Cadillac is delighted to see that quite a few buyers of its all electric Lyriq have never owned a Cadillac before. In the car business, those are known as conquest sales, which brand managers love to talk about in sales meetings. To make things even sweeter for Cadillac, a significant number of those new customers are getting out of a Tesla and getting into a Cadillac. According to Carscoops, about one in four of the Lyriq buyers are former Tesla owners and 80 percent of them are new to the Cadillac family.
Lyriq sales are doing very well. As Zachary Shahan reported last fall, its sales climbed more than 130 percent year over year, when the Lyriq became the second best selling model in the Cadillac lineup. Since then it has been joined by the battery electric version of the Escalade, known as the Escalade IQ; the Vistiq, a three-row cousin to the Lyriq; and the Optiq, a slightly shorter and cheaper SUV than the Lyriq. The total number of Cadillac models available for sale is nine, with fully one third of them being 100% electric and then the famous Escalade model having electric and non-electric versions. (Well, there’s also one more model, the Celestiq, but where you’d normally find the price, Cadillac has written “By inquiry only” — and elsewhere it says the starting price is in the mid-$300,000 range.) That’s a major commitment to EVs by the General Motors premium brand.
A Big Electric Cadillac Under $60,000
The Lyriq starts at less than $60,000 and is eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit — for now. It features a huge 33-inch-long curved OLED dashboard display, includes lots of luxury touches, and has decent range. “We see the opportunity to increase the conquest rate for Tesla, absolutely,” Brad Franz, Cadillac director of global marketing, told CNBC recently. “The portfolio is the key. We’ve always had good interaction with Tesla customers, but in the past, that’s been in that 10% to 15% range [for Lyriq]. So, certainly, we’re seeing a good jump in conquest rate.”
Elon Musk doesn’t get it. He thinks cars are like BIC pens — you can sell the same item for 20 years and people will keep buying it because it is so good. He may be a brilliant engineer (there is some debate about that), but he doesn’t understand the first thing about marketing, a world in which the word “new” is all powerful.
Oh, sure, he has allowed the company he dominates to make a few minor changes, like adding a full LED light bar to the front and rear of the Model 3 and Model Y, and there is a new cherry red color that really is quite handsome, but the cars haven’t really changed much in appearance since they first went on sale. There is another factor at work. As a former employee pointed out recently, people who buy a new Tesla today cannot claim they didn’t know Musk was crazy before they sealed the deal. That LED strip at the front makes that excuse no longer plausible.
“People leaving Tesla cars now, they’re, in my opinion, making a very deliberate choice to get out of that car. If your priority is to get out of the Tesla ASAP, then they’re not, technically, cross-shopping Tesla for their next car,” Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst at Edmunds, told Carscoops. Brad Franz put the icing on the cake when he said: “Cadillac is leading the way with our EV lineup. We’re really poised for success. We’re going to take this portfolio, now that Vistiq is rounding out the SUV portfolio, and become the No. 1, Tier One EV luxury brand.”
Kia EV3 May Be Headed To US
The Kia EV3 may be just what the doctor ordered for many American drivers. It is small enough to have nimble handling, it has great styling, seats five, carries an ample amount of stuff, and is affordable for many. It has been very well received in Europe.
It looks like a pocket version of the three-row EV9 and is one of the best looking electric cars around, according to our own Zachary Shahan. The judges for this year’s Red Dot Award for Product Design named it the “Best of the Best” a month ago — an award the EV9 won last year. The EV3 is one of the best selling electric cars in the Netherlands and Denmark.
New Atlas says Kia sold a total of 27,761 electric vehicles in Europe in the first quarter of 2025 and nearly two thirds of them — 17,878 units — were EV3 models. In the UK, it starts at £32,995 ($43,790), but New Atlas says there are rumors the base price will be lower if it goes on sale in the US. How much lower is unknown.
What also is unknown is what tariffs may apply to cars made in S. Korea from one day to the next, whether the federal tax credit will survive in the Senate (the House has already voted to revoke it), and what further punishments for EV drivers Repugnicans will think of to please their fossil fuel masters.
In the UK, the EV3 comes standard with a 58 kWh battery rated for 270 miles (435 km) of range in the WLTP cycle. An optional 81 kWh battery pack increases range to 375 miles (603 km). EPA range is typically about 15 percent less. Charging speeds are just okay at 128 kW for the larger battery and 102 kW for the smaller one. Charging time from 10% to 80% for both batteries is claimed to be 31 minutes. An all-wheel-drive version of the car is rumored to be coming soon.
Kia announced on May 21, 2025 that the Kia EV3 equipped with the available automated driver assistance package was awarded a 5-star safety rating in testing by Euro NCAP, Europe’s leading independent safety testing organization. The model without ADAS was awarded four stars
Euro NCAP awarded the EV3 maximum points in the side barrier test for adult occupant protection. The car provided good protection in all critical areas for young passengers in the same test. The EV3 was also praised for the direct driver status monitoring system, which is standard on all models. The high strength E-GMP platform combined with its rigid body structure contributed to the excellent safety rating.
“The EV3 is an amazingly versatile vehicle, able to adapt to wide range of lifestyles, and this rating shows the vehicle is highly protective for the driver, passengers and other road users,” said Pablo Martínez Masip, vice president for marketing at Kia Europe. “The Euro NCAP rating is just reward for a vehicle that has greatly impressed the media, the industry and customers alike.”
It is the considered opinion of the staff of ace reporters at CleanTechnica that the Kia EV3 would sell like corn dogs at the Oklahoma State Fair if and when it is offered in America at a reasonable price. Not everyone wants a hulking people mover when a trimmer, slimmer car will do. Bring it, Kia, and they will buy.
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