Cadillac Lyriq V-Series Under Evaluation, Says Executive

The 2023 Cadillac Lyriq hits the road early next year with a standard rear-wheel-drive setup and 340 horsepower (254 kilowatts). Shortly after that, the company promises a "Performance" model with a dual-motor setup and more horses. But there’s even more good news, avid EV enthusiast: A third Lyriq V-Series could join the lineup at a later date if we’re lucky.

In a recent virtual interview with Global Vice President Rory Harvey, he notes that a Lyriq V-Series model is something that the company is currently "evaluating." That’s not exactly hard evidence, but at least Cadillac is acknowledging the possibility.

"If you looked at Cadillac in the past, having sporty variants has been part of our heritage… and that is something we’re looking at and evaluating moving forward," said Harvey.

As we reported after the EV’s debut, the base Lyriq will arrive in the US early in 2022 with a single electric motor providing 340 hp and 325 pound-feet (440 newton-meters), with an estimated range of 300-plus miles (483 kilometers). The dual-motor “Performance” model will undoubtedly have a bit more power plus additional range, but it’s unclear what a potential V-Series model might produce.

In the current V-Series lineup, the CT4-V and CT5-V produce 325 hp and 335 in their base forms respectively. The hotter Blackwing models, meanwhile, offer up a more robust 472 hp for the CT4-V and 668 hp for the CT5-V. A Lyriq V-Series, in theory, should produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 hp. But we’ll have to wait for official word from Cadillac on what could be the brand’s first hot crossover to date, and that likely won’t happen until at least next year.