Cadillac Optiq to be made alongside Chevrolet Equinox EV in Mexico

The Cadillac Optiq could be made in Mexico from the fourth quarter of the year. Mexico would be its second production location globally after China.

According to a report from Cluster Industrial, GM plans to manufacture the Cadillac Optiq at its plant in Ramos Arizpe (Coahuila) in Mexico. That’s the same factory where it builds the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the luxury EV’s mainstream cousin. The Cadillac Optiq is already under production in China, at a SAIC-GM joint venture factory in Jinqiao (Shanghai), as per a report from GM Authority.

The Cadillac Optiq has been confirmed for sale in Europe, where the brand is currently present in France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland and, according to a report from Autocar, plans to enter the UK later this year. European markets are likely to get the mid-size electric SUV from the Chinese plant, as the report says that its Mexican production will exclusively serve North America.

The Cadillac Optiq is built on the GM’s BEV3 platform and is made in single-motor FWD and dual-motor AWD configurations. In China, customers can choose from two configurations, while in the US, there are no options.

The base variant of the Chinese model has a permanent magnet synchronous motor in the front, tuned to produce 180 kW and 330 Nm of torque. A 68.4 kWh battery pack powers this motor and gives the EV a CLTC range of 536 km. The top-end variant adds an induction motor in the back, giving the Cadillac Optiq all-wheel drive capability and bumping its power and torque to 211 kW and 465 Nm, respectively. It uses a bigger, 79.7 kWh battery pack, which results in a higher CLTC range of 600 km.

The US-specced Cadillac Optiq employs a permanent magnet synchronous motor in the front and an induction motor in the back as standard, which produce 224 kW and 480 Nm of torque. Moreover, the battery pack is also better, having a higher energy storage capacity of 85 kWh. The EPA-estimated range isn’t available yet, but Cadillac expects it to be 300 miles (483 km).

The Cadillac Optiq’s specifications for European countries will be revealed when it goes on sale later this year. There’s no word on the pricing for these markets, but in the US, the prices are officially estimated to start at $54,000.

clusterindustrial.com.mx (in Spanish), gmauthority.com