As Cadillac Society was first to report, the 2024 Cadillac Lyriq ditched the prior model year’s door handle setup in favor of self-presenting door handles, also known as deployable or lever-action door handles. The luxury marque has now released a short video detailing how to use and program the new door handles.
Cadillac officially refers to the Lyriq’s door handles as “power presenting door handles.” When the doors are locked and the owner approaches the Lyriq with the key fob, the power presenting handle automatically deploys on the driver’s door when it detects the fob within three feet (again, of the driver’s side door). The door handle can then be pulled to open the door. The 2024 Lyriq’s door handles are also illuminated, so they’re easy to pick out in the dark.
If the door handle is not pulled within a certain period of time, the vehicle will then lock again, and the handle will retract. If this occurs, pushing on the front of the door handle will cause it to present once more. Additionally, all outside door handles will deploy whenever the doors are unlocked with the key fob or phone app, or when any door is opened or closed.
The Lyriq can also be programmed to present all other door handles, not just that of the driver’s door, when the key fob is detected within a certain range. This setting can be changed via the infotainment system in the 2024 Cadillac Lyriq by navigating to Settings, then Vehicle, then Remote Lock, Unlock and Start. Even if this setting is modified, the outside door handles will retract within five minutes to prevent unwanted access to the Lyriq.
The new door handles in the 2024 Cadillac Lyriq are substantially more simple to use than those of the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, which feature button-action doors. To open either of the two front doors, passengers must press the tail end of the flush-mounted door button, which unlatches the door. From there, one must pull on the “shark fin”-style handle mounted on the trailing edge of the front door frames. The process is the same for the rear doors, but these do not feature the “shark-fin” style handle. This means that passengers must grab the door itself to open it, though there is a rubber “grab pad” at the inner edge of the rear doors that makes this slightly less cumbersome than it sounds. The video below shows the 2023 Lyriq’s door operation process (right around the 1 minute mark).
The Cadillac Lyriq rides on the luxury marque’s BEV3 platform featuring Ultium Drive and Ultium batteries. The crossover is assembled at the Cadillac Spring Hill plant in Tennessee for North American markets. Production of the 2024 model commenced in May 2023. For the Chinese market, the Lyriq is assembled at the Cadillac Jinqiao plant in Shanghai.
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Frankrizzo
That’s one ugly feature
Alex Luft
Says the guy who has never used it…
Bill Howland
Typical GM. “Fixing” something that isn’t broke and wasting money on a redesign. The 2023 Lyriq which I own is very obvious how to open the doors, and people who are not familiar with the vehicle instantly recognize how to open the doors after a second try.
Even owning a 2023, I was totally confused by how to open the door in the showroom of a 2024. But then there are plenty of things about the 2023 that to me are problematic, but since I like the car’s range and drivability that I suffer along with under-designed bugaboos. Door handles is not one of the ‘problems’ I would have fixed since there is no problem with the 2023.
Alex Luft
Bill, I’ll counter all that.
First, the door handle design for the 2024 Lyriq was the original design for the Lyriq, but they didn’t finish it in time for the 2023 model year launch. The 2023 design was a stop-gap. So this is not a matter of fixing something that isn’t broken. It’s a matter of sticking to the original plan.
Regarding the 2023 Lyriq’s handle design: I’ll be blunt – it’s way too cumbersome and is probably the worst door handle design I’ve tested in my 12+ years of being a journalist in the auto industry.
In all the times that I’ve driven the 2023 Lyriq, I had to tell people how to work the door handles not only for the two front doors, but also for the rears. People who are not familiar with the design in the 2023 most certainly do not “instantly recognize” how to work the doors on the first try, requiring me to show them how it’s done. That is no different than the 2024 design, which will take once or twice to get used to, after which point people will know how it’s done. The difference is that the 2024 design is not cumbersome like the 2023 is.
I’m also not sure how you can be “totally confused” by the 2024 handle design. That, to me, is simply unbelievable. If it’s not already deployed in the 2024, you just push the flush handle / button in the same you do in the 2023. This presents the handle, which you pull to unlatch the door. Seems pretty simple to me…
Still Waiting
I would like to see better information on vehicle availability. I put my 2024 Lyriq pre-order in November 2022, actually ordered my Sport 3 AWD in March 2023. It is late March 2024 and all I know is that it was mostly made in December 2023, waiting for some unknown parts. Better tracking of a $79000 vehicle woukd be nice.
Alex Luft
All I can say to that is that you’re not alone. Cadillac has not been very forthcoming in sharing information about the status of orders or reservations. This is already bad for GM as a whole, but even worse for the Lyriq.