2025 Cadillac Optiq Is Your Gateway Ride for Electric Cadillacs

Yahoo

24-03-2025

The 2025 Cadillac Optiq is the entry point to Caddy's line of all-electric SUVs.
For the $55,885 starting price you get standard dual-motor AWD, 300 hp, a sport-tuned suspension, and a 19-speaker AKG Studio "multi-dimensional sound experience" to make any drive like front row at Pink Floyd 1978, man.
The 85-kWh battery is good for 302 miles of range. On sale now.
You can't say you don't get enough choice from Cadillac when it comes to electric SUVs. There's the Escalade IQ, longer Escalade IQL, Lyriq, the coming Vistiq, and, now, the 2025 Optiq.
(Everything has to end in 'iq'—that's how you know it's a Cadillac EV. Keep that in mind when specing out your $340,000 Celestiq.)
The Optiq is the most affordable of all the Cadillac electric SUVs, starting at $55,885 including destination. It rides on the same GM EV Battery platform as the less expensive Chevrolet Equinox, but you won't be thinking Equinox when you get in one for a test drive. There are a lot of features that separate this from a rudimentary Chevy.
Let's start with the sound system. Normally, when a car manufacturer makes a big deal out of its audio system, it's to take your attention away from the fact that nothing else is going on.
So when Cadillac scheduled a separate day for the 19-speaker AKG Studio Audio with Dolby Atmos, including a visit to Dolby's San Francisco sound lab, I might have been suspicious.
Well, suffice to say that no matter what your musical tastes are, you will be gobsmacked by the quality of the sound in the humble Optiq.
Dolby Atmos remasters music with the input of the original recording artist to center the sounds around the listener: guitar over there, bass behind you, kazoo directly in front. In the Optiq, it then pumps all that sound into the car however you want it: centered around you, around both front seats, in the middle of the car.
It thumps out through those 19 speakers of the AKG Studio Audio to make your listening experience better than anything you've ever heard, including that righteous Pioneer setup you got from The Federated Group in high school.
A good way to measure sound quality for non-audio engineers is to see if it comes apart at higher volumes. This audio does not and makes you want to crank Mott The Hoople at volumes your ears never thought possible.
Cadillac said that on surveys of what buyers are looking for nowadays, 80% checked the 'audio' box.
Now that you've moved out of your college dorm and live in a quiet suburban paradise with neighbors and a sadistic HOA, the car is the only place you can really crank your tunes. And you spend a couple hours a day in your car—might as well be happy. Consider this when cross-shopping.
Still on the inside, there's an impressive 33-inch diagonal advanced LED screen with 9k resolution offering both gauges for the driver and infotainment access for the passenger.
It's not as impressive as the 55-inch screen in the Escalade IQ, but it gets the job done in artistically appealing fashion. It offers Google built-in entertainment with Google maps and Google Assistant.
You also get standard Super Cruise, which may be the best of the Level 2 and a half semi-autonomous driving aids. And there is a nice selection of interior fabrics, some of them recycled.
Fire it up and you'll like the feel behind the wheel. The GM EV Battery Platform on which it rides requires 65 kilonewtons per millimeter to deflect one degree. Imagine holding a beer can with one hand on each end and twisting. If your beer can was an Optiq body-in-white you'd have to produce 65 kilonewtons to twist it one degree out of shape.
'That gives you the ride isolation,' said chief engineer John Cockburn.
Controlling that ride are Passive Plus frequency dependent dampers that change the rate of fluid flowing through the shocks as the ride changes. Spring rates are unique to the Optiq. There are four drive modes: Tour, Sport, Snow/Ice, and My Mode.
I set it in Tour, as Sport was too harsh. Had I played around with My Mode I might have come up with something different but Tour was the best. Likewise you can set regenerative braking to your liking and I cranked it down to one-pedal driving.
It also has unique drive motor calibrations for the dual electric motors—one front, one rear—that give it AWD. The inverter on the Optiq is silicon carbide, what Cadillac calls an enhanced inverter. That requires different calibrations, which is why the Optiq makes 300 hp while the Equinox gets by with 288.
'That's a lot of words to say that the architecture is shared, but all the hardware and components that we're putting into it is unique to Optiq over the Equinox,' said the chief engineer.
'In line with our philosophy of body control and ride isolation, here are the tools we need to create that persona and make this sporty, agile, planted feel. We needed all of that to make this happen in this vehicle.'
Did they get it? A drive along twisty Shoreline Highway north of the San Francisco Bay proved the Optiq to be surprisingly agile, indeed.
Body roll was not a factor for this tallish SUV. The craft remained upright and planted through every corner without being rough or bone-rattling.
The Optiq will keep going for 302 miles of EPA range, thanks to an 85-kWh battery. Helping launch it off the line with more-than-adequate alacrity are 300 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. You won't necessarily be giving up a sporty driving feel by going to an SUV, at least not in this case.
There are two models of Optiq—Luxury and Sport—that come down more to trim levels than anything else.
Pricing starts at $55,885, although final assembly in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, could have tariff implications, along with the uncertain tax credits. Considering how much time you'll be spending in your vehicle, that's a reasonable entry point for all-electric luxury.
Would you pay the extra 7 grand for the Caddy over the Chevy? Please comment below.