Cadillac’s XT4 baby SUV still looks relatively fresh on the outside four years on from launch, but GM’s flagship brand is getting ready to drop an updated version incorporating some of the smartest tech found on more recent models.

The 2024 model year facelift should have happened months earlier, but was delayed to the COVID-19 pandemic. But our spy photographers caught the updated SUV out on the street proving that it’s back on the menu as the pandemic abates, and though the fairly heavy disguise at both ends did its best to throw us off, it wasn’t enough to stop us spotting some interesting upgrades.

Visually, we’re not expecting to see huge differences in the exterior look of the facelifted car. Other than perhaps the front fenders, the sheetmetal probably won’t change and we can see through the rear disguise that the rear light clusters have the same hockey-stick shape as those on the current car introduced in 2018.

But while we can’t see it on this bagged-up car, it’s likely that the grille will get a bolder look, while retaining its current dimensions. And though the lights seen here are dummies, it does look like the XT4 is jumping on the split-headlight vogue and employing a pair of super-slim DLRs at the leading edge of the hood while placing the true headlight units lower down in the bumper.

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One bit of tech we can be sure the XT4 is getting is a sweeping digital display like the one found in the Lyric and Escalade. Instead of a traditional set of analogue instruments ahead of the driver and a separate tablet touchscreen on the top of the dashboard above the center console the XT4 gains a wide, one-piece digital display. You can expect to see Cadillac’s Super Cruise autonomous technology make an appearance on the XT4, which was launched without the hardware first time around because it was considered too expensive and was reserved for the company’s bigger vehicles.

The current XT4 starts at $35,795 and comes with a 237 hp (240 PS) 2.0-liter turbocharged four driving the front wheels, with the option to upgrade to all-wheel drive. That recipe is likely to be carried over in the U.S., while Europe will once again get a diesel option.

Photo credits: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien for CarScoops