Cadillac to launch two new EVs in UK by end of 2024

Move is part of a new European offensive by the American brand, starting with the Optiq and Lyriq SUVs

Cadillac will begin its UK offensive later this year, bringing two electric cars to the market.

The Audi Q4 E-tron-rivalling Optiq will arrive in the autumn, before the flagship Lyriq, a luxurious BMW iX challenger. The latter is already on sale in select European markets.

Both EVs will be built in the US - where they will also be sold – and shipped to Europe.

The move is part of an electric reinvention by the American brand in Europe – a market that it has never truly been able to secure a foothold on.

Currently in the UK, it markets only the XT4 crossover, which a handful of dealers sell in very small quantities and in one specification.

As part of this offensive, other Cadillac models are planned to arrive across an array of segments, given the flexibility of the Ultium platform, General Motors Europe boss Jaclyn McQuaid told Autocar.

“What the Ultium architecture does is allow us to factor in right-hand drive in a much more efficient way than the internal combustion engine architectures,” she said.

“It’s a case of shifting the steering wheel to the right, and then it's really coding, it's electronics, it's calibrations, so it allows us to do the factory right-hand drive so much simpler.”

GM Europe, which is based in Switzerland, views the UK as an “strategically important market” within its operations.

This is true for the future, too, with McQuaid adding that the American firm has “other vision for the UK going forward”.

She said: “We're currently in the process of defining our initial sales footprint in the UK and where we're going to have our experience centres in the UK."

By the end of 2024, GM will “have some very definitive announcements to make” about Cadillac, including the possibility of a dealer roll-out, alluded McQuaid.