Cadillac will charge Lyriq electric SUV owners to unlock more torque from the electric motor PiataAuto.md

In recent years, automakers seem more inclined to charge their buyers after selling their cars for items that are already in their cars and that they have paid for. Earlier we heard about the famous registration of the heated seat of BMW, and then Mercedes used the opening of more power and torque for its cars, which you can pay for after buying. You don’t even come for service anymore, you just pay with your phone and the car receives an update that allows the electric motors to develop more power. Now Cadillac is joining the trend with its new Lyriq electric SUV.

Owners of the new electric model will be able to purchase a package known as “Velocity”, which costs 1,200 dollars and unlocks an additional 100 Nm for the summary torque of the two electric motors on the Lyriq AWD.

Once the car receives the remote update, the Sport mode will disappear from its list, replaced by Speed ​​mode, and only in that case the car will produce 100 Nm more, total torque reaching 710 Nm. Power remains unchanged at 500 hp in total. Thanks to the extra power, the car will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds.

What we need to know about these additional permissions is that they can be deliberately implanted from the design stage, as well as the result of battery optimization or, possibly, the desire to make a profit.

In the first case, the car will not suffer from a technical point of view, if the engineers designed from the beginning that the battery can provide a continuous power flow, for example, 370 kW and 710 Nm, and someone decided to limit the program. torque to 610Nm, then unlocking it to 710Nm for an additional fee. In the second case, the car will also not suffer, because inside the battery there may be cells that perform well, which allow a strong discharge and thus can provide a flow of energy to the engine.

In the third case, however, which is also frequent, one simply enters the battery engineering reserve. Because if the engines need 370 kW continuously at maximum power, the battery is usually calculated to be able to supply 370 kW continuously at least during a few accelerations to high speed. For a very short time, they can produce 500 kW or 600 kW, but not in a continuous, continuous mode. And with upgrades like that, it really gets into the realm of this short-term battery capacity, making it even more compelling. For Mercedes, for example, this area entered even the official power, with a small text announcing that the maximum power is only available when the battery is almost full, and only for a few seconds. We don’t know which of these cases applies to the Lyriq, but the fact that the new torque value will only be available in Speed ​​mode shows some clear limitations.