The Cadillac Lyriq is one of the growing number electric vehicles on from GM Ultium platform, and like the other midsize SUVs on that platform (Chevy Blazer EV And Equinox-EV, Honda Prologue, Acura ZDX), priority was given to rear passenger space and an aerodynamic, tapered roofline over cargo capacity. Despite being similar in exterior dimensions to mid-size SUVs, their cargo capacity figures are all said to be on the small side for non-luxury compact SUVs.
Now, as I found in the Blazer EV luggage testthe 25.5 cubic feet was still just enough to hold all the standard luggage test bags. You couldn’t really fit anything else in there, though. The Lyriq is listed as having 28 cubic feet of cargo space, though. Let’s see if there’s a difference.
Here’s the cargo area in question. You can see pretty clearly how much that tapered roofline cuts into the space, resulting in a cargo area that almost looks more like the SUV “coupes” of the world.
There is no frunk. Move on.
However, like other EVs, there is a deep storage area under the floor. It is more voluminous than what you would find in the BlazerThe gym bag shown here in the Lyriq doesn’t quite fit in the Blazer.
At the top right you can see the storage compartment for the charging cord, which fits neatly into its own little space under the floor.
There is a cargo cover, a roller style that comes out of a fixed cartridge. Theoretically I would test with and without this cover. Theoretically. More about that later.
As with every luggage testI take two medium sized airport checked trolleys (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two black trolleys that just fit in the overhead bin (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller green trolley that fits in easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also take my wife’s luxury weekender bag to brighten things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).
The four largest bags fit under the cargo cover, but as you can see above on the left, the cartridge sits quite low. My medium bag didn’t even fit under it, let alone the larger one. This results in a lot of unused space.
Normally I’ll take the luggage cover out here and see how much I can fit in there…
Except all the bags fit AND there is still room for the luggage cover, albeit removed and placed on top. You would probably just leave it at home when loading up at home, but if you forgot to take it out when picking someone up from the airport, rest assured, it will fit many bags and the luggage cover.
While I could have added a duffel bag under the luxury bag to pad it out a bit (remember, there’s already a duffel bag under the floor), that would still be all she wrote here. No bigger suitcase, no cooler, even if you remove the luggage cover completely. The roofline just makes it impossible.
So this is definitely a more spacious luggage compartment than you would find in the Blazer EVbut the advantage certainly seems to be on the 3-ish cubes that the specs suggest. It’s pretty comparable to the Mercedes EQE SUV And Audi Q8 E-Tron Sportbackeven though the big Audi has a small advantage. Actually, it is just the intention.