The balance between form and function is always a delicate one when carmakers introduce new models, as the fantastic shapes conceived by creative designers meet the harsh realities of government regulations, manufacturing requirements, and everyday useability.
But the team behind Cadillac’s new Lyriq battery-electric crossover insists that this time, the good guys won. That means that the designers got to keep most of the flavor of the Lyriq concept car. Meanwhile, the engineering team got to flex its own creative muscles by noodling out ways to let the designers’ dreams live within the real-world constricts that usually cause production models to be disappointingly dull in comparison to the concept car.
Here’s how it all came together—and what it’s like to drive.
Computer-aided engineering (CAE) was a crucial tool in this achievement, reports Cadillac Lyriq executive chief engineer Jamie Brewer. The team burned through $200-million worth of cycle time on GM’s computers to model every aspect of the Lyriq, she says. “By the time we got our first prototype vehicle built, we were 80 percent of the way there and could go right into tuning,” Brewer explains.
This was important, because as the first in the line of Cadillac’s all-electric models (the company says it will only introduce battery-powered new models from now on), the Lyriq serves to illustrate everything Cadillac aims to be going forward. So that means challenges like working out noise management, now that the combustion engine is no longer there providing background white noise to drown out other, more unpleasant sounds.
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