Good news, Cadillac fans — the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq will begin production nine months earlier than previously scheduled. The Detroit Bureau reports that vice president of Cadillac, Rory Harvey, announced that the Lyriq will begin production in March 2022. Here’s how (and why) the automaker sped up the production process.

How Cadillac made it happen

According to the chief engineer of the Lyriq, Jamie Brewer, the automaker was able to speed up production thanks to new digital design and engineering techniques.

These high-tech tools allowed Cadillac engineers to put virtual versions of prototypes through a gauntlet of tests. The experts left no stone unturned — they tested every variant of the model imaginable, with varying manufacturing processes, different levels of usage, and different levels of strain for the virtual car. All of that simulated testing helped Cadillac weed out less-optimized variants of the Lyriq, saving the company more than $1.5 billion in development costs. That boost in efficiency makes it much more practical and viable to develop new vehicle platforms, like GM’s Ultium platform.

“We have been able to refine so much in the virtual space,” Brewer stated. “Areas like cabin comfort, advanced vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics, road noise cancellation — even active safety features and crash barrier development, have all been done virtually.” He attributes the Lyriq’s accelerated production schedule to this boost in efficiency, and further explained that the Lyriq’s development is wrapping up with engineers fine-tuning its aerodynamics, acoustics, and steering.

GM will produce the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq at the Spring Hill plant in Tennessee. Last year, the automaker invested $2 billion in the facility, which also produces the GMC Acadia, the Cadillac XT6, and Cadillac XT5. On top of that, GM poured $2.3 billion into a battery-cell-production facility that will bring 1,300 manufacturing jobs to the Spring Hill area.

Source: TheNewsWheel