Those who've been left wanting a proper Cadillac flagship might finally have cause to celebrate; such a car is on the way, and from what little we know so far, it will "Dare Greatly" in all the ways the marque's old flagship, the Cadillac CT6, could never quite manage.
Dubbed the "Celestiq", Cadillac's new flagship will be an exclusive, low-volume, hand-built battery-electric vehicle - the sort of car that seems purpose-built to restore the brand's tarnished status and stir interest among the EV faithful as GM taps Cadillac to take the lead on its future battery-powered vehicle ambitions. It will follow the Lyriq - a pure-electric utility vehicle slated for a public unveiling next month - to market.
Will it look like the Cadillac Escala concept, pictured above? All we can say is that Cadillac showed the Celestiq to a gathering of media, investors, and dealers at the Warren Technical Center recently, although no photos of the car we permitted. It's a low, long sedan with a fastback profile, and a complex fascia flanked by a pair of slender, vertical headlamps. No technical details were revealed at the event, save for that it will utilize a modular, scalable battery architecture GM is cooking up, dubbed "Ultium".
Ultium, which shares the name of a certain horse feed, will power most or all of GM's future EVs, and it could help the automaker reach the pivotal $100-per-kWh mark - the point at which EVs should hit price parity with gasoline cars, according to many analysts. In the Celestiq, that Ultium battery architecture could facilitate as much as 400 miles of range and a 0-to-60 time in the neighborhood of three seconds.
It's a dream car for this company and our customers," GM President Mark Reuss said of the Celestiq, according to Business Insider. "It's the ultimate expression of Cadillac design and technology, and the ultimate luxury experience."
In essence, it will be the anti-ELR, the Cadillac ELR being the brand's overpriced, badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
General Motors is planning to introduce some 22 electric vehicles by 2023, many of which will be Cadillac products as that brand prepares to transition to a lineup comprised mostly or entirely of EVs by 2030.