{"id":29963,"date":"2022-10-22T15:07:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T19:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=29963"},"modified":"2022-10-25T15:09:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T19:09:20","slug":"ev-flagship-300k-plus-celestiq-seeks-to-redefine-cadillac-as-world-luxury-standard-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/ev-flagship-300k-plus-celestiq-seeks-to-redefine-cadillac-as-world-luxury-standard-2","title":{"rendered":"EV flagship: $300k-plus Celestiq seeks to redefine Cadillac as world luxury standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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 \u201cstandard of the world\u201d for the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century with state-of-the-art, battery-powered tech.<\/p>\n

First shown as a prototype in March 2020 alongside Cadillac\u2019s first EV, the Lyriq crossover, Celestiq is a Lyriq on steroids. Sporting the brand\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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Hand-built in Warren\u2019s Tech Center, the 2024 Celestiq will have a limited edition run \u2014 each model personalized to its premium buyer\u2019s 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\u2019s brief Blackwing-engine performance era.<\/p>\n

Like CT6, Celestiq shows off Cadillac\u2019s future on a car platform at a time when 7 of 10 new vehicles sold are SUVs. Cadillac\u2019s best-known sport utility, the Escalade, would seem a natural canvas for the brand\u2019s new direction \u2014 but with sci-fi tech and a price tag triple that of Escalade, Celestiq is a significant break from current Cadillac convention.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Cadillac, too, sees advances in electronics and battery power as an opportunity to remake itself as an electric brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cCelestiq is the purest expression of Cadillac, acknowledging our incredible history and driving us to a bolder and brighter future,\u201d said Global Vice President Rory Harvey. \u201cIt is a completely bespoke work of automotive art, built around the most advanced and innovative technology that we have ever engineered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just over a century from its founding in 1909, GM\u2019s luxury division seeks to redefine a new century by drawing from Cadillac\u2019s origins making high-style, high-tech, hand-built machines.<\/p>\n

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Courting comparison to the brand\u2019s storied history, Celestiq\u2019s long-hooded fastback is an unmistakable echo of the \u201833 Aerodynamic Coupe while its estimated charging time \u2014 78 miles in 10 minutes \u2014 lags Escalade\u2019s 450 miles in three minutes at a gas pump.<\/p>\n

Like England\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith an extremely low volume of hand-built vehicles to be offered globally each year, Celestiq will truly be a custom-commissioned one-of-one,\u201d said Harvey. \u201cEach client will experience a personalized journey to make their vehicle exactly the way they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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 \u2014 the first GM vehicle built on Ultium and weighing nearly five tons.<\/p>\n

Expect Celestiq to be lighter on its feet, though its estimated 3.8-second spring to 60 mph is shy of Hummer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The sedan is stuffed with innovation including 115 3D printed parts, a technology that has seen accelerated use in low-volume cars. Following in the footsteps of CT6, Celestiq makes innovative use of die castings for structural rigidity and simplicity \u2014 the EV\u2019s underbody is constructed from six large aluminum components.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Or passengers can choose not to drive at all. Celestiq will be equipped with GM\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cCelestiq continues the 120-year Cadillac history of leveraging the most advanced automotive technology in the service of luxury,\u201d said development engineer Ken Althouse.<\/p>\n

Inside Celestiq\u2019s quiet blue interior, passengers will sit beneath a four-zone smart glass roof that utilizes \u201csuspended particle device technology\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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The interior will be bathed in ambient light (18 different lighting animations are on offer) complementing the car\u2019s rich materials, jewel-like rotary screen controller, 41-speaker sound system, and enormous 55-inch screen that stretches from A-pillar to A-pillar.<\/p>\n

The screen houses two separate displays under a single pane of glass \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Celestiqs will roll out of GM\u2019s Warren Global Technical Center beginning in December of next year \u2014 the first production vehicle made there \u2014 thanks to an $81 million investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cCadillac\u2019s brand legacy was forged with hand-building the most advanced vehicles of their era,\u201d said Roma. \u201cWe are returning to that tradition with Celestiq, creating a piece of automotive art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cstandard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29965,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963\/revisions\/29965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}