We first saw the Cadillac Lyriq during a 2022 preview drive, so it was a welcome arrival to the Design News test fleet during a weeklong visit. Spending time in Caddy’s EV reminded me how favorable an impression it made during that sneak peek two years ago.

Full disclosure: this is the second Lyriq that Cadillac has provided me this summer. The instrument panel display on the first one was flickering when I got into it at the airport pickup location and after doing that on and off for a couple days the screen switched off entirely.

They took it to a dealer that, you guessed it, said they couldn’t duplicate the problem and that there was nothing wrong with it. Except that I have video of the display flickering like an ’80s Max Headroom video. The replacement vehicle had no such issues and my next-door neighbor reports no such occurrences with his own Lyriq.

That first preview car in 2022 had a special low starting price, in part because it was short some pandemic supply chain-limited equipment. But the starting price for the latest version enjoys a trim that keeps the Lyriq appealing.

That’s especially in comparison to the Chevrolet Blazer I recently reviewed, because the two vehicles use all the same underlying hardware and differ mainly in styling and features. The as-tested price of the Blazer was $60, 215 before the federal tax rebate.

Related:2023 Lyriq Marks the Beginning of Cadillac’s EV Future

In comparison, the 2025 pricing for the top-of-the-line Lyriq Sport 3 I drove is $68,890 before the $7,500 tax rebate, and the entry-level Luxury 1 model costs less than that Blazer did. The test vehicle was a leftover 2024, whose price was then $2,200 higher than that of the new 2025s. Its as-tested price would now be $74,800.

A huge panoramic skylight is standard equipment on the Lyriq. CADILLAC

To recap, the Sport 3 is the 500-horsepower all-wheel-drive version. I’d be satisfied with the 340-hp, rear-drive model unless I really felt the need for all-wheel-drive traction, but it hardly ever snows anymore in the Mid-Atlantic. The Lyriq’s 102-kilowatt-hour battery pack is rated at 307 miles of estimated driving range, while the rear-drive models are estimated to go seven more miles.

A lovely feature of the Lyriq is the huge 33-inch advanced LED display that sprawls across the dashboard. This system is much better-looking than the split screens in the Blazer with their drab appearance by comparison. Cadillac spent more money here and you’ll appreciate it every time you get inside rather than being disappointed by the Blazer’s cost-saving screens.

The Blazer makes do with an 85-kWh battery pack that propels it 279 miles. So any price bump from the upgrade from the Blazer to the Lyriq includes that bigger battery and longer range in all versions. With 500 horsepower, the Lyriq is plenty quick, but what I appreciated is how it slows.

Related:Chevrolet’s Late-Arriving 2024 Blazer EV

The Lyriq's 33-inch dashboard display is a welcome upgrade over the screens in the Chevrolet Blazer. CADILLAC

Cadillac lets drivers choose between no regenerative braking, which lets the Lyriq coast along like a conventionally powered vehicle would, normal regen, and high regen. I generally like high regen, but it has the downside of being touchy, especially during what you intend to be steady-state highway driving when it is easy to accidentally slow when shifting your right foot.

Cadillac’s solution is that it has a paddle on the back side of the steering wheel, on the left where the downshift paddle might have lived in a combustion vehicle. Squeezing this produces high regeneration. So you can leave it in normal regen mode all the time and on those occasions when you’d rather slow faster, just squeeze the paddle. It is a nearly perfect solution.

Even in regular regen mode, the Lyriq will slow to a complete stop without touching the brake pedal and it stays stopped until you press the accelerator. Unlike some other EVs, there is no lurch between when it stops on its own and when it starts because you pressed the accelerator. Some vehicles are seemingly startled by this and it makes them hard to park in close quarters for fear of hitting whatever’s directly in front of the vehicle. Kudos to Cadillac’s calibration team.

Related:Cadillac Lyriq Reveals New Details of GM’s Ultium Battery Technology

The test vehicle rolled on stylish 22-inch wheels. As with other vehicles, I strongly prefer smaller-diameter wheels for their taller tire sidewalls and correspondingly better ride compliance. There are 20-inch wheels available on less-costly trim levels, providing motivation to save money

The Lyriq was fitted with the optional $1,480 19.2-kilowatt charging module. My home ChargePoint Level 2 charger tops out at half that speed, so I was unable to benefit from this speedy charging capability. Cadillac says it provides the ability to add 51 miles of driving range per hour of charging time! If I was buying a Lyriq I’d spring for the faster-charging option and make sure to get a home charger that supports it.

The Lyriq also featured General Motors’s Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance technology. All such systems are works in progress, but the Lyriq’s system showed unexpected room for improvement considering how long GM has been working on it.

Here’s what happened. It works great in absolutely typical situations. Not so much in atypical situations. It continues to struggle with deep shadows and it disengaged on a bright, sunny day when passing beneath an overpass when it lost sight of the road in the shadow, just as early versions have often done. It is time to do a better job at this.

Super Cruise is smart enough now to automatically signal lane changes and then execute them to overtake slower-moving traffic. It did so approaching a toll plaza, moving all the way to the far left lane.

To my surprise, it didn’t slow for the toll plaza, despite the posted lower speed limit. Then, on the other side of the tolls, the many lanes consolidate back to the original number. When the far left lane that it drove into on purpose ended, it did not simply move back. Instead, it flashed a “Lane Ending” alert and attempted to stop on a high-speed highway.

I floored the accelerator to override and continued. But I encountered several other merges that it handled equally badly. Apparently, it only changes lanes independently if there is a car in the way. You can prompt it to change lanes with the turn signal, but this seems like a function it should have.

The all-black Lyriq looked like Darth Vader’s helmet and drew compliments everywhere I went. I agree with the bystanders' opinions, I think the Lyriq looks terrific. And if you choose your trim level carefully, the price tag looks pretty attractive too.