Cadillac's EVs Are Stealing Tons Of Buyers From Other Brands

Cadillac has sold more than 100,000 new EVs, and three-quarters of those buyers are new to the brand.

By: Rob Stumpf

May 9, at 7:00am ET

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Cadillac is celebrating the sale of its 100,000th EV.
It managed to sell nearly half of these cars in 2025 alone.
Nearly 75% of the brand's EV buyers are new to the brand, coming from rivals like Tesla.

Cadillac is celebrating a big milestone: 100,000 EVs sold. And while that volume alone is pretty impressive, the more important victory is where exactly those buyers came from.

For decades, Cadillac had a very specific cultural role in the automotive world. It built massive land yachts for those who appreciated soft leather bench seats that rolled down the road like they were floating on a cloud. It wasn't exactly a brand that you associate with technological disruption or attracting defectors from Tesla. But over the last few years, Cadillac has managed to crank up its sales—and more importantly, poach them from the competition.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

GM's North America President, Duncan Aldred, revealed the achievement this week, along with another equally remarkable figure. It turns out that roughly 75% of people who purchase a Cadillac EV—Escalade IQ, Lyriq, Optiq, Vistiq, and Celestiq—are new to the brand. Before Cadillac, they owned cars from Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and (of course) Tesla.

Cadillac's sales numbers have been growing since it first introduced the Lyriq in 2022. In 2025 alone, it sold 7,879 Vistiqs, 8,115 Escalade IQs, 12,187 Optiqs, and a whopping 20,971 Lyriqs. Add them all up, and you get 49,152 EVs—or about half of the entire 100,000 in just a year.

These sales figures slot Cadillac as the fourth most popular EV brand sold in the U.S. last year, behind Tesla, its sister brand Chevrolet, and Hyundai. It even managed to outsell BMW, which just surpassed 2 million total EVs sold since 2013.

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The brand's success story is admirable, especially as the EV market becomes increasingly filled with new options not restricted to (though still dominated by) a single brand. Cadillac has quickly appealed to buyers who aren't looking for the newest tech from Silicon Valley or flashiest self-driving features, but rather just a good luxury vehicle that just happens to be electric.

“Once customers move to an EV, they tend to stay,” said Aldred. “Now, it’s on to the next 100,000.”