NEW YORK — Cadillac‘s electric Escalade was barely a day old, but Will Churchill already had more than 30 emails from clients and friends wanting to buy one.
Since General Motors‘ luxury brand unveiled the 2025 Escalade IQ last week at an event here, it has generated some of the biggest response the Texas dealer said he has received for a new model.
“Escalade’s become its own brand, and I think this continues that narrative,” said Churchill, who has Cadillac stores in Fort Worth and Arlington. “It delivers on what you expect from an Escalade.”
Staying true to that brand as an electric vehicle will be key for Cadillac’s top-selling franchise. The Escalade IQ is, on one hand, a clean-sheet EV designed from the ground up on GM’s Ultium battery platform, rather than a gasoline vehicle architecture retrofitted with batteries and an electric motor.
But unlike Cadillac’s first two EVs — the Lyriq midsize crossover and upcoming ultraluxury Celestiq sedan — the Escalade IQ leverages a nameplate that has racked up considerable customer equity, even pop culture status, for 25 years.
GM executives nodded to that history while also pointing to Cadillac’s future as the automaker’s leading EV brand. Cadillac aims to have an all-electric lineup by 2030, and the Escalade IQ’s luxury design and advanced technologies are positioned as a reflection of the brand’s EV ambitions.
“Over the last 120 years, Cadillac has introduced a lot of bold vehicles,” said John Roth, vice president of global Cadillac. “But this — this one is our boldest.”
Still, he added, “the mission and the vision” from day one was that the Escalade IQ would not stray too far from its roots.
“You don’t take a franchise player like this kind of model and brand and do anything different,” Roth said. “It always wants to be an Escalade.”
At a base price of around $130,000 with shipping, it will be the most expensive Escalade except the V-series performance version. It comes with a GM-estimated 450-mile range, which is on a par with the Chevrolet Silverado EV 4WT work truck arriving this year and bests the less-expensive GMC Hummer EV.
GM President Mark Reuss told reporters last week that consumers’ preferences for the Escalade IQ over its gasoline-powered sibling will emerge as the EV’s launch gets closer. Production is set to begin in Detroit next summer.
Reuss said there are not yet electric SUVs that compete head-to-head with the Escalade IQ. Some brands might get close on price or also have three rows of seats but not offer as much content, he said.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what happens,” Reuss said. “But we feel pretty good about this as a plus-business halo for SUVs because we have built that brand Escalade, and Cadillac, quite a ways.”
The Escalade IQ doesn’t have a full rival “from a size, image and product standpoint” because the market for large, luxury, electric SUVs is still limited, said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds.
It’s possible that a prospective Escalade IQ buyer also could shop the Mercedes-Benz EQS or Tesla Model X, she said, but “these aren’t perfect competitors just because this market is so small.”
“You think electric vehicle, you don’t think big, beefy, luxuriously aggressive type of design, so I think that probably was the thin line they had to walk on — of keeping it true to what Escalade is, but then also obviously electrifying it and making it look futuristic and cool,” Caldwell said. “That’s also what people are looking for when they buy an EV. They want to see the envelope of design pushed in a more futuristic way.”
Part of that design is inspired by the Celestiq, such as the 55-inch curved display that spans the width of the cabin. The Celestiq starts around $340,000 not including shipping.
The Escalade IQ is just over 4 inches wider and a foot longer than the standard Escalade. It’s also more aerodynamic.
A feature called Velocity Max allows acceleration to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds, and Arrival Mode turns all four 35-inch tires in the same direction for diagonal driving.
GM’s Ultium platform gave designers and engineers more freedom to play with the SUV’s proportions, including sloping the roofline and pushing out the front wheels by nearly a foot.
GM executives say the electric and combustion Escalades will share space on dealership lots, giving consumers choices as they adopt EVs at different rates.
Reuss told reporters that GM hasn’t decided when it will stop assembling the standard Escalade and longer-wheelbase Escalade ESV at its plant in Arlington, Texas, other than that Cadillac aspires to be all-EV by the end of the decade.
Customer demand remains high for the gasoline versions, GM North America President Rory Harvey told Automotive News at a media event this month in Detroit. And he said the Escalade IQ is expected to get a lot of consideration, including in areas that don’t yet have strong EV penetration.
Having both options will allow GM to adjust production as the market evolves, he said.
“It gives us the best of both worlds in terms of customer choice, and it gives us the ability to be able to flex in certain locations dependent upon multiple factors,” Harvey said. “I think we’re in a very, very strong position.”
It will be important for Cadillac to make sure it can get the Escalade IQ in buyers’ driveways without long backlogs that could frustrate them, said Churchill, the Texas dealer.
“People are not averse to an electric vehicle. What they’re averse to is range anxiety and the inability for manufacturers to deliver a product on time,” he said. “When you take a halo brand like an Escalade, which already has a ton of built-up following, and you electrify it, I think it’s only going to be positive.”
