Cadillac engineers have absolutely considered an electric Blackwing. Torque is a hell of a drug, but don’t hold your breath for an EV with that badge anytime soon. You might pass out.
At the launch of the 2026 Cadillac Lyriq V at a loud dinner table, Alex Doss, lead development engineer for the Lyriq-V, spilled the beans on an electric Blackwing: There isn’t one. At least for now. But there could be, and likely will be, someday. The two barriers today include technology and market demand.
Doss said the key difference between a V, which the Lyriq V is the first electric model to sport the badge, and a Blackwing is that the former is a sporty and balanced street car while the latter is supposed to be a daily-drivable track monster.
Doss said today’s technology, specifically batteries, is heavy. Weight is the enemy of any EV, both in terms of dynamics and efficiency. Ripping on a track requires a massive amount of cooling, and the engineering team wants repeatable track performance, which means a ton of cooling. Ripping around a track in an EV creates a large amount of heat in a short period of time in the battery pack. It’s a technological limitation of today’s technology.
Tomorrow’s technology, including solid-state batteries, might address this. Doss and his team of engineers aren’t alone in this thinking. Back in 2022 Honda’s CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, and Managing Officer Shinji Aoyama in Tokyo both said solid-state batteries were needed to make an electric Type R-like vehicle.
Those solid-state batteries are coming. Both Honda and Nissan are working on the technology. A lightweight Acura NSX-like sports car with solid-state batteries is said to be coming in 2028.
Aside from the tech, Doss said the second piece of the puzzle is consumer demand. The engineer said today, it’s just not there in measurable scale. Some level of volume needs to be achieved to justify a business case for an electric Blackwing, and so far Doss said it hasn’t materialized.
Cadillac isn’t ready for an electric Blackwing, but that hasn’t stopped electric sports cars from coming to market. Hyundai’s shown the world what can be with the Ioniq 5 N, which is like a racing sim you can drive in real life. The electric overgrown hot hatch is so good it was named The Drive‘s Best EV of 2024. A slinky Ioniq 6 N is the automaker’s follow-up act. The Porsche Taycan is yet another example of a top-shelf world-beating electric sports car, though sales have been slowing.
Doss didn’t rule out an electric Blackwing in the electric future, but was clear, multiple variables need to develop further for the team to be satisfied with the investment.
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