EV flagship: $300k-plus Celestiq seeks to redefine Cadillac as world luxury standard

Posted by Talbot Payne on October 18, 2022

Putting an exclamation point on its extreme makeover as an electric-vehicle brand, Cadillac unveiled on Monday its new flagship, the 2024 Celestiq sedan.

Slated for production in late 2023 with a $300,000-plus price tag in the same nose-bleed section as ultra-luxury coach-builds like the Rolls Royce Ghost, Celestiq seeks to re-establish Cadillac as the “standard of the world” for the 21st century with state-of-the-art, battery-powered tech.

First shown as a prototype in March 2020 alongside Cadillac’s first EV, the Lyriq crossover, Celestiq is a Lyriq on steroids. Sporting the brand’s new upright, disco-grille (Celestiq has 1,600 LEDs total), the sleek, all-wheel-drive chariot is draped over an Ultium battery platform and engorged with electronic wonders like a 55-inch touchscreen and quad-zone panoramic glass roof.

The distinctive, sport-back rear of the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq EV. The big car claims 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds.

Hand-built in Warren’s Tech Center, the 2024 Celestiq will have a limited edition run — each model personalized to its premium buyer’s taste. Celestiq follows other Caddy flagships like the 1933 V16 Aerodynamic Coupe that defined pre-war style, the 1957 Eldorado Brougham that became a tail-fin period icon, and the athletic 2016 CT6 sedan that headlined the brand’s brief Blackwing-engine performance era.

Like CT6, Celestiq shows off Cadillac’s future on a car platform at a time when 7 of 10 new vehicles sold are SUVs. Cadillac’s best-known sport utility, the Escalade, would seem a natural canvas for the brand’s new direction — but with sci-fi tech and a price tag triple that of Escalade, Celestiq is a significant break from current Cadillac convention.

Despite massive investments since the turn of the century to bring the brand on par with Nurburgring-shredding athletes from BMW, Mercedes and Audi, Cadillac sales have lagged. Indeed, it has been another American luxury brand, Tesla, that successfully leap-frogged the German triumvirate with all-electric technology.

Cadillac, too, sees advances in electronics and battery power as an opportunity to remake itself as an electric brand.

“Celestiq is the purest expression of Cadillac, acknowledging our incredible history and driving us to a bolder and brighter future,” said Global Vice President Rory Harvey. “It is a completely bespoke work of automotive art, built around the most advanced and innovative technology that we have ever engineered.”

Just over a century from its founding in 1909, GM’s luxury division seeks to redefine a new century by drawing from Cadillac’s origins making high-style, high-tech, hand-built machines.

The 2024 Cadillac Celestiq EV will add 78 miles of charge in 10 minutes on a fast charger.

Courting comparison to the brand’s storied history, Celestiq’s long-hooded fastback is an unmistakable echo of the ‘33 Aerodynamic Coupe while its estimated charging time — 78 miles in 10 minutes — lags Escalade’s 450 miles in three minutes at a gas pump.

Like England’s Rolls and Bentley land yachts, each Celestiq will be individually commissioned so no two builds are alike. Via dealers, clients will create a vision tailored to their personal tastes.

“With an extremely low volume of hand-built vehicles to be offered globally each year, Celestiq will truly be a custom-commissioned one-of-one,” said Harvey. “Each client will experience a personalized journey to make their vehicle exactly the way they desire.”

Each 2024 Cadillac Celestiq EV will be hand-built for the customer.

Built on the Ultium battery platform and riding on a smooth air suspension, Celestiq will be powered by a 111-kWh battery pack and twin motors to achieve immediate, 640-pound feet of torque and 600 horsepower. Significantly, that is half the battery size of the 212.7 kWh GMC Hummer EV — the first GM vehicle built on Ultium and weighing nearly five tons.

Expect Celestiq to be lighter on its feet, though its estimated 3.8-second spring to 60 mph is shy of Hummer’s claimed 3.0 seconds. Celestiq range will be a Hummer-like 300 miles. That range will come slowly at super charger networks being built across the country with federal help. Ultium Charge 360 will help customers plan a trip by coordinating stops with 110,000 chargers across North America.

For added maneuverability in charger parking lots as well as on road, Celestiq will feature rear-drive steering. Consistent with Lyriq and other EVs, Celestiq will be capable of one-pedal driving, using the electric motors as brakes to restore battery energy.

Or passengers can choose not to drive at all. Celestiq will be equipped with GM’s Ultra Cruise self-driving system. Building on the current Super Cruise system (that debuted in CT6) that allows hands-free driving on more than 200,000 miles of divided highways, Ultra Cruise will expand that capability to 2 million miles of highway and secondary roads.

“Celestiq continues the 120-year Cadillac history of leveraging the most advanced automotive technology in the service of luxury,” said development engineer Ken Althouse.

Inside Celestiq’s quiet blue interior, passengers will sit beneath a four-zone smart glass roof that utilizes “suspended particle device technology” so each passenger can control the amount of outside light they receive. If the quiet gets too eerie, then the pilot can dial up Cadillac-curated propulsion sounds while driving.

The bejeweled rotary screen controller on the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq EV.

The interior will be bathed in ambient light (18 different lighting animations are on offer) complementing the car’s rich materials, jewel-like rotary screen controller, 41-speaker sound system, and enormous 55-inch screen that stretches from A-pillar to A-pillar.

The screen houses two separate displays under a single pane of glass — the passenger-side display enabling media-play, Internet capability, smartphone connectivity and more. Screens are governed by a Google Built-In operating system. Rear passengers get their own 12.6-inch, seatback-mounted displays.

Celestiqs will roll out of GM’s Warren Global Technical Center beginning in December of next year — the first production vehicle made there — thanks to an $81 million investment.

“Cadillac’s brand legacy was forged with hand-building the most advanced vehicles of their era,” said Roma. “We are returning to that tradition with Celestiq, creating a piece of automotive art.”

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

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