Driven: 2025 Cadillac Celestiq Raises the Bar into Low-Earth Orbit

Car and Driver

06-05-2025

Driving a Cadillac in West Hollywood won't get you noticed—unless it's a Cadillac Celestiq. Built by hand and with bespoke options limited only by imagination, the avant-garde quasi-sedan is a rolling spectacle that makes even the most jaded Angelenos stop, stare, and hoist a thumb into the air. It's the same reaction Corvettes get in small-town America, but here, the Celestiq earns its praise from folks who are up to their shoulders in daily exotic-car and celebrity sightings. Winning attention on the Sunset Strip is not easy.
You might think that the Celestiq, which starts at around $340,000, is made solely to coddle its occupants, but Cadillac's hand-built electric halo car isn't just for sedate chauffeuring. To prove that, Cadillac had us split our drive time between Hollywood's glitz and glamour and the curling, claustrophobic asphalt of Angeles Crest Highway. As it turns out, the Celestiq is more than just a four-wheeled sculpture. This is dinner and a show.
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Cadillac
The Celestiq Wants to Do It All
The only other car GM makes with a windshield as steep as the Celestiq's has a mid-mounted V-8 and wears a Corvette badge. But raked glass isn't the only thing the Cadillac has in common with America's sports car. The two also share a head honcho—Tony Roma, an avid race car driver who is both the Celestiq's chief engineer and the newly minted Corvette boss. Given that pedigree, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Celestiq is anything but boring behind the wheel.
The Celestiq gets its motivation from a pair of permanent-magnet motors that provide all-wheel traction and produce up to 655 horsepower and 646 pound-feet of torque in Velocity Max mode. Cadillac claims the Celestiq will hit 60 mph in 3.7 seconds; we'll confirm that once we get an example to our test track, but in the meantime, we can verify that this luxo-barge can boogie. Mat the Celestiq's floor-mounted accelerator and its nose will point skyward while its tail squats like an old-school Eldorado. The Celestiq is undeniably quick, but the sensation of speed pairs with one of calmness, a byproduct of its superb sound deadening. Seriously, the Rolls-Royce Spectre has one of the quietest cabins we've ever measured, but the Celestiq should be close once we're able to hook up our microphones.
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Cadillac
With an 111-kWh battery under the body, Cadillac estimates a full charge will provide 303 miles of driving, topping the Spectre in both capacity and estimated range. The Celestiq's 400-volt architecture enables fast-charging speeds of up to 190 kilowatts, good enough to add about 75 miles in 10 minutes, according to Cadillac.
Despite a lane-hogging waistline and a silhouette that stretches longer than a gas-fed Escalade, the Celestiq feels as nimble as a CT5, thanks in large part to its turning-radius-shrinking rear-axle steering. This Caddy's helm isn't as communicative as anything with a Blackwing badge, but it's not totally lifeless either. It's nicely weighted but doesn't load up when you barrel into a corner, and there's no road-surface information. The brake pedal's firm initial stroke reassures us with every poke, and there is no awkward handoff between regenerative and friction braking. Fans of one-pedal EV driving will appreciate the selectable one-pedal drive mode, one of several adjustable dynamic settings.
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Cadillac
Considering the Celestiq's sheer proportions, it might be GM's ride-and-handling magnum opus. Each wheel is controlled by five links, air springs, and magnetorheological dampers. But the car's active anti-roll bars (a first for Cadillac) hide the real magic. Something this big and cushy shouldn't corner as flat and steady as a Corvette, but it does. It doesn't float, it glides with an unerring smoothness—even on sizable 23-inch wheels wrapped in short-sidewall summer tires. Whether racing up the twisty Angeles Crest or cruising peacefully down Highway 101, the Celestiq feels uncompromised. It's almost magic how the Celestiq can switch from land yacht to sports sedan.
A Cadillac Like No Other
The Celestiq is a surprisingly enjoyable driver's car, but it rewards riders too. All four passengers are treated to equally great seats, each heated and cooled and with massage function. The standard glass roof is divided into four quadrants with individually adjustable opacity so one person can sunbathe while everyone else stays shaded. With Dolby Atmos–compatible music, the Celestiq's 38-speaker AKG stereo practically teleports us from sitting in traffic to sitting in a concert hall.
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Cadillac
While it's easy to be drawn in by the big things—the gigantic glass roof or the pillar-to-pillar digital displays, for example—the detail work deserves just as much attention. Cadillac created countless 3-D-printed parts, the biggest being the metal steering-wheel bezel. The Celestiq also boasts acid-etched speaker grilles and stainless-steel seatbelt guides. The cast-aluminum piece on the simple, elegant dashboard is prime real estate for custom engraving.
It's not a perfect cabin, though. While we do appreciate the volume knob and rotary infotainment knob on the center console, we wish there was more physical switchgear in the cabin. We're less impressed with the cheap-looking piano-black interior trim, but the smudge-magnet stuff is en vogue; even Rolls-Royce commits the same styling sins. Owners who opt for a lighter-colored material behind the dashboard displays will encounter some gnarly windshield glare in direct sunlight, but choosing a darker material should mitigate that issue. (For that precise reason, Cadillac will keep that backing dark unless a buyer desires otherwise.)
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Cadillac
Cadillac Goes Back to the Future
Custom touches are the Celestiq's calling card. Each four-door hatchback is built to order at a special facility on GM's Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan, all but eliminating identical twins. It's easily the most customizable Caddy since the Eldorado Brougham from the late 1950s, and even the Brougham didn't let you order floors covered in leather or wood—but you can on the Celestiq. No paint color or material choice is off-limits, though your Cadillac-appointed concierge will remind you that more exotic requests require longer wait times and a loftier window sticker. Cadillac says the minimum wait is about 12 weeks, but that can extend to several more months based on the build's complexity.
The production-spec Celestiq is nearly identical to the concept that debuted in 2022, which was designed to resurrect Cadillac's "Standard of the World" era. That title originated early in the brand's 123-year history and stuck around for decades, but it's unclear when that standard started to decline. Some might argue it was the hunchbacked 1980 Seville, others might point to the Cimarron that followed for '82, and surely there were other red flags along the way. The Celestiq might not restore Cadillac to the Standard of the World, but it proves the company can still build an aspirational flagship to compete with the best of the best.
Specifications
Specifications
2025 Cadillac Celestiq
Vehicle Type: front- and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 4-door hatchback
PRICE (C/D EST)
Base: $340,000
POWERTRAIN
Front Motor: permanent-magnet synchronous AC
Rear Motor: permanent-magnet synchronous AC
Combined Power: 655 hp
Combined Torque: 646 lb-ft
Battery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 111 kWh
Onboard Charger: 19.0 kW
Peak DC Fast-Charge Rate: 190 kW
Transmissions, F/R: direct-drive
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 130.2 in
Length: 217.2 in
Width: 79.7 in
Height: 57.2 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 64/51 ft3
Cargo Volume: 32 ft3
Front Trunk Volume: 2 ft3
Curb Weight (C/D est): 6900 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 3.7 sec
100 mph: 9.6 sec
1/4-Mile: 12.2 sec
Top Speed: 130 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
Combined/City/Highway: 75/84/69 MPGe
Range: 303 mi
Reviewed by
Eric Stafford
Managing Editor, News
Eric Stafford's automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual '97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a '90 Honda CRX Si. Read full bio