The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ Gets Impressive Tech and a Six-Figure Starting Price

by Chris Teague

Published: August 10th, 2023

the 2025 cadillac escalade iq gets impressive tech and a six figure starting price

There are Cadillacs, and then there’s the Escalade. The hulking luxury family hauler has been around since the late 1990s and has become a showcase for the automaker’s technology and design prowess, but GM is going electric, and a three-ton V8-powered SUV doesn’t fit with that vision. Of course, Cadillac couldn’t just drop the Escalade, so it’s going electric with the 2025 Escalade IQ, an impressive and expensive EV that looks every bit as deluxe as its liquid dinosaur-guzzling counterparts.

The IQ’s $130,000 starting price buys a three-row SUV with curvier lines than the current gas model, and Cadillac said it’s the most aerodynamic Escalade to date. Riding on 24-inch wheels, the SUV has air suspension, a 450-mile range, and eye-popping specs. It delivers up to 750 horsepower using the Velocity Max setting, and there’s a whopping 785 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers enable a sub-five-second 0-60 mph time and up to 8,000 pounds of towing capacity.

Like the GMC Hummer EV, the Escalade IQ has rear-wheel steering and its own version of the funky crab walk feature that helps the big-boy Cadillac maneuver in tight spaces. The IQ also offers one-pedal driving and adjustable regenerative braking. Cadillac also equipped a heat pump system that improves range and speeds up charging. It can also redirect heat from the battery to the SUV’s climate control system.

The current Escalade’s cabin is packed with screens, and the IQ will follow suit. It features 55 inches of screen that stretches across the dash. The system uses a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and runs Google built-in. That said, one of the most notable stories about the IQ’s tech comes from what it’s missing: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. GM promised that the features would not be available in its upcoming EVs, and we’re now starting to see the controversial policy in action.

Cadillac equips a long list of safety features, including intersection automatic emergency braking, blind spot steering assist, and an HD surround-view camera system. Super Cruise comes standard with a three-year free subscription through OnStar, bringing hands-free driving on more than 400,000 miles of highway in the U.S. and Canada.

The IQ will be built in GM’s Factory Zero in Michigan and enter production in the summer of 2024.

[Images: Cadillac]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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4 of 31 comments

MaintenanceCosts on Aug 10, 2023

This is what results when your answer to any engineering issue that crops up during development is "MAKE IT BIGGER!"

Like Reply
- FreedMike on Aug 11, 2023
  
  That's the nice thing about electrification - you can make vehicles HUGE and they still don't pollute. This might bode well for the return of the big family sedan or coupe - the market is beyond glutted with SUVs and crossovers, so it might be time for something new (or something old that's new again).
  
  Electro 6000 SUX!
  
  Like
- Peter on Aug 11, 2023
  
  MERICA
  
  Like
Art_Vandelay on Aug 11, 2023

wow...some posts deleted here. I guess some folks don't like being reminded of the Motors Liquidation Corp

Like Reply
- RHD on Aug 11, 2023
  
  Lots of posts were deleted. What, we can't say that when someone buys an Escalade IQ, they get too much of the former and lack too much of the latter?
  
  Like

Recent Comments

28-Cars-Later So the company whose BEVs are without proven lifespan and mired in recalls wants to further cheapen materials and mfg costs of the very same thing they already cannot sell? I don't know if Ford is going to still exist in 2030 (assuming the nation still does of course).
Fred We want our manufacturing to pay good wages, provide healthcare, not pollute and provide a safe workplace. Many places around the world don't, so we put a tariff on them to force them. That's the way it should be, but I'm afraid this is just a political move by Biden to take away one of Trump's talking points.
Orange260z Modern Cadillac sedans look and drive great. Yeah, the interior materials aren't quite as good as the competition, but if they undercut them in price it can offset. IMHO, they need to step up in a big way on their warranty, service and customer service. H/K/G shows confidence in the quality of the product by offering long standard B2B warranties and low-cost exclusionary extensions. My Caddy became a money pit after the warranty with only 75K kms; yes, the Germans do that, but they have the established cachet that they get away with it. They need to make sure that their cars still look good after 10 years (i.e. no trim issues, no undercarriage rust issues, etc) - my CTS was all rusty underneath after two years, they told me that was acceptable and not under warranty. Cadillac needs to do more.In Canada, there are few (if any) standalone Cadillac dealerships; they are typically co-located with all the other (remaining) GM brands. However, this doesn't have to be a kiss of death - Lexus successfully built their rep despite co-location, by investing in dedicated Lexus sales areas, sales people, service advisors, technicians, lounge areas with private offices, perks (free coffee/treats, car wash and vacuum with any service, a large complimentary Lexus loaner fleet available for any service visit), etc. By contrast, for Cadillac service I would line up with the 20 other people waiting for one of 5-7 service writers that know nothing about my car because they service 10,000 different GM models, answering a question about maintenance requirements "How am I supposed to know?". During the first 4 years I had access to complimentary Enterprise rental cars as loaners, but I had to spend 20-30 mins going through a car rental process every time. The guy who would do complimentary service washes did so with a big scrub brush he just used to wash a work truck that was covered in mud. They can't sell a premium car with crappy service like that, they have to be better than their competition.If it weren't for these issues I would not have hesitated to buy a new CT5 V-sport (winter DD, want AWD). I bought a G70 instead, we'll see how that goes - but at least I have a long B2B warranty.
Jalop1991 Are tariffs the right answer? Ask China and Japan. They've imposed lots of protectionist tariffs over the years, but somehow our doing so is horrible or something like that.Let's do the Japanese inspection to the Chinese junk imports, and make the Chinese pay for them.BYD--now available at Walmart and Amazon.
Scott This seems very BOEING of FORD....