2026 Cadillac Vistiq First Drive Review: The Baby Escalade

Motor Trend

20-05-2025

If in the coming months you find yourself checking out one of those new electric Escalades only to discover someone has slapped a "VISTIQ" badge on the tailgate, don't feel dumb. We've fallen for it, too. Inside GM, they call the 2026 Cadillac Vistiq the baby Escalade, because that's exactly what it is: a three-row electric SUV rendered at 90 percent scale and priced at a $50,000 discount compared to the real thing.
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The basic premise sounds (and looks) too good to be true. We half expected to open the door and find the window switches from a Chevy Trax, but after spending an afternoon behind the wheel of the Vistiq, we still haven't found the 'gotcha.'
A Discount Designer SUV
Starting at $79,090, the Vistiq isn't cheap until you account for the standard equipment list, which reads like the window sticker of a $150,000 flagship: heated, ventilated, and massaging front seats; 23-speaker Dolby Atmos–enabled AKG audio; five-zone climate control; dual wireless phone charging pads; glass over all three rows; 33 inches of high-res digital dash and infotainment screens; and the excellent Super Cruise hands-free driving assistant.
Cadillac designers must be riding a high from working on the $340,000 Celestiq halo car, because they've dressed the Vistiq with a cabin as ambitious and striking as anything to come off a GM assembly line. They've managed to combine a full showroom's worth of trims—piano black, matte wood, brushed aluminum, and polished stainless steel—into a single cabin with a cohesive, confident sense of style. Of course, only the piano black is genuine plastic but the faux finishes are all convincing enough to trick your eyes. That's doubly true when you go for the $93,590 Premium Luxury trim, which layers bold Phantom Blue upholstery on the dash topper, armrests, and the seats that are decorated with an avant-garde asymmetric quilted stitching design.
How Does the Vistiq Drive?
Cross-shop the rest of the three-row EV market, and you might wonder how the Vistiq's level of polish is possible at these prices. Cadillac's traditional idea of luxury wrapped in modern style puts it in a unique position among alternatives like the minimalist Rivian R1S, the suppository-shaped Mercedes EQS, and the less lavish Kia EV9 that can cost nearly as much. It's possible because of GM's Ultium EV powertrain architecture, a strategy that has worked so well, but the company now wants you to forget about. Had the Cadillac Cimarron not peed in the punchbowl 40-some years ago, you might be hearing more about how sharing parts across brands and model lines has helped GM become one of maybe three or five companies on the planet that makes money selling EVs. That's a win for both the automaker and individual buyers, as it brings EV prices closer to parity with gas vehicles.
The Vistiq shares its 121.8-inch wheelbase and 102.0-kWh battery pack with the Cadillac Lyriq, while its two permanent-magnet motors are borrowed from the upcoming Lyriq-V—or if you're feeling snooty, the Celestiq. Thumb the V button on the steering wheel, and Velocity Max mode overclocks the inverter at 129 percent of its peak sustained output to unlock the full 615 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. Stand on the right pedal, and the Vistiq rears back and rockets to 60 mph in a claimed 3.7 seconds.
It rides comfortably on the standard 21-inch wheels, adaptive dampers, and steel coil springs. The tall, peaked frost heaves that cut across Michigan roads are about the only thing that can upset it, causing a slight bucking. Premium Luxury and top-tier Platinum models add the final level of polish, with air springs smoothing out the ride and rear-wheel steering shrinking its handling.
Thanks to the balanced weight distribution and a rear-biased torque split, the Vistiq steers and corners far more confidently than the average three-row ICE vehicle and the unremarkable Cadillac XT6 in particular. Yet in contrast with the Lyriq and most two-row electric SUVs with wagonlike proportions, the Vistiq driving experience is defined by its tall, upright stance and seating position. You lose that planted, road-hugging feel EVs are known for and in exchange earn a commanding view of the road. We suspect most shoppers will happily accept that deal, considering they've done it for decades by eschewing sedans for SUVs.
A road-noise cancellation system helps maintain a library-like quiet at highway speeds. It works like the active noise cancellation that has long been used to tame the drone of an internal combustion engine, but instead targets tire slap and sizzle. Five in-cabin microphones and four accelerometers mounted to the chassis pick up undesirable frequencies with the audio speakers capable of disappearing frequencies of 220 hertz and below.
Engineers spent more than 300 hours in the wind tunnel with the Vistiq to soften the electric Escalade's 0.32 drag coefficient to 0.29. That slipperier shape plus a smaller frontal area and a 2,800-pound weight savings help the baby 'Sclade achieve about 65 percent of the range of an Escalade IQ using a battery that has almost exactly half the energy capacity. The official range numbers land between 300 and 305 miles (based on 21-, 22-, or 23-inch wheels), which might be the biggest reason those with the means will upgrade to the 460-mile, $130,090 Escalade IQ. Fast-charging power also pales in comparison to its big brother, with the Vistiq topping out at 190 kW to the Escalade's 350 kW.
Just How Big Is the Cadillac Vistiq?
The other glaring difference between the Vistiq and the Escalade IQ comes down to size. At 5.5 inches narrower and 18.7 inches shorter than the vehicle that inspired it, the Vistiq is a large SUV, but not a huge one. It comes in six- or seven-seat versions, with the second-row bench making third-row access a real chore. There's a one-touch mechanism to release the second-row seat, but it takes Herculean effort to slide the bench forward and regular yoga practice to feel graceful stretching and squeezing past the door jamb.
The third-row seats are mounted just above the floor, which leaves generous headroom for 6-foot-3 adults who don't mind staring at their knees. Keeping everyone happy on long trips will require jockeying the second-row seats into a just-right position, but once that's sorted, there's nothing to complain about. Those in the back row are spoiled with USB-C charging ports, a fixed-glass sunroof, their own dedicated climate zone, and metal-look adjusters on the climate vents.
There's a good amount of cargo room behind the third row and in a deep well beneath the load floor. There's no frunk, unfortunately, although that's probably the right choice given the constraints. GM bolts the inverter on top of the motor, making for a relatively tall drive unit, and as a result, a frunk would be so shallow that it wouldn't be useful for much more than a mobile charging cable.
The Tech Takes Over
The Vistiq trades the Escalade's dash-spanning 55-inch display for a still-huge 33-inch unit. It can be controlled through a click wheel and five capacitive navigation buttons, but the user interface was clearly designed to be used as a touchscreen. Nothing wrong with that, except that touchscreen is just far enough away to feel like a reach, even with the display curved and canted toward the driver to the point that it makes the passenger feel excluded. We also dislike that the climate controls are sequestered in a second, lower display that pulls the driver's eyes too far off the road.
At least owners will have Super Cruise to keep watch while they fiddle with dialing in the perfect settings for all five climate zones. GM's excellent hands-free system remains our favorite, and it continues to get even better as it becomes available on more roads and new features roll out. The Vistiq introduces a variation of Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot that, on mapped roads, will automatically navigate an interchange and merge onto a new highway. GM has also addressed one of our long-running complaints by letting Super Cruise fall back to a hands-on lane centering assist when hands-free operation isn't allowed. Once conditions allow, Super Cruise seamlessly resumes control without the driver's input.
Cadillac Comes Into Its Own
The Vistiq is the latest in a string of new Cadillacs that has dazzled us with legitimate luxury and striking design. It drives great and looks and feels expensive yet is priced and positioned as a value compared to the competition.
The biggest criticism we can levy at the Vistiq is that that the name looks like Cadillac misspelled a made-up word. We suggest buyers take that as an opportunity. With a hair dryer and some floss, you can peel the name off the tailgate and nobody will ever know you bought the less expensive one.