super Cruise was the stand out feature throughout our trip though, as nearly all the roads we travelled along in Michigan have been mapped out by General Motors. The Interstates were expected, even some of the larger state roads, but many smaller roads were Super Cruise compatible, allowing me to give control over to the LYRIQ for a significant portion of our road trip. In fact I figure the car drove about 90% of the 1,300+ kms we travelled during our trip. We didn't have any system faults or issues. Construction zones prompted the driver to take extra care while passing through, and some single-lane roads required brief driver-intervention during passing zones. Those are pretty expected, and the system worked really well overall. It's something I'd want to have any time I do a longer road trip, especially in unfamiliar territory.

To say our arrival at the Mission Point Lighthouse was a dissapointment would be a huge understatement. For some reason we expected a traditional, tall lighthouse, not a literal house with a light on the top. I couldn't even see any lighting hardware up top, meaning this lighthouse isn't even a lighthouse anymore. Once again no chargers here, it's becoming a theme. Since this location had a beach I imagine people would come up here for the day, or at least several hours. A location like this would have been ideal for a charger, while we wouldn't have used it as we only stayed for 5 minutes, the ability to charge would still be nice.

Now it's panic time, we needed to make our way back to Bay City and Google Maps told us we'd arrive with 16% charge left - not terrible, but cutting it pretty close. We didn't have many charging options along the way so our first thought was to hit the road and make it happen. As we set off down the peninsula our estimated range remaining started to drop, down to 10% within the first 30 minutes of our 2.5 hour drive, giving me worry that we'd be stuck on the side of the road. Having Google Maps built into the infotainment was a plus for us, allowing the car to seamlessly integrate with the most acurate map data available. As we made our way south along I75 we asked Google to find us a charger, weirdly enough a Circuit Électrique (from Québec) located in a small town off the highway. It turned out to be an ABB unit similar to what Shell Recharge uses at a Ford Dealership, however the Mustang Mach-E using station 2 was blocking both stations, so we left.

We made it back to Bay City with 14% SOC, relatively acurate to our original estimate, as we lost a bit of time/range by getting off the interstate at our failed charging attempt at Ford. This time we walked over to a fast-food restaurant to grab dinner while the LYRIQ charged at the 350 kW DCFC, despite topping out around 150 kW instead of the 190 kW the car could do. Our 45 minutes weren't as efficienctly used as we arrived back at the car with less than 80% charge, meaning we had to wait around for a while at the car. We chatted it up with a local Bolt EV owner, while spotting our first Acura ZDX to date pulling in next to us.

590.1 kms total for this leg, with $96.45 in charging spent. Off to bed!

Day three was Canada Day, the best day for us to travel back home. We wanted to stop at one last destination along our route home and spent a couple hours in Frankenmouth, a Germanic town located just north of Flint. We had brunch at a great restaurant just at the north end of the town before making our way south to the Covered Bridge Shop which sported a ChargeHub 7.2 kW charger. We plugged in next to a Tesla Model 3 and started to explore the town. We spent about an hour or so walking around netting us about 25-30 kms of range during that time, finally a stop that was efficient! Every single time I stopped this car and couldn't plug in felt like a waste of time.

After our walk it was time to head home. Traffic wasn't terrible but still took us a couple hours to get back home. 340.3 kms of driving in total, $3.14 spent at the charger and arriving home with approximately 15% SOC again. Home charging was obviously the most efficient, costing less than $8 to bring the LYRIQ back up to 100%, but taking the rest of the day and night to make it happen. Well worth it after spending so much on fast charging over the course of our trip. 1,327.1 kms of driving throughout our tip, nearly 2,000 kms total with my entire week with the LYRIQ. We spent approximately $164 on electricity during our trip, including the cost to bring it back to full at home.

While I can't say for sure that our trip cost less than it would have had we taken a comparable luxury SUV, especially had it been a hybrid, I can say the road trip was a success as far as electric vehicles go. My range anxiety was tested a couple times during our trip, but we made it. We proved that you can road trip an electric vehicle in unfamiliar territory without having to plan out every single detail. In fact we never used apps like A Better Route Planner, and really just went with the flow. I'm glad we had the opportunity to try this type of road trip as its given me a new perspective on how these vehicles can be on long distance drives, not to mention it allowed me to test the public charging network in better detail.

Here is the photo gallery of the 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ Sport 3 AWD