General Motors is returning to Europe with its Cadillac brand, making a fresh attempt to compete in a market where it lost money for decades.
GM is accepting orders for the battery-powered Cadillac Lyriq SUV in Switzerland, with deliveries to start in the first half of 2024, it said Thursday.
Over the next two years, the premium brand plans to bring its electric models to Sweden, France and three additional European countries.
The U.S. automaker is giving Europe — among the biggest markets for electric cars — another look as inflation and an uncertain economic outlook are weighing on spending in the region.
Volkswagen Group has curbed EV production in Germany, citing slowing demand. At the same time, Chinese brands are pushing into Europe with a range of electric models, eager to grab market share.
GM has kept a very low profile in the region for the past years, importing only a small number of vehicles.
In 2017, the company sold its mass-market Opel and Vauxhall brands to what is now Stellantis, following two decades of painful losses.
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GM had catered mostly to Europe’s crowded mass market, where intense price competition keeps margins thin. Still, Opel and Vauxhall’s new owner pushed the brands into the black in less than a year.
GM’s first new model for Europe is the Lyriq, a midsize SUV that uses the manufacturer’s Ultium battery at an estimated range of 530 kilometers (329 miles) on a charge.
With a starting price of aboout 82,000 Swiss francs ($89,705), the model costs around the same as premium electric SUVs from domestic brands such as BMW iX3 and Audi’s Q8 E-tron.
GM plans to sell its Cadillac EVs directly to European consumers via its websites and flagship stores, including one in Zurich.
The models will be made at a Cadillac plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee — a factory not yet affected by the United Auto Workers strikes that have shuttered GM plants elsewhere in the U.S.
Cadillac plans to offer a complete range of full-electric models in Europe by the end of this decade.
Deliveries of the Lyriq, which started in the U.S. last year, have been picking up following issues with battery availability and software.
In the third quarter, Cadillac sold 3,018 Lyriq EVs, more than doubling shipments compared to the previous quarter.
Last year, Bloomberg reported that GM has been considering a return to Europe by selling only full-electric models there to avoid the region’s stringent combustion-engine emissions regulations.
The brand also has been weighing selling the hulking Hummer EV, Bloomberg reported at the time.
