The Cadillac Lyriq Actually Does Qualify For The $7500 Tax Credit

In a rapid departure from January, General Motors has shifted the tax credit verdict on its luxury EV offering. It’s a new fiscal year for all the automakers and some are making out better than others when it comes to EV sales.

General Motors, in particular, had a challenging year on the EV front and continues to struggle with its Ultium battery platform.

However, good news is on the horizon for Cadillac, as a few key changes to its battery production make the Lyriq eligible for the $7500 tax credit.

The turn of the new year is an exciting time filled with new chapters, resolutions, and the promise of fresh offerings across industry lines. This is largely true for automakers, too, as they round up year-end sales figures and push toward new horizons, at least in their own words.

But this January was met with some tempered excitement for more reasons than one. Amid an alleged EV sales slowdown, automakers celebrated returns to pre-pandemic sales figures while contemplating how to act on EVs in the short term. Specifically, General Motors posted middling EV sales figures in 2023, save for one model.

In a bit of a shocking turn, GM’s second best-selling EV in the US (behind the outbound Bolt and Bolt EUV) was theCadillac Lyriq. Overall, 9154 Lyriqs were sold in 2023, making up 12% of GM’s 75,883 EV unit sales last year. By comparison, over 62,045 units of the Bolt and Bolt EUV were sold in 2023.

Following a much anticipated but delayed arrival, the Lyriq was finally enjoying its moment in the sun, so to speak.

But the turn of the new year brought another set of challenges for the domestic automaker, as new guidance for the consumer EV tax credit qualification arrived. And the Cadillac Lyriq no longer qualified, at least initially.

Built onGM’s Ultium EV platform, production and assembly of the Lyriq occurs at the company’s Spring Hill facility in Tennessee. As such, Cadillac had already won half the battle when it came to receiving the $7500 credit, but specific sourcing standards surrounding battery materials stood in GM’s way.

“In early January, Lyriq temporarily lost eligibility for the clean vehicle credit, due to the US Treasury’s updated guidelines,” a statement from GM reads. “As a result, GM’s supply chain team moved quickly to pull ahead a sourcing change for two minor components, allowing Ultium Cells to build qualifying cells.”

GM has yet to say how exactly it changed its cell production techniques so quickly. However, GM was offering $7500 off the Lyriq’s sticker price in lieu of the tax credit. This benefit will continue to be offered until the first tax credit-eligible Lyriq models hit the market, GM says.