Latest news with #CadillacCelestiq
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Cadillac Celestiq in Photos
More from Robb Report First Drive: The $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq Is a Quiet Tour de Force With a Lot Riding on It Lexus's New IS 500 Ultimate Edition Might Be the Last of Its Kind The New Hummer EV Is the Fastest One Yet Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. The all-electric Cadillac Celestiq, the marque's first hand-built production car since the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The model is a four-door hatchback presenting a mid-century modern aesthetic. The Celestiq has a low-slung fastback profile, but its wheelbase exceeds that of a Cadillac Escalade. With 655 hp and 646 ft lbs of torque, the car is claimed to cover zero to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds on its way to a purported top speed of 130 mph. The interior features a 3-D-printed steering-wheel casing, hand-polished aluminum controls, and options that include leather floors and eucalyptus-fiber mats. A smart-glass roof features four quadrants for passengers to control opacity. The car embodies America's 'very optimistic, very strident view of the world' in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, according to Michael Simcoe, Cadillac's vice president of global design. The Celestiq is Cadillac's most technologically advanced production vehicle to date, which factors into the car's next-level pricing compared to others in the automaker's model line. Cadillac hopes the Celestiq will capitalize on the brand's legacy while catapulting the automaker into the future.
Motor Trend
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
Personalizing the $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq Is Crazy and Crazy Fun
Driving the Cadillac Celestiq is one thing; crafting one to suit your personal taste is another. It all starts with a signal of interest, whether through a dealer recommendation, contact with executives, or simply registering on Cadillac's website. (Don't get any ideas; all applications are fully vetted before moving forward.) This kicks off a process where one of four in-house concierges gets to know you and your personal likes and dislikes, learns your history with Cadillac, and introduces you to the broad spectrum of trim, color, and material choices. These design sessions are typically done via one or more video calls, and the options are narrowed down to a small number of favorites. The next step is for the buyer to visit Cadillac House at the fabulously midcentury modern, Eero Saarinen–designed GM Tech Center in Michigan. We went through an abbreviated version of this process at Cadillac House and were blown away by the attention to detail, the building itself, and the skill of the concierges, who come from the worlds of fine art, automotive design, fashion design, and high-end furniture. Upon arrival, buyers are greeted by their personal concierge and their favorite refreshments before moving to a small sculpture garden. This area is populated with painted shapes and figures chosen to demonstrate how lustrous the Celestiq's 90-plus standard colors can be—even the blacks—all of which are available in metallic or matte finish. Next comes a full walkaround and ride and drive of a sample Celestiq to make what's until that point only been discussed over video into something tangible. If the buyer has a deep affinity for a past Cadillac model—maybe they own one, or their grandfather did—Cadillac will pull an example from its heritage fleet to display on the floor of Cadillac House as inspiration. Final trim, color, and material selection then happens at a large table, which will be laid out with samples of favorites from the video consultations. Should you need more options, a nearby wall is made from motorized doors that open to reveal lighted cubbies holding scale sculptures of the car in nearly all the available paints, the wheel designs, chunks of interior trim, and swatches of leather, fabric, and carpet in myriad hues. Various etchings and imagery can be applied to the metal pieces, too, including the wheels. In all, there are more than 350,000 combinations possible from the baseline set of choices, and Cadillac is also happy to cater to any desire as long as it doesn't run afoul of safety regulations or Cadillac's own brand guidelines. Yes, some buyers have asked if a hood ornament is possible. The answer is no, it's not. The interior has 150 individually hand-wrapped components, so every stitch, panel, piece of piping, and surface can be customized, and you can watch your selections applied in real time on a 10-foot screen as another staff member manipulates software during the conversation. All the while, the concierge is carefully guiding changes and deftly offering suggestions so perfect they seem like they were your idea. If someone winds up with a hideous Celestiq, it won't be the concierges' fault. See All 22 Photos This is our Celestiq build as rendered by Cadillac's design program. It's pretty rad, if we do say so ourselves—check out more images in the gallery. How long the process takes depends on a lot of factors, only one of which is the actual assembly of the car. (Although that's not a quick process; the 12-coat paint takes two weeks to apply by hand alone.) The buyer's personal schedule, their level of decisiveness, if they want to order off-menu, and whether they even have a design point of view can all affect the timeline. Our concierge said the average time from start to completion is three to four months, although some clients have completed their choices in as little as 45 minutes and another has been in the design process for more than a year. Based on our experiences at Cadillac House and behind the wheel, your own bespoke Celestiq is worth however long it takes.
Miami Herald
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
This Groundbreaking Battery Tech Is Coming In 2026, But What Is It?
If you think Detroit automakers are laggards in offering electric vehicles (EVs), guess again. General Motors is currently leading the pack, offering the Cadillac Celestiq, Cadillac Escalade IQ, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Lyriq-V, Cadillac Optiq, Cadillac Vistiq, Chevrolet Blazer EV, Chevrolet Equinox EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV Pickup, GMC Hummer EV SUV, and GMC Sierra EV, all of which are fueled by electrons, not petroleum. General Motors and LG Energy Solution are developing lithium manganese-rich prismatic battery cells, or LMRs, for use in future GM vehicles. GM plans to be the first automaker to use LMR batteries in its EVs beginning in 2028. The breakthrough battery chemistry will allow for electric vehicle (EV) batteries that are 30% more energy dense than current ones, yet cost the same as the lithium iron phosphate batteries, or LFPs, currently in use. "We're excited to introduce the first-ever LMR prismatic cells for EVs, the culmination of our decades-long research and investment in the technology," said Wonjoon Suh, executive vice-president and head of the Advanced Automotive Battery division at LG Energy Solution. "GM's future trucks powered by this new chemistry are a strong example of our shared commitment." The announcement follows a similar one made by Charles Poon, Director of Electrified Propulsion Engineering at Ford, on April 23rd. "This isn't just a lab experiment. We're actively working to scale LMR cell chemistry and integrate them into our future vehicle lineup within this decade." Poon cited the LMR batteries' lower production cost, higher energy density, enhanced stability and safety as key factors in their superiority. Ford started their EV offerings with nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries, later adding lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries in 2023. To understand how these batteries differ from those currently in use, you must understand how a battery works. Simply put, electricity is produced in a battery from a reaction between the anode, which creates electrons, and a reaction in the cathode, which absorbs them. Electrolytes allow the electric charge to flow between the cathode and the anode. The net product is electricity. GM's Ultium platform currently employs nickel manganese cobalt aluminum oxide batteries, also known as NCM, which uses 85% nickel, 5% cobalt, and 10% manganese for its cathode coating. However, cobalt and nickel are expensive, and cobalt is known to be mined with child labor, which is a human rights concern. Another widely used battery chemistry is lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, which costs about 20% less than an NCM battery, but China has a near monopoly in LFP cell manufacturing, according to S&P Global. In contrast, LMR batteries use roughly 35% nickel, 65% manganese, and virtually no cobalt. Given that it's the fifth most common element on Earth and widely available, manganese is far less expensive than nickel and cobalt. LMR batteries cost roughly the same to produce as LFP batteries, while being 33% more energy dense. GM plans to produce rectangular prismatic cells rather than the pouch cells currently being used, enhancing the packaging efficiency and reducing the number of components by as much as 75%. Additionally, LMR chemistry works well with bigger cell sizes, which lowers system costs even more. While the Chevrolet Silverado EV Work Truck with Max Range has an EPA-rated range of 492 miles, it uses an NCM battery. Using an LMR battery would allow GM to deliver similar range and lower the price, which now starts at $57,095 and tops out at $97,895. While GM began researching manganese-rich lithium-ion battery cells in 2015, performance and durability haven't been up to par. Historically, they've suffered from a short lifespan, losing voltage in a short period of time, but GM and LG Energy Solution state that they have overcome such obstacles by "adding proprietary dopants and coatings, along with particle engineering, process innovations, to achieve the right energy density and arrangement of battery materials inside the cell to keep them stable," according to a GM press release. The research and development at GM's Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan, has led to the corporate partners holding more than 200 patents around the world on LMR-related technology. Ultimately, GM sees the technology providing more range at a lower cost, which should help bring down the cost of EVs, a sticking point in their journey towards being more widely accepted. According to Cox Automotive, the average price paid for a new car in March 2025 was $47,462. By comparison, the average price paid for an electric car was $59,205 – a 22% price premium and the highest in a couple of years. Such price realities are driving the research to reduce battery costs, while tariffs are pushing automakers to rely less on China for their minerals and components. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Motor Trend
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
Inside the 3D-Printing Lab Behind the $340K Cadillac Celestiq
Additive manufacturing, the engineer's version of what everyone else calls 3D printing, is too slow and too expensive to mass-produce car parts, but the calculus flips for an ultra-low-volume car like the Cadillac Celestiq. With just 25 examples of the $340,000 (to start) halo car being built for the first year, GM engineers turned to additive manufacturing for more than 130 parts made from aluminum, stainless steel, and plastics including polyamide 11 and 12 (nylon), thermoplastic polyurethane, and polypropylene. Celestiq engineers aren't just drawing up three-dimensional CAD files and pressing Ctrl+P, though. Before graduating to production, all of the Celestiq's 3D-printed parts passed through the Additive Industrialization Center on GM's Warren, Michigan, tech campus. The 16,000-square-foot lab is filled with 3D printers, some the size of small sheds, that can turn powdered metals, powdered polymers, and polymer filaments into car parts, but they don't make production components here. Instead, the AIC team validates the design and business case for a component before passing off production, usually to a supplier. 'Our job is to bring in the technology, industrialize it, and move it to the point of manufacturing,' technical specialist Brennon White said. READ MORE: Driven! Is the $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq Worth Rolls-Royce Money? How 3D Printing Is Used in the Cadillac Celestiq Should you ever find yourself behind the wheel of a Celestiq, you'll see the AIC's work on display front and center in the aluminum steering wheel trim (below). It's the largest 3D-printed part in the car and the largest metal component GM has ever 3D-printed. It starts life as a powder so fine it can be absorbed through the skin and becomes something you can hold through a process called powder bed fusion. The 'printer' deposits a thin layer of powered aluminum on a work surface and then zaps select areas with a laser, melting the particles into a thin piece of solid metal. A fresh layer of powder is then spread on top of that, and the process repeats. Layer by layer, the 3D form takes shape. The part is then finished on a mill, which exposes the voids that create four LED-backlit icons. Celestiq designers drew up the cabin with unusually thin B-pillars, fully exposing the seat-belt guide loop that's normally hidden behind a piece of trim. Without a suitable product in the parts catalog, the engineering and design teams used 3D printing to create a safety-critical component that's also a piece of stainless-steel jewelry—one that executive chief engineer Tony Roma says is strong enough to lift the three-ton Celestiq. It's GM's first such use of additive manufacturing for a safety component. Elsewhere, the designers have printed intricate details in places few people will ever look. The stainless-steel anchors for the leather passenger grab handles have a smooth, polished exterior. When the handle is grabbed, the hinged anchor swings open, revealing a pattern inspired by Cadillac's Mondrian motif and the Art Deco era (below). It's made using metal binder jet technology, in which powdered metal is initially laid down with an adhesive compound holding it together. The bonded powder is then placed in a sintering oven and baked for 20 hours with the temperature peaking at nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a process that shrinks the part as much as 20 percent. The Celestiq also relies on 3D printing for countless plastic bits and pieces that will never be seen or touched by buyers, such as the polypropylene brackets behind the front and rear fascias that hold the ultrasonic parking sensors. White says that one of the Additive Industrialization Center's core competencies is understanding when and where it makes financial sense to use these techniques. When the Celestiq team proposed 3D-printing the plastic sides of the glove box (which are eventually wrapped in leather), AIC's analysis initially said the business case wouldn't pencil out. But after design engineers countered that it would take two prototype tools, not one, to complete development, the math changed. Once they had committed to printing the part, the engineers took advantage of that flexibility and fine-tuned the design with 27 revisions. 3D Printing for Mere Mortals GM won't be 3D-printing parts anytime soon for the half million Chevy Silverado pickups it builds every year, but the technology already has automotive uses beyond an ultra-exclusive halo car. More than 15 GM plants have at least one 3D printer on hand as tools to make tools that aid assembly. These machines use the same technology hobbyists use at home, layering melted polymer filament into plastic jigs, molds, and parts. The process is much slower than using powdered plastics, but it doesn't require the safety precautions of handling fine particles that easily become airborne. A Stratasys F900 in a factory can take more than a week to turn filament into a part that nearly fills a 3x3x2-foot cube. For comparison, the AIC's HP Multi Jet Fusion printer needs about 12 hours to turn powdered polymers into components that fill its smaller 15x15x11-inch working area. The automaker has also deployed 3D printing for a few higher-volume programs. Cadillac builds some 3,000 manual-transmission CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwing sedans every year, each one with a 3D-printed shift-knob medallion, climate-control duct, and metal wiring harness bracket. And when GM needed a quick fix for a faulty spoiler seal on an SUV—with millions of dollars hanging in the balance—it turned to polymer powder fusion and cranked out 60,000 parts in just five weeks. That's an extreme example of what's possible with 3D printing at scale, but it gives you an idea of how technology used for today's $340,000-and-up Cadillac could one day be common in your $40,000 Chevy.
Motor 1
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
The Cadillac Celestiq Will Be as Rare as a Bugatti
No one expects the Cadillac Celestiq to be a big seller for the brand. It's a hand-built electric vehicle that costs $340,000, and it can take customers weeks or months to finalize the design. So Cadillac won't be popping them out like Escalades. Tony Roma, Cadillac's chief engineer of performance cars, revealed in a recent episode of Jay Leno's Garage that the automaker doesn't expect to make more than 250 cars per year in the United States. 'This is super low volume,' Roma told Leno. 'We're not announcing the exact volume, but think more like hundreds, not thousands.' For some context of the Celestiq's rarity, Bugatti plans to build just 250 examples of the Tourbillon , its V-16-powered hybrid hypercar. The Celestiq is the car Cadillac plans to use to fight Rolls-Royce and Bentley —not easy targets. The automaker revealed the production version two-and-a-half years ago, showing off a sleek sedan with a longer wheelbase than the three-row Escalade . The Celestiq is a flagship for Cadillac brand, with a pair of electric motors making an estimated 650 horsepower (more than previously announced), which will help motivate the 6,300-pound sedan. It's also an important car for General Motors, utilizing the automaker's new Ultium architecture that's underpinning a wide range of vehicles from the American automaker. It has all the luxuries you'd expect from a $340,000 sedan —Super Cruise, air suspension, four-wheel steering, and tons of technology. It has a four-quadrant tinting panoramic roof, a pillar-to-pillar HD display, a 38-speaker sound system, heated armrests, and more. The Celestiq looks production-ready in Leno's video, and we rode one last year. But don't expect to see them everywhere anytime soon. Here's More Cadillac News: Goodbye, Blackwing: Cadillac CT4 and CT5 Might Be Replaced by EVs Dead: Cadillac XT6 Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Source: Jay Leno's Garage / YouTube via GM Authority Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
