The Cadillac Lyriq has taken the first brick out of the walls of Fortress Europe, winning the German … [+] Car of the Year award’s trophy for best Luxury Vehicle. Photo: Car Design Event.
Car Design Event
Cadillac has long been a storied luxury car brand, with a history that is captured across pop culture from movies to music. But not in Europe.
In Europe, Cadillac has always been a footnote and a symbol of American folly in foisting U.S. sensibilities on unwilling European luxury customers.
Cadillac may have taken the first step to changing that today, gaining its first real chunk of European credibility by winning the Luxury category in the 2024 German Cara of the Year (GCOTY) awards.
Beating out the Genesis G90 and the Porsche Macan, the Cadillac Lyriq was a surprise winner when votes from more than 30 German and high-profile guest judges were collated. GCOTY is closely affiliated with the World Car of the Year award (WCOTY).
While the outright GCOTY award will be awarded later in the year following a final round of judging, the Lyriq BEV was praised for its design, technology and luxury.
Cadillac has taken shot after shot at establishing a foothold in the European luxury auto market, but has consistently fallen to the dominant players, from Mercedes-Benz to BMW, from Audi to Porsche and from Bentley to Maserati.
The Cadillac Lyriq beat out the Genesis G90 and the Porsche Macan to take out the Luxury section of … [+] the German Car of the Year. Photo: Car Design Event.
Car Design Event
It has had a foothold in Europe since 1935. Its current Glattpark operation dates to 2017, and is headed by General Motors Europe President and Managing Director Pere Brugal.
“It has a big meaning for us,” Brugal insisted at the award ceremony in the German spa town of Bad Dürkheim last night.
“We are back in Europe with Cadillac and with full electric drive. The first prize has a special meaning, showing we can bring the best of luxury, that we expect from Cadillac, and technology and then design.”
While the award realistically gives Cadillac little more than a toehold to try to convince customers out of long-established luxury habits, its meaning is amplified by the Europeans dominating every other GCOTY category, and only one non-European car even claiming a top-three position.
The GCOTY compact car class (for cars up to €35,000) was won by the Citroen e-C3/C3 model, which is available with both combustion and EV powertrains. China’s MG3 ran in a close second, while the Dacia Duster was third.
The Premium award, for cars from €35,001 to €70,000, was won by the BMW i5 and 5 Series (again, with both combustion and EV powertrains, and also plug-in hybrids).
The Polestar 4 (controlled by China’s Geely) finished second, while the BMW X1 and iX1 ran third.
The Performance car class was dominated by the superstar supercar players, with the Porsche 911 GTS leading home the Lamborghini Revuelto and the Ferrari Dodici Cilindri.
The New Energy category was a feeding frenzy for the Volkswagen Group, with the Audi Q6 e-tron EV winning from the Volkswagen ID.5 and the Porsche Macan.
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 01:00:00
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