The Cadillac Escalade IQ Takes the Full-Size SUV Electric

• Cadillac plans to reveal the battery-electric Escalade IQ before the end of the year.
• It’s expected that the battery-electric Escalade iQ will use the General Motors Ultium battery system.
• The Cadillac Escalade IQ will be the third battery-electric vehicle in Cadillac’s portfolio, and joins the Lyriq and soon-to-be-produced Celestiq.

With the Chevrolet Silverado EV taking an electric drivetrain to a full-size Chevy truck, it was only a matter of time before the big SUVs would get their turn. Well, Cadillac confirms it’s going to launch an all-electric Escalade dubbed the Escalade IQ. This is likely one of the three models the company hinted it would reveal this year, and a logical point of expansion for the brand’s battery-electric portfolio.

Details are predictably light at this early point in the Escalade IQ’s launch cycle, but considering General Motors has a scalable Ultium platform, it only makes sense to assume it will use the same basic underpinnings as what we see with the Hummer EV and Silverado EV. Of course, the Escalade IQ will probably offer the same upscale appointments you’d expect, and likely carry a similarly upscale price tag. Though, the Escalade IQ should still exist in the shadows of Cadillac’s return to ultimate luxury: the Celestiq.

While we assume the Escalade IQ will use the Ultium battery architecture, it’s hard to say how far Cadillac will take it. But as a three-row SUV, the Escalade IQ will have a large floorpan, which means lots of rooms for batteries underneath. So count on this new EV to be extremely heavy and to use at least two motors when it debuts later this year.

When Cadillac begins producing the Escalade IQ, it will be curious to see how quickly the all-electric full-size SUV leaves the factory gates. Beyond the Chevrolet Bolt, which is being discontinued, General Motors has struggled to sell its Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer EVs at any real volume.

So far this year, GMC has sold a measly nine Hummer pickups and not a single Hummer SUV. Meanwhile, Cadillac’s Lyriq has been slow-moving as well, with 1402 examples sold so far this year. That at least shows the production lag being addressed for Lyriq, but that volume trails behind other similar EVs such as the VW ID.4 (11,300 sales through April) and Ford Mustang Mach-E (7000 examples), according to Wards Intelligence data.

When the Escalade iQ arrives, it might be cross-shopped with the Mercedes EQS SUV, which has sold 3100 examples this year through April.

What do you expect from a battery-electric Escalade? Tell us your thoughts below.