Latest news with #Celestiq
Miami Herald
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Auto review: Hands-free in the Caddy ‘Baby Escalade' Vistiq
The Baby Escalade is Cadillac's most mature electric vehicle. The Vistiq is the fifth and final piece in the GM luxury brand's EV squadron and, at $79,290, its combination of size, speed and tech make it the best value of the quintet. That value is relative as Caddy's EV lineup makes a big move to the ultra-luxury EV market (led by its $340K Celestiq flagship) over its outgoing internal combustion models. Expect the EVs to cost $20,000-$40,000 more than their ICE peers. My all-wheel-drive Luxury model asks a 30-grand premium over the comparable $50K gas-powered XT6 Luxury model, which is retiring after this year. On Patterson Lake Road's rollercoaster in Livingston County, I confidently leapt from turn to turn in the three-ton, three-row, three-story Vistiq despite its girth. Thanks to the 102-kWh battery's location in the basement, my tester sported a low center of gravity to stay planted through the twisties. That low CG is an EV trait - but in the smaller Optiq and Lyriq crossovers, it's, um, outweighed by a lack of nimbleness compared to their 1,000-pound-lighter internal-combustion engine peers. In a three-row SUV class where everything tips the scales over two tons, however, the low CG stands out. Add rear-wheel steer in upper Premium Luxury and Platinum trims, and this is a rhinoceros in tennis shoes. The rear-drive feature is shared with Papa Escalade IQ, but the electric family's patron will set you back another (cough) 40 grand. ZOT! I buried my right foot and Vistiq hit 60 mph in a fantast-iq 3.9 seconds merging onto I-94 West. Baby Escalade coming through! Vistiq is also a technology showpiece. Without taking my eyes off the road, I toggled the raised adaptive cruise switch on the steering wheel and set my speed at 75 mph, then fingered a nearby braille pad for Super Cruise. The steering wheel lit green for hands-free driving. While Baby Escalade took over driving duties, I rearranged icons on the 33-inch curved dash screen as I would my phone. I dragged icons for DRIVE MODES, CHARGING and SELF PARK ASSIST (features I used frequently) to the left side of the screen. GM pioneered hands-free driving in 2017, and has been neck-and-neck with Tesla ever since. Tesla's Full-Self-Driving system leap-frogged GM cars last year when it went hands-free with navigation, enabling its cars to take you door-to-door across secondary roads and divided highways. Super Cruise is slowly adding secondary roads to its network of mapped, divided highways - but it won't navigate. What it will do, like Tesla, is automatically change lanes. At 75 mph, Vistiq sensed slower traffic, automatically applied its turn signal, moved into the fast lane and swept by a line of cars. Safely clear, it automatically pulled back into the slower lane. Terrif-iq. Approaching my off ramp, Tesla FSD would automatically transition to the slower secondary road. The Caddy? It handed driving duties back to me, the steering wheel light turning red. Super Cruise comes standard on Vistiq for three years, plenty of time for owners to learn the system. You won't want to go back. Not standard is an augmented reality head-up display available on Premium Luxury and Platinum trims. Caddy's been a HUD pioneer, and AR advances the game by placing directions over the road ahead. Alas, my standard Luxury version did not option even a regular head-up display. Neither did it have a frunk for storage like the Escalade IQ - or Rivian and Tesla models. Baby Escalade doesn't have big brother's curved, A-pillar-to-A-pillar 55-inch jumbotron, but the 33-incher does just fine, thank you very much. Especially as the touchscreen is paired with the same console climate touchscreen found in Escalade. Like a scarf and mittens, they make a nice pair. Not that I touched them much. Vistiq is powered by Google Built-in, so I could talk to the car for many of my needs. Hey, Google, turn the driver's side temperature to 68 degrees. Hey, Google, tune to Sirius XM Comedy Greats. Hey, Google, Tell, me a joke. Google: How do trees access the Internet? They log in. Hey, Google, what was the score of the Tigers game? Google: The Tigers won on Wednesday, 6-5 against the Red Sox. Pick up the kids from school in my Luxury tester and it will fit seven passengers across three rows including bench, second-row seats (captain's chairs optional). Even the third row is comfortable, accommodating my long 6'5" frame. If the second row is empty, I encourage taking a seat in the third row. I dropped the second-row bench seat and used it like an ottoman - stretching my legs so I could work on my trips, however, are three-row EVs' kryptonite. The Escalade IQ is so expensive because it packs a mighty 202-kWh battery with 460 miles of range. Vistiq keeps its cost below $100K with a 102-kWh battery that makes similar range (302 miles) as little brothers Lyriq and to your cottage up north (in perfect 70-degree weather) going 75 mph on I-75 and real range is 225 miles - or 75% of EPA estimates. In truth, your range will be 181 miles because charging to over 80% of battery range at a fast charger slows to a we there yet? To prevent hearing those infamous words from your kids, a 250-mile trip north (to, say, Charlevoix) is best done with one charging stop in Bay City for 20 minutes so the kids can tinkle and stretch their legs. In less ideal temperatures, your range could crater to 50% as it did in a brutal three-stop, subfreezing December trip I took in one of Vistiq's competitors, the $78K Kia EV9 GT-Line, a couple of years back. If you have a second home, install a 240-volt charger to ease end-to-end range anxiety. Staying in a hotel? Find lodgings with 240-volt charger so you can charge your battery to 100% overnight for a fresh a.m. start. Faced with these restrictions, GM buyers may prefer a comparably priced family-sized Chevy Tahoe with Google Built-in, 456 miles of range and more third-row seat and cargo room. Or (horrors) you might cross the road to a Lincoln dealer and pick up a $62K three-row Aviator ICE with Blue Cruise hands-free driving and 505 miles of if you want a three-row EV that can drive you hands-free across Michigan, then Baby Escalade has a leg up on peers from Rivian, Volvo, Hyundai and Kia. Next week: 2025 Nissan Murano and Nissan Titan 2026 Cadillac Vistiq Vehicle type: Battery-powered, all-wheel-drive, six- or seven-passenger SUV Price: $79,090, including $1,395 destination fee ($79,890 Luxury as tested) Powerplant: 102 kWh lithium-ion battery with dual electric-motor drive Power: 615 horsepower, 650 pound-feet of torque Transmission: Single-speed direct drive Performance: 0-60 mph, 3.7 seconds (mfr.); towing, 5,000 pounds Weight: 6,326 pounds Range: 302 miles Report card Highs: Livable interior; Super Cruise Lows: No frunk; limited range for a family hauler Overall: 3 stars ____ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
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
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
2026 Cadillac Vistiq First Drive Review: The Baby Escalade
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. 0:00 / 0:00 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.
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.
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.
