Payne: Cadillac Escalade IQ is the big, strong, silent type

Posted by Talbot Payne on March 17, 2025

San Francisco — The Cadillac Escalade V is the King of Bling. The Lord of Loud. The Knight of Noise. Stomp its massive, 685-horse V-8 — WAUUUUFFRGGH! — and it will alert every patrol car within a 25-mile radius. V for Volume.

The Escalade IQ is its silent partner.

Mat the accelerator and the scenery blurs, your eyeballs flatten . . . and there is no sound. Except for the — PLOP! — of the dude’s jaw on the ground that you left behind at the stoplight. IQ for Incredibly Quiet.

2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ
Henry Payne, The Detroit News

A trophy car of the rich and famous, the Escalade has long defined excess and the IQ is a welcome member of the family. It boasts the usual supersized Escalade wardrobe — 55-inch screen, second-seat Executive package, automatic doors and then adds a few more attributes:

  • 9,000 pounds
  • A mammoth 200 kWh battery that uses half of the world’s lithium
  • 24-inch wheels the size of a NASA satellite dish
  • Frunk-tastic 12.2 cubic feet of space where the engine used to be

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ brings whisper-quiet, battery-powered performance to the GM luxury brand’s flagship SUV. Henry Payne, The Detroit News

But for all its size, what separates IQ from its hulking sibling is how small it feels. Yes, small. Cruising through crowded San Francisco streets, IQ feels stable. Escalade V puts its V-8 boat anchor up front, while the IQ stores its monster battery below deck. Batteries are the bane of smaller EVs like the porky Cadillac Optiq, which weighs 25% more than a comparable, gas-fired XT4, and you feel its girth on road.

But in a land yacht the size of an Escalade, the IQ’s lower center of gravity is welcome. Docking at a typically tight San Francisco service station off Lombard Street, I used the beast’s rear-wheel-steer to deftly maneuver around the pumps, cars and bollards to find a parking space — next to a compact car. The 360-degree camera helped me position the Caddy perfectly. As I negotiated the space, electronic pulses in the seat (a standard feature on Caddies) provided additional reassurance of my proximity to my wee neighbor — or even when a pedestrian approached at close range.

Take an on-ramp onto a California four-lane with 785 pound-feet of torque and — ZOT! — merge with authority. Then settle into hands-free Super Cruise. IQ OMG.

This nimbleness is complemented by a sportier design than the gas-powered skyscraper. Thanks to the electric Ultium platform shared with its smaller Optiq and Lyriq siblings, IQ also shares those vehicles’ design cues.

Raked windshield. Narrow greenhouse. Fast back. Illuminated Black Crystal Shield grille.

The Escalade IQ's sleek interior comes loaded with tech. The Command Center is where you access features that include opening all four doors of this massive SUV.

The Escalade IQ’s sleek interior comes loaded with tech. The Command Center is where you access features that include opening all four doors of this massive SUV. Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Significantly, Cadillac has not starved the gas-fired Escalade as it has the XT4, XT5 and XT6 SUVs that are headed out the door. The Escalade family shares the same toys and they are fun to play with.

Walking up to my pearl white Escalade IQ tester, I squeezed the door handle and it swung out automatically to let me in. Once inside, I pressed the brake pedal and the door swung shut behind me. What is this, a haunted mansion?

The 55-inch display dominates the interior, but the smaller, thin console tablet — the Command Center — is a real jewel. It enables access to — not just climate — but goodies like those magic doors so that you can adjust settings and even open and close all four doors without leaving the driver’s seat.

Its operation is typical of the attention to ergonomic detail (remember those buzzing seats?) that has made GM products easy to use — beginning with moving the electronic shifter to the steering wheel to open console room for the tablet.

Gettin' frunky with it: The Escalade IQ offers storage space up front where its ICE sibling has an engine.
Gettin’ frunky with it: The Escalade IQ offers storage space up front where its ICE sibling has an engine. Henry Payne, The Detroit News

Navigating heavy Frisco traffic, I manipulated steering wheel controls without ever looking down. Adaptive cruise control speed and distance controls are located on raised, studded toggle switches. Less-used items like heated steering wheel and Super Cruise are located by braille.

The parity between Escalade ICE and IQ — at a time when the rest of the brand’s SUV portfolio is going all EV — appears an acknowledgement that these mega-utes are travel workhorses and Escalade ICE is a superior product even though the EV has longer range — 460 miles — range than the 432-mile V-8. Tow boats behind these oxen and they will both get 50% of that range — but Escalade ICE is much quicker to fill to a full tank. On a long-range trip, that’s gold.

The Escalade IQ's charging port is positioned for easy access to public chargers.

The Escalade IQ’s charging port is positioned for easy access to public chargers. Henry Payne, The Detroit News

I pulled into an EVGo charger in a San Francisco parking garage and noted Caddy IQ’s decision to locate the charger (unlike the Lyriq and Optiq) at the left rear corner. Smaht. It’s much easier to plug in the IQ this way — especially at Tesla chargers where Cadillac now has access (assuming you have an adapter for the IQ’s bulky CCS plug).

Alas, the EVGo didn’t work, a typical problem for the country’s non-Tesla charging network.

The good news is IQ’s native navi system (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not welcome here) will find chargers quickly as well as map your road trip with charger stops.

Take a 230-mile ride up north to your Traverse City cottage for the summer and range anxiety won’t be a factor — especially if you install a 240-volt charger in the cottage. The same rear-wheel-steer that makes IQ maneuverable in parking lots also allows ACTIVE STEER — aka CRABWALK to use the GMC Hummer vernacular.

Initiate ACTIVE STEER in the IQ screen and the land yacht will execute a neat party trick: shuffling side-to-side down the street of your cul-de-sac. Drive to the country club and the frunk will swallow two golf bags. Try that in the V8-powered V series. The ICE, however, gets its laugh thanks to a $89,590 starting price that’s well south of the IQ’s $129,990 when it goes on sale.

King of Bling or Queen of Quiet, it’s nice to have choices. And if the IQ’s silence is too much, you can go into MY MODE in the screen and select SPORT. It won’t wake the neighbors with  a roar like the V, but it lets off a satisfying GRRRRR.

2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ

Vehicle type: Battery-powered, all-wheel-drive, seven-passenger SUV

Price: $129,990 including $2,290 destination fee ($150,000 est., Sport 2/Lux as tested)

Powerplant: 200 kWh lithium-ion battery with single rear or dual electric-motor drive

Power: 750 horsepower, 785 pound-feet torque

Transmission: Single-speed direct drive

Performance: 0-60 mph, 4.7 seconds (mfr.); towing, 8,000 pounds

Weight: 8,976 pounds

Range: 460 miles

Report card

Highs: Street presence; good trip/charger navigation

Lows: Pricey, less convenient on road trips than ICE sibling

Overall: 3 stars

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

Comments are closed.