Cadillac Is Ready To Sell Electric Cars to Everyone — if They Want Them

It actually did it.Cadillac said it would become an all-electric brand by 2030 and it’s already halfway there.The luxury marque unveiled the 2026 Vistiq this week, which means it will have at least five electric models in showrooms within two years.Four of them — the Vistiq, Lyriq, Optiq and Escalade IQ — are SUVs. That is the same number it currently sells with internal combustion engines.The Cadillac Vistiq. Courtesy Cadillac“Our brand now has an EV entry in most luxury segments, offering customers a range of choices, and Cadillac EVs will cover most luxury SUV segments across critical global markets in the next two years,” said Cadillac Vice President John Roth.IQ is the suffix Cadillac is using to denote its electric models, but Escalade was deemed too valuable of a nameplate to toss out altogether. (Escaladiq doesn’t exactly have a nice ring to it when you say it out loud, either.)The fifth model is the flagship $340,000 Celestiq that is meant to compete with the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Each of the mere hundreds that Cadillac will build will be custom-designed for its buyer. No two will be alike.The Celestiq. Courtesy CadillacLenny Kravitz is a brand ambassador for the Celestiq and has requested that one of his guitar straps be integrated into the interior of his car.The Vistiq is a much more mainstream model. It’s similar in size to today’s XT6 and has three rows of seats, slotting it between the five-passenger midsize Lyriq and full-size Escalade IQ in Cadillac’s EV lineup. The Optiq sits below all of them as an entry-level compact crossover.Details including pricing and driving range will come closer to when the Vistiq goes on sale, but one bit of information is plastered on its tail.Cadillac has adopted the unusual convention of assigning a number to each of its cars that is based on how much torque its powertrain produces in Newton-Meters, rounded to the nearest 50, rather than the pound-feet measurement typically used in the U.S.The Optiq. Courtesy CadillacThe Vistiq’s badge says 600E4. That’s the same as the one found on the all-wheel-drive Lyriq, which is rated at 450 lb-ft of torque and 500 hp and has a starting price of $62,090.This isn’t too surprising as all of Cadillac’s EVs are designed on the same Ultium platform and share their motors and batteries as needed in a mix and match fashion.That is when it can build them.The Escalade IQ. Courtesy CadillacGeneral Motors has been having trouble ramping up battery module production due to automated manufacturing issues and was only able to deliver slightly more than 5,000 Lyriqs through the first nine months of the year.The Escalade V. Courtesy Cadillac.CEO Mary Barra says the problem has been fixed, but GM is also slowing the roll-out of all its EVs due to softer than expected market demand, so just how quickly it will be cranking out these Cadillacs is yet to be seen.Cadillac also hasn’t announced any end dates for its internal combustion engine models, including the Escalade-V. The high performance behemoth features a screaming 668 hp supercharged V8 that’s more powerful than a NASCAR Cup Series car’s engine and gets 13 mpg combined drinking premium fuel. It’s priced at $155,515, but is so popular that dealers often add $25-$50K markups on top of that.The Cadillac race car. Courtesy CadillacCadillac’s racing efforts bridge the brand’s current split-personality perfectly. It competes in endurance races like the Daytona and Le Mans 24 hour races with a hybrid prototype that combines a V8 with an electric motor.If winning races still sells cars, it’s a good way to hedge its bets during this transitional phase.As long as it wins.

Cadillac Is Ready To Sell Electric Cars to Everyone — if They Want Them

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