The new Lyriq-V is the fastest Cadillac ever. It’s also the first all-electric member of Caddy’s high-performance V-Series – though it won’t be the last, with the Optiq-V soon to follow.
The General Motors luxury brand is just the latest in a growing list of automakers rolling out high-performance battery-electric vehicles which, in many cases, are the fastest products those automakers have ever brought to market, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
“It really puts a halo around our Ioniq EV brand,” said Olabisi Boyle, senior vice president of product planning and mobility strategy for Hyundai Motor North America. And, at a time when demand for EVs is slowing, that could continue to bring new buyers into showrooms, Boyle added.
Instant Torque
While many folks still think of EVs as slow and stodgy, they’ve fallen behind the times. The reality is that electric motors can make gobs of wheel-spinning torque. More importantly, that torque comes on all but instantaneously, while even the most powerful internal combustion engines need to rev up before delivering maximum performance, explained Sam Fiorani, lead analyst with AutoForecast Solutions.
And, when looking at the specs, it’s not always an apples-to-apples comparison, Fiorani added. “There are more losses” when you’re talking about gas-driven powertrains so an EV can often outperform a gas model with seemingly better specs.
The 2026 Cadillac Lyriq-V is a case in point. With 615 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque, the new EV package can launch from 0-60 mph in a mere 3.3 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than the Cadillac CT5 Blackwing – which is nearly 1,800 pounds lighter and punches out 668 horsepower and 659 lb-ftof torque.
Conclusively Demonstrated
A lot has changed since the first mass market battery-electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, came to market in 2011. “EVs are no longer fancy golf carts,” said Sam Abuelsamid, lead data cruncher for Telemetry Research. “It’s been quite conclusively demonstrated EVs can be incredibly quick.”
2026 Nissan Leaf
Even base models often outperform the top-line gas packages in comparable product lines, the Ioniq 5 being a case in point. And when it comes to upper-end models, EVs are becoming increasingly difficult to beat.
Catapult Launches
The Lucid Air Sapphire and Tesla Model S Plaid are good examples. Able to hit 60 in less than two seconds, they deliver the sort of off-the-line acceleration one might loosely compare to what it’s like taking off from a modern aircraft carrier.
