The Escalade may not be the most expensive, most luxurious, or even best-selling car in Cadillac’s lineup, but it still remains as the outfit’s de facto flagship. It’s their most important car and easily the most recognizable name in their fleet. With the future of cars going electric, it’s just as important to make sure the Escalade stays just as relevant in that imminent future. That’s why the new 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is the outfit’s most important all-electric car to date.
That’s right, the Escalade is going electric. No, it’s not going to replace the gas-guzzling Escalade entirely. Instead, it’s going to be released alongside that, so you get the option of going with a big, bold, and high-tech combustion engine SUV or a big, bold, and high-tech all-electric one. Hey… more options is a good thing.
The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ takes on the same big and burly dimensions as the SUV’s gas-powered iterations, so it still looks like the Escalade everyone knows and loves. It’s quite the good-looking SUV, too, with a cab-rearward shape, a long nose, and sleek lines that, the outfit claims, makes it the most aerodynamic full-size SUV GM has ever produced. The vehicle is built on GM’s new Ultium EV platform, so it’s built on the same fundamentals as the Hummer EV and the Silverado EV.
It’s powered by a dual-motor, all-wheel drive setup that puts out 650 horsepower and 615 pound-feet of torque in Normal mode, with the option to step up to 750 ponies and 785 pound-feet of torque in Velocity mode. In that latter configuration, the vehicle can go from standstill to 60 mph in under five seconds, allowing you to barrel through the highway at blistering speeds. Yes, that’s a few fractions of a second slower than the Escalade V, despite the extra horsepower, although we imagine the extra weight of the batteries do a lot to slow it down a bit.
The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ’s motors are hooked up to a 200kWh battery pack under the car’s flooring, which holds enough juice to keep it running for up to 450 miles. Ten minutes of plugging in to a DC fast charger is enough to put in an extra 100 miles, too, so you should be able to juice the thing back up without the extended wait times. As usual, it gets all the driving tech you’ll typical find in GM vehicles, such as adaptive air suspension, Magnetic Ride Control 4.0, adjustable ride height (it can raise by one inch or lower by two inches from standard ride height), and four-wheel steering.
Inside, it’s luxury-packed, with the dash covered entirely in two very wide screens, while an extra screen sits below it. Seriously, the entire dash looks like a fancy computer, with nothing but two speaker grilles at the ends flanking the wide displays. Other features include three rows of seating, 12 cubic feet of storage room out front, 23.3 cubic feet of storage room in the back, 24-inch rims, and more.
The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ commences production in the summer of 2024. Price starts at $130,000.