GM promises increased production of Cadillac Lyriq; Michigan plant key

Tom Milligan of Dearborn wants answers — and he wants the Cadillac Lyriq he has waited 18 months to own.

Milligan is a Cadillac fan, he owns a 2021 XT6 and a 2010 SRX, so he fell hard for the all-electric Lyriq's design when it was revealed in early 2021.

But the road to getting one has been long and winding. It started in September 2021, when he gave his Cadillac dealer a $1,000 deposit to get on the preorder list, then he forked over another $100 in May of last year to push through the order. But it wasn't until a few weeks ago, when General Motors emailed him asking him to choose the options he wanted, that his order was official and confirmed, he said.

"But nobody can tell me when it will be built," a frustrated Milligan said. "They said they would get back to me with a date. But nobody knows anything about it and it's weird."

Cadillac leaders said the Lyriq production has been deliberately slow to assure quality, but production and delivery will get faster especially as more of Ultium Cells LLC battery plants open — including the one being built now in Lansing. The new Ultium plant in Ohio is currently supplying the batteries for the Lyriq. But Cadillac has secured all the other materials needed to build the EVs, so watch for increased Lyriq production.

Analysts said it's imperative that GM get more of the vehicles on the road because the Lyriq is key to Cadillac's transition to an all-electric lineup by 2030.

"The Lyriq is a showcase vehicle and we believe could be a game changer for GM on the EV front," said Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities. "Any production delays need to be resolved as more cars on the road will increase the cache of GM EV strategy in a crowded landscape."

Quality checks and software updates needed

In January, some 500 built Lyriqs sat parked at Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, where GM assembles the Lyriq. GM ended up delivering 968 Lyriqs in the first three months.

Two people familiar with Lyriq production told the Free Press there are a couple thousand built Lyriqs parked near the plant and not shipping to customers. Cadillac spokesman Joe Singer said there has been a delivery delay on some Lyriqs so that a quality check could be completed, but he said that figure of produced Lyriqs parked and awaiting the test is exaggerated. He declined to provide a figure.

But since the first customer delivery of the Lyriq in July of last year through the end of March, GM has delivered 1,090 Lyriqs, a far cry from what customers and Wall Street expect out of GM. GM told suppliers last year to prepare to produce 25,000 Lyriqs. GM's luxury brand has said it had about 233,000 hand-raisers for the EV — those are people who express interest in the car, but do not put money down.

The slow build and shipment of the vehicles was a planned methodical rollout, Singer said, to assure quality.

"As part of our standard procedures for Lyriq, our manufacturing and engineering teams perform quality checks and software updates, when needed, before shipping vehicles to customers," Singer said in an email.

'Making every effort' at the best quality

Singer said all the rear-wheel drive Lyriq Debut Editions have shipped and most have been delivered to those customers.

"Most of the other vehicles we have produced have also been shipped," Singer said. "There are some recently built Lyriqs undergoing our quality checks at the plant. The duration of the testing can vary."

The painstakingly slow delivery process is also due to some early production problems. Last fall, GM had to fix a display screen problem and a cracking liftgate panel on the EVs. This year, there was a vehicle software management update needed.

"Cadillac is making every effort to uphold the best quality and safety standards for customers who have ordered a Lyriq," Singer said.

For Milligan, his frustration lies largely in the lack of communication, saying “I’m excited about getting it, I’ve been a Cadillac guy forever, but nobody knows anything.”

When asked to respond to customer complaints of a lack of communication, Singer said, "Cadillac will continue to communicate to dealers and customers as more information becomes available. We recommend customers contact our EV Concierge at 1-844-EVCADILLAC" for more help.

GM's production promise going forward

GM must get its EV launches right this year to win customer loyalty in the competitive EV marketplace.

"We've seen that many potential EV hand-raisers are not just staying loyal, they're putting reservations down on multiple vehicles and simply waiting to see who can deliver the vehicle first," said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights. "If enough issues crop up, those reservations could easily go elsewhere,"

Singer said rising production in the second quarter will support "significantly higher sales volumes." Cadillac expects production to reach "full run rate" by the end of the year, Singer said. GM does not make release the number of Lyriqs it will build once at full production, he said.

Increased battery cell production at the Ultium Cell LLC plant in Ohio will help push more Lyriqs off the line too, Singer said. Ultium is a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution. Singer said the Ohio plant will make more than 10 million cells in the first half of the year. Those cells will to go to Lyriq as well as the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV being made at Factory Zero in Detroit/Hamtramck and other new EVs that GM will launch over the next 18 months such as the Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox EVs.

Later this year, Ultium will open its second plant in Spring Hill, which will feed directly into Spring Hill Assembly and late next year it will open its third plant being built in Lansing.

Singer added, "GM has secured all the raw materials needed to support annual EV capacity of more than 1 million units in North America."

Further delays will be a wasted opportunity

Earlier this month, GM reported the biggest number of EV deliveries during a quarter to date at 20,670. But 19,700 of those sales were of the Bolt and Bolt EUV. Sales of the EVs on GM's new Ultium propulsion system — Lyriq and Hummer — were 968 and two, respectively.

The Hummer got hung up by some early issues. GM had to recall about 800 Hummers late last year for a battery connector problem, thereby halting production to fix it. Production resumed Jan. 31, but sales to customers were still on pause. At the end of the quarter, shipments restarted and GM delivered two Hummers. The new Hummer SUV model launching now and Wall Street is watching to see whether it and GM's other new EVs take off this year.

"The overall delays are a wasted opportunity," said Morningstar analyst David Whiston. "So the sooner they fix everything and crank out (battery electric vehicles) faster and more consistently, the better off the EV story will be for GM. Hopefully, the mishaps now are a learning curve so in the future there won’t be as much or as long of a delay."

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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How GM plans to put more Lyriqs and Hummers on roads as customers wait