- The Cadillac Escalade IQ’s 24-module battery offers an estimated 450 miles of range.
- The full-size all-electric SUV’s interior features a 55-inch LED display, which handles navigation, entertainment, and necessary vehicle information.
- The 2024 Escalade IQ starts around $130,000, with production scheduled to begin in the summer of 2024.
Following the launch of the Lincoln Navigator, it was probably hard to see how successful the Cadillac Escalade was going to be when it launched in 1999. Though, over the last two decades, Cadillac’s Escalade has become one of the brands most important models and a staple among luxury SUV shopping lists.
Well, Cadillac’s Escalade is entering a new era and is spinning off a battery-electric sibling: the Escalade IQ. Alongside the electric powertrain, Cadillac is showing us its future of interior design with a massive array of screens.
The Powertrain
The centerpiece of the Escalade IQ is a massive, 24-module Ultium battery pack that holds 200 kWh of electricity, which Cadillac estimates can power this full-size SUV over 450 miles on a charge.
This battery pack feeds motors at the front and rear, providing all-wheel drive. As you’d expect from a high-end EV, these electric motors generate up to 750 hp and 785 lb-ft of torque and can tow up to 8000 pounds.
Making the whole situation even more absurd, Cadillac estimates the Escalade IQ can sprint to 60 mph from a standing start in less than 5 seconds, which isn’t far from the last Camaro Z28’s 4.4-second time. Not bad for a hulking, people-moving BEV.
The Interior
Of course, in the era of EVs, the powertrain is less important to most than the vehicle’s overall experience. With the Escalade IQ, you’re going to assume it is luxurious and tech-forward, which certainly checks both boxes. Entering the Escalade IQ’s cavernous cabin through the power-opening doors, you’ll find that it’s full of screens: Available screens fixed to the first-row seat backs are dwarfed by the 55-inch screen affixed to the Escalade’s dashboard.
This expansive screen runs with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Cockpit Platform. Your favorite Google functions, like Google Maps, are also tagging along as the Escalade IQ’s infotainment system has Google built-in.
Cadillac says this massive screen is functionally two screens, with 35 inches of space reserved for the driver, and a polarized coating over the other 25 inches of screen. According to Cadillac, this will help prevent the driver from seeing any media playing in the passenger area.
Physical buttons and controls are replaced by, what Cadillac calls, Virtual Controls. Though, you’ll do most of the controlling physically with the touchscreen that sits in the floating center console.
If this screen looks familiar, it should. The ultra-luxury Cadillac Celestiq showed off this massive screen in when it debuted last year. Though, unlike the Celestiq, this Escalade is more pointed toward mass market appeal. Well, more mass market than the ultra-limited, hand-built Celestiq is targeting.
If you can somehow look beyond the massive screen spanning the Escalade IQ’s dashboard, you’ll find a luxurious cabin space. Tasteful leather wraps the heated, ventilated, and massaging front seats.
If you check the box for the Executive Second-Row Seating package, you’ll get those massaging seats in the second row, too. You’ll also add the 12.6-inch media screens mounted to the back of front row seats.
Unfortunately for those in steerage, the power-folding third row doesn’t offer any posh accouterment like built-in seat massagers, but they can fold flat to give you more cargo area, spanning 23.7 cubic feet of space. Though, without an engine under the hood, the cargo area is less of a worry.
That grows the third row collapsed to 69.1 cubic feet of storage space, but the front trunk might help you keep that third row upright. Dubbed the eTrunk, this space adds 12 cubic feet of storage to the Escalade and is deep enough to hold two golf bags.
The Tech
Joining this interior is a similarly advanced set of active safety features. As you’d expect on a high-end Cadillac, the Escalade gets Super Cruise on the options list. While Super Cruise is available, there are some handy standard features.
On the ’25 Escalade IQ, you’ll find standard blind zone assist, intersection automatic emergency braking, and enhanced automatic parking assist. Those join HD surround vision and front pedestrian and bicyclist braking to help make your experience a little easier behind the wheel, though you’re probably going to want to option Super Cruise for optimum convenience.
Of course, this still is fundamentally a vehicle, even if it has more tech than my house. The Escalade IQ rides on the Ultium battery platform, which means the suspension shouldn’t be too big of a surprise, either.
Short-long arm suspension handles the front and rear wheels, with air springs giving you cushion from the road. Those air springs also offer an adjustable ride height, which can drop up to two inches and gives you Cadillac Arrival mode and the appropriately named Low Mode.
These air springs can also give you an extra inch of ground clearance if you need it. Responsible for dampening is a set of MagnaRide dampers.
Like its platform mate the GMC Hummer EV, the Escalade IQ gets rear-wheel steer. This lets the folks at Cadillac help effectively shrink the 136.2-inch wheelbase when you’re trying to park or navigate a low-speed situation.
For those counting, that’s a longer wheelbase than the current Escalade ESV, to give you some scale. This all rides on a set of 24-inch standard wheels that are wrapped in 275/50 tires. The massive 224.3-inch long, 94.1-inch wide, and 76.1-inch tall sheetmetal shape help make those 24-inch wheels seem normal.
The Price
The Escalade IQ is scheduled to hit production next summer at GM’s Factory Zero in Hamtramck, Michigan. Cadillac hasn’t mentioned official pricing, but you can assume it will be expensive. The company has said it will start around $130,000, which if that holds will make it a bargain compared to the Celestiq.
Do you think the Escalade IQ will repeat the Escalade’s success? Or is this BEV SUV going to struggle in the market? Tell us your thoughts below.
Wesley Wren has spent his entire life around cars, whether it’s dressing up as his father’s 1954 Ford for Halloween as a child, repairing cars in college or collecting frustrating pieces of history—and most things in between. Wesley is the current steward of a 1954 Ford Crestline Victoria, a 1975 Harley-Davidson FXE and a 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie. Oh yeah, and a 2005 Kia Sedona.
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