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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Difficult decision': After 18 years, Hooters abruptly closes Jacksonville restaurant
💻 Sign up for Dining Notes, the free weekly restaurant newsletter from the Times-Union's Gary Mills delivered to your email inbox each Wednesday. Sign up now. Nearly a year after Hooters shuttered its Orange Park restaurant in a wave of closings across the United States, the so-called 'breastaurant' chain founded four decades ago in Clearwater has closed one of its two remaining Jacksonville locations. On June 4, the Hooters restaurant at 4521 Southside Blvd. closed, ending an 18-year run near the 20-screen Cinemark Tinseltown. By evening, the location had been removed from the chain's website. "Hooters made the difficult decision to close our Jacksonville Southside location, effective June 4, 2025," a spokesperson said in a statement shared with First Coast News, a Times-Union news partner. The Jacksonville restaurant was just one of dozens of additional Hooters restaurants to close. At least 30 other locations closed June 4, including Florida restaurants in Tallahassee, Orlando, Kissimmee and Melbourne, according to USA TODAY and the Tallahassee Democrat. "Hooters will be well-positioned to continue our iconic legacy under a pure franchise business model," the company said. "We are committed to supporting our impacted team members throughout this process and are incredibly grateful to our valued customers for their loyalty and dedication to the Hooters brand." "By optimizing our business in support of our long-term goals, Hooters will be well-positioned to continue our iconic legacy under a pure franchise business model." More notable closings: Restaurants we've lost in Jacksonville in 2025 The restaurant opened at Tinseltown in April 2007 in the former Tony Roma's spot. It was one of several restaurants at the Tinseltown complex, including Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery, Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse, Culhane's Irish Pub, Mellow Mushroom, Purple Roots, Senor Loco Taco, Bottlenose Brewing and a handful of fast-food restaurants. The closing of the restaurant leaves just one Hooters location open in Jacksonville, at 8938 San Jose Blvd. At one point, Hooters operated several area restaurants, including 1137 Beacon Point in the Regency area; 4106 Third St. S. in Jacksonville Beach; 1740 Wells Road in Orange Park; and The Jacksonville Landing, where it was open for the entire 32-year life of the downtown shopping and dining center until its closing in June 2019. The Tinseltown restaurant was owned by a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Hooters of America, which also owns the San Jose Blvd. location. The company filed for bankruptcy in March, USA TODAY reported. At the time, the chain had hoped to sell 151 of its corporate-owned restaurants to a group and expressed optimism for the storied chain's future. "Hooters is here to stay, and with a stronger financial foundation and streamlined operations on the other side of this process, we will be well-positioned to continue delivering the guest-obsessed hospitality experience and delicious food our valued customers and communities have come to expect well into the future," the company wrote on its website at the time. The following locations were confirmed by USA TODAY to be closed, as a prerecorded message announcing the closure was played when the listed phone number was called: Sanford, Florida Orlando, Florida – Kirkman Road Kissimmee, Florida – Osceola Parkway Melbourne, Florida Atlanta, Georgia – Downtown Douglasville, Georgia Gwinnett, Georgia Valdosta, Georgia Greenwood, Indiana Rockford, Illinois Newport, Kentucky Flint, Michigan Taylor, Michigan St. Louis, Missouri – Downtown Charlotte, North Carolina – South Boulevard Columbia, South Carolina Rock Hill, South Carolina Murfreesboro, Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee – Downtown Nashville, Tennessee – Harding Place Grapevine, Texas Houston, Texas – 120 FM 1960 W San Marcos, Texas James Powel of USA TODAY contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Hooters permanently closes Southside Jacksonville, FL restaurant Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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.
Car and Driver
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Car and Driver
Driven: 2025 Cadillac Celestiq Raises the Bar into Low-Earth Orbit
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. View Photos 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. View Photos 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. View Photos 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. View Photos 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.) View Photos 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
Motor 1
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
Cadillac Has Sold Fewer Than 25 Celestiqs So Far
The Cadillac Celestiq is GM's moonshot EV. Longer than an Escalade and about as expensive as a Rolls-Royce Ghost , it's the most technically advanced and luxurious vehicle from the brand, ever. It'll also be even rarer than initially anticipated. Cadillac plans to build just 25 Celestiqs this year, the brand confirmed to Motor1 . But it has yet to sell every allocation, with a spokesperson telling us "nearly all" build slots are spoken for. So if you want one of the very first Celestiqs to roll off the line, you still have time. Photo by: Cadillac The numbers are a shift from previous expectations. Back when the Celestiq was revealed in 2022, Tony Roma, Cadillac's chief engineer of performance cars, said the brand had "many many more [buyers] than we're going to be able to build in the first year or 18 months." Either some prospective customers backed out of their allocations, or GM figured out a way to speed up production since announcing the car. Yearly production is expected to climb significantly next year, should order books begin to fill. But relative to a normal production Cadillac, the Celestiq will be a drop in the bucket. "We are building less than two a day," a spokesperson told Motor1 . That coincides with what Roma told Jay Leno on a recent episode of the comedian's YouTube series, Jay Leno's Garage . "This is super low-volume," Roma told Leno. "We're not announcing the exact volume, but think more like hundreds, not thousands." If you want a Celestiq, you'll need to be rolling in cash. Cadillac has yet to reveal an exact MSRP for the gargantuan four-door limousine, saying only it costs "north of $300,000." There's an endless sea of customization aspects for buyers, too, adding to the bottom line. The Celestiq was never meant to be a big seller. It's more of a marketing exercise to grow brand recognition for Cadillac and GM's battery tech. Even if Cadillac pushes the Celestiq's assembly line in Michigan to capacity, you're more likely to see one as a cameo on your favorite TV show than in real life. More on the Celestiq We Rode Shotgun In Cadillac's Rolls-Royce Rival Cadillac Celestiq Starts At Over $300,000: See How That Compares 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 . Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
The Verge
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Verge
Cadillac Celestiq first drive: the bespoke, $360,000 EV is here
The first hands-on experience I had with the $360,000, ultraluxury Cadillac Celestiq was as a backseat passenger. It was mid-April, and I was on the way to a dinner in West Hollywood. While GM insists most Celestiq buyers are drivers, the company wanted to create a vehicle that could be especially compelling for those who prefer to be chauffeured. Once known for its behemoth, bespoke luxury vehicles, Cadillac is working to get its mojo back with the all-electric Celestiq. A 655-horsepower fastback that seats four, the Celestiq is perhaps the most extravagant vehicle Cadillac has ever released — and certainly its most customizable. Cadillac is returning to its 1960s land yacht era with the Celestiq, which it thinks can rival offerings from Bentley and Rolls-Royce. The automaker is also hoping that the Celestiq can help the brand return to its 40-plus-year moniker as the 'Standard of the World,' and offer high-end, American-made, luxury vehicles in a new era of electrification. 'The idea was to make the best looking car in the world, but just happen to make it an EV,' says Tony Roma, executive chief engineer for Celestiq. A long time coming The luxury is striking, even from the back seat. The second row is large and luxurious with a pair of multiway adjustable seats, with massaging capabilities and an eight-inch central touchscreen where you can adjust everything from your own microclimate to the way that the massive glass roof is shaded. That roof is something of a technological marve l. It's not only one of the largest in the automotive world, it's also made of Smart Glass, which allows each of the four occupants to set opacity in each quadrant using the touchscreens in the front and back seats. According to Roma, the glass travels around the world (starting in Peru and ending up in Michigan) because the technology and coatings are so specialized. Even getting into and out of the Celestiq is a high-tech affair Even getting into and out of the Celestiq is a high-tech affair — the doors are all powered (similar to those in the Escalade IQ), allowing you to use the touchscreen controls to open and close the doors from the front or back seats. That presented a new challenge for the electrical engineers, because translating a gesture on a touchscreen to the physical action of unlocking and opening heavy doors took a lot of work, according to Kelly Drexler, senior quality engineer at GM's Electrical Integration Systems Lab in Warren. In front is a massive pillar-to-pillar, 55-inch-diagonal advanced HD display that handles everything from infotainment (with Google built-in) to safety controls. The screens are remarkably clear and bright, even in the Southern California glare. Cadillac says that they have pixel density comparable to 8K resolution televisions. The automaker worked closely with Dolby Atmos to bring cinematic sound to the interior, and the soundscape and quality are impressive thanks to the 38-speaker AKG system, complete with speakers in the headrests. Outside, there are plenty of other hidden but remarkable features. The sensors and cameras used for GM's hands-free driving system, Super Cruise, get an upgrade on the Celestiq. Call it 'Ultra Cruise' or don't, the system is powered by cameras and radar, as well as LiDAR, for use on secondary roads. While it's not yet available, Celestiq gets the equipment to ensure it works in the future when GM gives it the green light. Sensors are hidden under carbon-fiber body panels that look like metal so they can 'see' through them. The enormous clamshell frunk cover is also one huge piece of carbon fiber, which allowed designers to move the cut lines lower into the side panels and keep the Celestiq's low-slung looks. A head-turning fastback with GM power and engineering underneath Roma isn't only in charge of Celestiq. He's also the executive chief engineer for Corvette and GM's performance cars, and his decades of experience with this segment have largely informed the way that Celestiq drives on the road. Some of GM's best engineering has come from the suspension and powertrain engineers that work on Corvette — like those that Roma oversees. While the vehicle weighs more than a gas-powered Escalade (more than 6,000 lbs), it can do 0–60 in under four seconds. Even with all that weight, it corners surprisingly flat, and while it doesn't 'waft' over the rough roads like its German competitors, it feels a lot more connected than any other uberluxury four-seater on the market. Part of the route took us up to Angeles Crest, one of the famed windy roads that Southern Californians frequently enjoy hooning. I expected the 18-foot-long vehicle (longer than an Escalade) to feel like a beluga whale swimming toward Big Tujunga Canyon, but the Celestiq ate up the curves at a blistering speed and nary a complaint from the special Michelin Pilot Sport EV tires. I expected the 18-foot-long vehicle to feel like a beluga whale swimming toward Big Tujunga Canyon It was comfortable when pushed, and the suspension absorbed every bit of the sun-bleached mountain roads thanks to GM's Magnetic Ride Control system, pioneered in the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. It's one of the fastest responding suspension tech on the market — and by far one of the best we've experienced. The system uses electromagnets and magnetorheological fluid inside the shock absorbers to adjust damping rates in response to road conditions, tech that exists on the Corvette today. That set up gives you four drive modes: snow, sport, tour, and a customizable 'my mode,' which allows you to set your steering, throttle, and suspension modes and save them for easy access. The gigantic car also gets (much-needed) active rear steering up to 3.5 degrees, which makes it much easier to negotiate in small parking lots. The route took us down into downtown LA (during rush hour), where we had to make a U-turn across two lanes of traffic to arrive at a destination. To say that was a hairy experience in a $360,000 car is an understatement, but the Celestiq made the turn just fine, though its turning radius is still huge at 45 feet. The Celestiq also turns heads on the streets of Los Angeles. During the event, we made a stop at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank to get a closer look at how Cadillac and their audio partner, Dolby Atmos, worked together to bring a very impressive sound to the vehicle. On the way out, a director in a golf cart spotted the vehicle and drove over to ask about it, commenting on how striking it looked gliding down the street. A design and engineering challenge What makes the Celestiq so striking belies a tremendous engineering challenge: The Celestiq was jointly designed by car designers and engineers who worked very closely together to cook up something unique. Designers threw down the gauntlet for the engineering team, insisting on keeping Celestiq's roofline low and long. At the same time, the engineers wanted the vehicle to get at least 300 miles of range, which requires a certain number of battery cells. Those batteries take up interior space for passengers, which poses a problem for design and passenger comfort. To meet in the middle, engineers had to make some changes to the 111kW Ultium-based battery pack that underpins the Celestiq. Most battery packs are completely flat and lay under the floor of the vehicle. Engineers initially thought they'd be able to use the Lyric battery layout to meet the range demands for the Celestiq — but it would have meant raising the roofline to keep rear passengers comfortable. On a flat floor, rear occupants would have had to sit with their knees up around their ears. The design and engineering teams compromised, and as a result, the engineers moved batteries from the floor to a 'fake' transmission tunnel so that designers could lower the footwells in the back seat for comfort. The batteries stack from 9 to 12 cells high in the interior of the Celestiq. Engineers had to make some changes to the 111kW Ultium-based battery pack that underpins the Celestiq Celestiq is also the first vehicle to be 'hand made' at GM's Artisan Center at the Warren Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. Six aluminum mega castings (whose forms are made of 3D-printed sand) make up the lower portion of the vehicle, representing the first time that the company has used the technique on a larger scale. There are more than 115 3D-printed parts on Celestiq. A team of 12 artisans hand-assembles each Celestiq at six stations in the Artisan Center, and Roma says that at maximum output, the team can build two Celestiqs per day, with a total output of 400 per year. Currently, the Artisan Center has room for a second line if demand increases. If a customer requests everything stock (meaning the color, materials, etc, are all non-bespoke), Cadillac says it takes 12 weeks to fully assemble. As bespoke as you want The sky's the limit when designing your own Celestiq. 'The only limit is how much money you want to spend,' Roma says, noting that there are more than 350,000 different color and material combinations that you could opt for. According to the company, around 40 percent of the customers who have ordered Celestiqs have opted to go outside of those multiple combinations for full customization. The concierge team at the Warren Tech Center's Cadillac House, where high-end customers come in to design their Celestiqs, is one of the first entry points for these wealthy individuals. Concierges there say that customers can get as wild as they like with materials and colors, provided that the requests don't impact the safety or engineering of the vehicle. Anything that raises safety or build concerns (for example, if you decided you wanted a ground-up meteorite in your paint, which could interfere with Celestiq's safety sensors), the concierge team takes it back to the other teams to test before Cadillac agrees to the request. The design team went so far as to customize bolts inside the vehicle. Each visible bolt is stamped with 'Standard of the World,' and could conceivably be changed to an owner's name or a special date, for example. The company uses techniques borrowed from jewelry making to customize these features. The concierge team has already had some pretty wild requests, including one that they call the 'Game of Thrones' car. While the vehicle may or may not go into production, it was currently being designed with red velvet seat covers (something the safety team would have had to test to ensure that airbags would work if deployed), and a dark exterior color. There were conversations about using stone in the interior as well. That level of personalization isn't just for show — it underscores Cadillac's commitment to authenticity and craftsmanship at a price point that demands both. 'You can get in some of our competitors, and you can find the components that they reuse, and they're very obvious, and I understand why they did it,' Roma says. 'Cadillac is competing in a price segment and at a tier that we haven't even tried in such a long time. So we really wanted to make sure that every single detail was authentic.' That authenticity translates into a vehicle that costs nearly as much as the average house in the US. Whether Celestiq will raise the company to the brand level of some of its German competitors is another question altogether. GM has been waging a decades-long battle to get back to its heyday as a luxury American brand, and it's been slow going — the automaker revamped its image in 2018. It's taken seven years for the Celestiq to make it to production, and customer deliveries are supposed to start in about a month. Everything the company has thrown at Celestiq will trickle down to Cadillac's other offerings. It's clear that GM is doubling down on the high-end market and using engineering, technology, and design to continue to try to reestablish themselves as the new standard of the world.
