Given a Lie group $G$, what is the deference between the Laplacian $\Delta$ and the sub-Laplacian $\Delta_{sub}$ of $G$. And what are the properties that we lose when going from sub-Laplace to Laplace and vice versa.

For example, what I know, For $G$ being the Heisenberg group $H^3= \mathbb C \times \mathbb R$, the deference between the Laplacian $\Delta$ and the sub-Laplacian $\Delta_{sub}$ of $H^3$ is the standard Laplacian $\Delta_{\mathbb R} = \frac{\partial^2}{\partial t^2} $ of $\mathbb R$, because 
$$ \Delta= \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial y^2}  + (x^2+y^2 ) \frac{\partial^2}{\partial t^2} + 2(x\frac{\partial}{\partial y}  -y \frac{\partial}{\partial x} ) \frac{\partial}{\partial t} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial t^2}.$$
which can be rewritten in terms of the sub-Laplacian $\Delta_{sub}$ as 
\begin{align}
\Delta &= \Delta_{sub} + \Delta_{\mathbb R},
\end{align}
and for the properties that we lose when going from sub-Laplace to Laplace are for example the ellipticity, because $\Delta_{sub}$ is sub-elliptic but not elliptic, however $\Delta$ is elliptic.

Thank you in advance