Badanai Motors Invests in Electric Vehicles
by Scott A. Sumner
The auto industry is changing quickly and Badanai Motors Thunder Bay is getting ready for their new electric vehicle offering.
The Badanai family has operated the dealership for 98 years and October 2024 will be 100 years!
“ The auto industry is moving quickly to electric vehicles and I feel by the end of 2025 there will be a 30% auto penetration of electric in \North America. We have never seen the likes of it and we will see more change in this industry in the next 24 months than we have seen in the last 100 years.” said George Badanai, Dealer Principal, Badanai Motors Thunder Bay.“We are currently installing the first 9 of 11 charger’s for our customers as we continue to ramp up with the launch of the Cadillac Lyriq today. The Silverado EV, which we have close to 50 reservations for right now, will be here for the first quarter of 2023. They will start to be produced next year followed by the Equinox and then the E Blazer. We will start to see significant quantities of electric vehicles here in the next 18 to 24 months.”
The new Cadillac Lyriq was on display at Badanai Motors and will replace the Cadillac XT5. All Cadillacs going forward will have a E \version to succeed it.
“ We have had 7 people put in orders for the Lyriq with our first order put in to the system two weeks ago. That vehicle will arrive the fourth \quarter of this year starting with a rear wheel drive unit. All wheel \drive production will start in the fourth quarter. There will be light availability for the first 6 to 8 months, maybe two as they ramp up the battery plant in Detroit.” George said.
“ The rear wheel drive Lyriq only has one electric motor in the back. The all wheel drive will have two electric motors one in the front and \one in the back. The batteries are underneath the seats taking the whole floor. The Lyriq weighs 6600 pounds similar to the current Cadillac Escalade weight.” said Omar, product specialist who was on tour with the vehicle across Canada.
Badanai Motors has also just put in a new four post alignment rack that can lift 18,000 pounds because of the higher weights with electric \vehicles. The new GM Hummer EV electric will weigh almost12,000 pounds.
Batteries are important with electric vehicles. How will the charging work?“ You can charge your vehicle with 110 volt, 240 volt or a 19.2 \Kilowatt charger. The 240 volt, which is similar to your clothes dryer at home plug in, will charge the vehicle at 30 to 40 km of range per hour. The 19.2 kilowatt will charge at 80 to100 km per hour.The range is about 400km so you can charge in about 5 hours with the fastest charger,” said George Badanai. “Our dealership will have 50 kilowatt charger’s which will charge in about 20 minutes. Our customers will have the option to charge their vehicles here for a price. We will recharge our customers vehicle to 80% charge at no charge when they bring them in for service.”
“ I am told there could be a 20 to 40% loss of range in the very cold winter months. The battery warranty is 8 years or 160KM. Every battery \has a health. If it stays over 70% it is still good with GM. In 8 years the price of batteries will drop a lot as everyone is working on the same thing.” said Badanai.
The retail price of the Cadillac Lyriq is $ 70,000 to $73,500. You can also lease the vehicles if you want with GM financial.
The inventory of all vehicles at Badanai Motors will improve this month.
“ Right now we have 243 vehicles coming at us today in the system with 122 Crew Cabs and 30 Equinox so we are starting to see vehicles.We will \actually have inventory in October for the first time in 20 months. If the shipping is timely by the end of October we might have 40 vehicles in stock to sell.”said George Badanai.
