2025 Escalade IQ is Cadillac’s high-tech super-lux EV SUV

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Cadillac’s all-electric 2025 Escalade IQ will offer more power and better aerodynamics than any other Escalade that’s come before it, the American luxury automaker announced at the SUV’s reveal August 9. The battery-powered IQ – Cadillac’s been giving its EVs names with -iq suffixes, like Lyriq and Celestiq, but didn’t want to ditch the cachet of its most well-known nameplate – marks “a reimagination of the luxury full-size SUV experience, brimming with iconic design, the highest level of craftsmanship and the latest automotive technology,” according to a press release. We’ll note more specifically that the EV counterpart to Cadillac’s best-selling sport-utility flagship has been “reimagined” to be bigger and bolder and stuffed with more tech than ever before.

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The battery range of the big, bold brute is estimated to be about 724 kilometres, a feat it pulls off in part thanks to aerodynamics that Cadillac says offer a 15-per-cent better coefficient of drag versus prior generations. The improvement can largely be chalked up to tweaks to details like the faces of the rims, the trailing edge of the taillights and underbody and grille-shutter-type aero aids. The form itself otherwise seems a lot boxier and more upright than its super-sleek Lyriq and Celestiq siblings, with a hood longer than even GM’s electric Silverado or Hummer.

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That’s not to say there’s no resemblance to Cadillac’s other EVs. The head- and taillights may seem more vertical than you’d expect on an electric vehicle, but they still echo the other -iqs’ design language. The illuminated grille is similarly familiar, as is the leaned-forward C-pillar. It’s all just rendered a little—taller than it is on those other modern Caddies, clocking in at 76 inches high and 224.3 inches long, about the same size as the current gas-powered Escalade ESV.

The Escalade IQ, built on GM’s Ultium platform, gets its 24-inch wheels rolling thanks to two electric motors that deliver 680 horsepower and 615 pound-feet of torque, though drivers can select a Velocity Max mode to unleash 750 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque, which makes IQ the most powerful Escalade ever, good for a zero-to-96-km/h sprint under five seconds. The 24-module nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum batteries are good for 200 kWh of energy storage, and can handle 800-volt DC fast-charging; vehicle-to-home charging is on the table, too, and towing maxes out at 8,000 lbs.

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It’s all held aloft by an independent suspension set-up that comes with air springs and MagneRide shocks standard. They make for an adjustable ride height that can raise the Escalade IQ’s unibody chassis up an inch; or lower it down by two inches, a drop saved not just for high speed, but for low-speed cruising in Low Ride mode. There’s also four-wheel steering, which gives the hulking ‘Slade a not-too-shabby-for-its-size 39.4-foot turning radius; and allows it to pull off Cadillac’s equivalent of the Hummer “Crab Walk,” here named “Arrival Mode” and touted as making pulling away from curbside parallel parking easier.

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And now that we’re talking tech, let’s look at the other buttons on the dash—or the dash itself, dominated by a dual-screen “curved pillar-to-pillar 55-inch-total-diagonal LED display” swiped directly, literally, from the Celestiq, with the extra width of the Escalade’s cabin covered up by sticking a set of speakers on either end. Those two sound-emitters join a complement of 17 others, though higher trims see 36 total speakers. There’s highway-driving assistant Super Cruise standard, obviously, plus automatic parallel- and perpendicular-parking capabilities.

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Seating can be kitted out to accommodate up to seven passengers, at the expense of cargo room. There’s 560 fewer litres out back for luggage versus the Escalade ESV, with seats-up totals at 670L and third-row folded at 1958L, but the “eTrunk” up front is good for 345L, too. Plus those passengers will be enjoying a real sense of luxury inside the IQ, especially if it’s kitted out with the Executive Second-Row Seating Package, which includes a pair of heated, ventilated, massaging second-row captain’s chairs, complete with headrest speakers that bring the total to 40. Dig the twin 12.6-inch displays and tray tables, too.

Production will start in Detroit next summer, with Luxury and Sport trims available (that’s bright, shiny details on the former, darker finishes on the latter). Canadian pricing is a ways out, but U.S. pricing estimates are apparently in the US$130,000 ballpark, which is about CDN$175,000 at current exchanges.

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