Cadillac has announced it’s close to ‘locking down’ an Auckland venue for its first New Zealand customer experience centre.

The General Motors-owned luxury brand will be launching the Lyriq EV in Australiasia later this year and plans to initially have three centres; Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Speaking to the media, GMSV general manager, Jess Bala, said that Cadillac will only be launching electric vehicles Dowunder, with the right-hand-drive products built at its Spring Hill, Tennessee factory.

Bala said Cadillac vehicles will be priced in the same range as the "Tier 1 European brands" such as  BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Japanese company Lexus.

“We’re not going after a mainstream play, this is a luxury play for a whole realm of reasons, one being we want to be something that’s sought-after, and to be sought-after there needs to not be a tonne of them driving around. We know we’ve only announced Lyriq so far, but I can promise you there are more in the pipeline.”

The Cadillac Lyriq is a large SUV similar in size to the BMW iX, Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV and Audi Q8 E-Tron.

Bala said the US car maker also expects buyers from cheaper electric cars – including Teslas – to trade-up into a Cadillac once they're ready to move on from their current vehicle.

"We see our entry as a real luxury EV [electric vehicle]. So even if we've got buyers that ... want to be early adopters, because we know we have a lot of those customers here in Australia and New Zealand," she said.

"For example, they're in a Tesla, we know their next step will be a luxury EV, and that's where we come into play, and be on their shopping list."

AutoMuse asked Bala about the New Zealand plans for Cadillac and she said that initially Auckland would be the focus before rolling out across the country.

“We are getting very close to locking down a location in Auckland for the customer experience centre. If we need to, we can bring customers from the South Island to Auckland,” she said.

GM had been planning the launch of Cadillac Downunder for a number of years but Bala rejected questions about it being part of the now failed Holden.

Bala said Cadillac has chosen now to re-launch in Australia to coincide with its new range of electric cars, and the shift towards battery power in the new-car market.

"The two points that you made there really are the crux of what we're doing here," Bala said. “It's about timing, but then ... where the brand's going and also the incredible [electric] lineup that we have coming.

"When you look at our market here across Australia and New Zealand, obviously it's one of the most saturated markets in the world.”

The virtual press conference also features Detroit-based Cadillac CMO, Melissa Grady Dias, who covered the nearly 122-year history of the luxury brand and its current focus on being the vehicle of choice for many entrepreneurs.

She also had some interesting facts about Cadillac, that' it’s the car brand used in more song lyrics than any other car; plus the quirky statistic that most Cadillac owners had homes with pools. 

Why? Because the owners liked to entertain, they'd invite people over to their house to hang by the pool and host barbeques.