615 horsepower. 650 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 in under 3.3 seconds. That’s supercar numbers right there. But I’m not talking about a supercar, I’m talking about the 2026 Cadillac Lyriq-V, the hot blooded version of Cadillac’s midsize EV family hauler. 

It’s a strange world we live in. Just a few years ago 600+ horsepower would be considered absolutely absurd. Today, it’s eyebrow raising but not jaw dropping, especially contrasted against a curb weight that’s a hair short of six thousand pounds. Still, the Lyriq-V is a novel thing, with Cadillac putting its high-performance V moniker on an EV for the first time, after the critical acclaim of the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing sedans. 

WHAT MAKES A LYRIQ-V - RANGE & CHarging, STYLE, and mORE

The Lyriq is built on GM’s BEV3 platform, a platform that is shared with pretty much every other Cadillac EV, The Chevy Blazer EV, and heck even the Honda Prologue and (departed) Acura ZDX models. It’s a unibody structure with a skateboard design, where the batteries are mounted low and centred across the bottom of the chassis, resulting in surprisingly good weight distribution for such a porky thing. 

The Lyriq-V features the same 102 kWh battery as the rest of the Lyriq lineup (albeit with better cooling), which means that range is the lowest of the bunch at about 459 km, whereas some less powerful models can get north of 510 km. Active dampers built by Sachs replace the standard passive ones, and everything from suspension mounts, spring rates, and anti-roll bars have been beefed up to better control the Lyriq-V. Giant red painted Brembo brake calipers sitting behind 22” wheels hint at what the Lyriq-V is capable of.

The rest of the exterior remains fairly subdued, with some blacked out accents to go along with the already athletic silhouette of the standard Lyriq. It’s a looker for sure, with the front lighting signature being a particular highlight, giving you a nice little light show as you walk up to your Caddy, and looking distinctive when on the move. Same can be said about the rear, which manages to maintain Cadillac’s somewhat signature vertical tail lights, which have their own active lighting functions as you approach, or letting you know from a distance how much charge the Lyriq-V has when plugged in.

Speaking of which, the Lyriq hasn’t been upgraded to the NACS style charger that some of its other siblings (like the Optiq) have. Even the ring charge light around the charge port was present but not functional, instead this Lyriq-V uses an older style charge light atop the dashboard. It's probably something that will be updated at a mid-cycle refresh, but after recently coming out of an Optiq, the Lyriq felt a touch less polished as a result. I am absolutely nitpicking however because everything else about the Lyriq oozes premium, especially once you step inside. 

Comfy Quarters - Interior accommodation

I’ve said this before, if you haven’t stepped into a Cadillac in the last few years you really need to, because they are now bonafide luxury vehicles, with unique interior designs matched with premium materials throughout. There’s a judicious amount of chrome like accents as is the norm for Caddy, but it feels just right to give you a luxury feel without being tacky.

The signature 33” curved screen looks elegant, with the gentle curve and subtle chrome trim feeling uber premium. Cadillac even sticks a light-up logo on the back of the screen, something you never see except when approaching the vehicle.

Details matter and Cadillac nailed it in the Lyriq-V. The mix of physical and touch controls feels intuitive and easy to get accustomed to. The knurled rotary knob for volume adjustment and the Cadillac encrusted rotary knob for the user interface all look and feel particularly nice. Even the curvaceous metal AKG speaker grills on the door cards look like a million bucks. It’s a very nice place to be.

It’s also a very comfortable place to be, with soft patterned leather seats and curved headrests that together with the side bolsters give just the right amount of support, but remain comfortable for long drives. My only complaints about the interior are the overly dim and sparse ambient lighting, and the far too weak massage seats. That’s it.

Tech Titan - INfotainment and Driver assists

Like most Cadillacs, the Lyriq-V is loaded with tech, with standouts like the technically "9K" 33-inch curved display and the superb 23-speaker AKG audio system. The heated and cooled massage seats are welcome, although the massage is seriously weak. You get GM’s Super Cruise which is fantastic, and even an augmented reality heads-up display with dynamic floating directional arrows are functional and very tech forward.

The V mode allows you to adjust all sorts of driving parameters, from steering to suspension to brake feel and even artificial motor sound. All this to say the Lyriq never feels lacking in the tech department.

Is it really a V though? - Driving impressions

Here’s my other complaint about the Lyriq-V, and it’s that it just doesn’t feel very V-like. More like V-lite. Yes it's fast, but even so, it doesn’t feel melt your face fast despite what the numbers may suggest. Or maybe because the mid-grade versions of the Lyriq already feel torquey enough that the difference isn’t as mind bending as you’d think. But it is fast. The problem is the rest of it.

Despite the numerous suspension enhancements, it simply moves the Lyriq-V from soft to average. There’s no real hardcore mode for the suspension, it always remains on the softer side of things, even when you hit the red V on the steering wheel and move everything to its sportiest settings. Even the steering is far too light in comfort and only gets moderately weighted in sport, still remaining devoid of any feel. 

There's also the artificial sound, which doesn’t sound anything like an ICE V-series vehicle, and instead tries to create some new-age sound that is too quiet and too foreign. Thankfully you can turn it off, even when everything else is cranked to the max. What all these changes do create is an even more competent daily driver, one that is great for long drives. Then again, the regular Lyriq does this pretty well on its own, potentially creating a self-inflicted issue for Cadillac. 

WRAP IT UP

And that’s the final problem for the 2026 Cadillac Lyriq-V. It’s the fact that the regular Lyriq exists, with excellent road manners, very solid power and better range. You aren’t going to race the Lyriq-V, despite the “competitive mode” in the V-settings, and because of that it’s hard to recommend paying an extra $20K over a loaded up Lyriq Signature Sport trim. Look, if you have $105,265 to spare, the Lyriq-V is far from a bad way to spend it, but it isn’t a full red-blooded V, and you can save a lot of money and still get a lot of car with a non-V Lyriq.