Automotive Engineering - September 2022 - 34

Q&
A
2023 Cadillac Lyriq executive chief engineer:
New EV is her 'North Star'
At the Cadillac Lyriq's media drive program in Utah, SAE Media
spoke one-on-one with Jamie Brewer, Lyriq executive chief
engineer, about developing the first-ever Cadillac EV, its purpose-designed
Ultium vehicle architecture and the uniquely
styled SUV-wagon's positioning in the market.
The Lyriq is just the second production vehicle (the first being
GMC's Hummer EV) to use the dedicated Ultium platform. I'm
curious about the overall strategy for materials, because the
Lyriq has a fairly conventional steel
body. Did you consider aluminum
bodywork or closure panels?
Yeah, we did look in aluminum - we
looked at it a lot. We have a lot of
mixed metals, but it [the bodyshell] is
steel. Once we got the structure to
the point where it met all requirements,
then we put it through what's
called MCO, our Mass Component
Optimization study; it's more rounds
of CAE iterations to then say, 'Okay,
where can we do lightweighting,
where can we take section out, where
can we change material? And it iterates
on all of the different opportunities
from a mass-optimization perspective
until we find that sort of perfect
balance between mass, performance
and costs.
Because the Lyriq is based on GM's
first wide-ranging EV architecture,
how did you decide on a mass target
- or did you have a mass target?
Yes, we did have a mass target.
Before I answer that question, I've
got to go back to the intent and purpose
of the vehicle - the sort of the
" North Star " for the team working in
the vehicle. And that North Star was
for it to be the best Cadillac SUV
we've ever made.
So, did we have a mass target? Yes.
Did we run into some issues during
development where decisions
would've had to have been made on
the content or the design or the styling
to enable the mass target that
was originally styled? 'Best Cadillac
SUV ever.' So, we did modify our mass
targets to make sure that the vehicle
34 September 2022
that we were delivering was the Cadillac that we wanted to
deliver. We're at 5,600 pounds [2540 kg]. It is a heavy vehicle.
It's not the heaviest out there.
You've already heard some criticism: the Lyriq has no 'frunk.'
Is that something that when this Ultium architecture was first
being conceived, maybe nobody thought a frunk was going to
become a big deal?
The number of meetings I had on this! First of all, this vehicle
has a 19.2-kilowatt onboard charger.
That had to go somewhere. Once we
put in the onboard charger, there absolutely
was still room for a frunk. You
could have put a laptop or something
in it. It's either a small frunk and a medium
size-cargo area, or no frunk and a
large cargo area. I would challenge
that a real customer, once they get
over the hype of a frunk, would prefer
to have the biggest rear cargo area
possible. I knew I was going to get hit
in the media. But that wasn't my priority.
My priority was the customer.
Jamie Brewer,
executive chief engineer
for the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq.
My goal was for this to be
the best luxury midsize
SUV in the industry -
irrespective of drive type
or powertrain.
Where do you see the Lyriq in terms
of segmentation? What are you calling
it? I see the profile and see a little
more wagon, maybe, than some SUVs.
My goal was for this to be the best
luxury midsize SUV in the industry -
irrespective of drive type or powertrain.
From a segment perspective,
we're really going after the heart of the
midsize, luxury SUV segment.
Yeah, I can see [wagon] too.
Especially with that really low roof
angle. But when you look at the chair
height and the command view of the
road, that really is what puts it in that
SUV category. From our confirmation
clinic, where we show sort of the final-design
interior and exterior of the
vehicle, this vehicle scored higher
than any other vehicle in General
Motors history. I think the public is
ready for this vehicle.
This is an edited version; the entire interview
can be found here: https://
www.sae.org/news/2022/08/
cadillac-chief-engineer-qa
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
GM
https://www.sae.org/news/2022/08/cadillac-chief-engineer-qa
Automotive Engineering - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - September 2022
