Cadillac Escalade IQ EV Confirmed As Next Luxury Electric SUV

Cadillac's most memorable SUV is going electric, with the automaker confirming today that the Escalade IQ will make its debut later in 2023. It's the third EV that Cadillac has announced so far and will follow the Lyriq crossover and the super-luxury Celestiq, the company's bespoke electric sedan. However, it's hard to argue that the Escalade IQ isn't the most important EV that we've seen from Cadillac so far.

Details on the new electric SUV are currently in short supply. Basically, Caddy is confirming that it'll be using the IQ brand — which it used first on the Lyriq — on its luxury SUV. The Escalade IQ will deliver "the same commitment to craftsmanship, technology, and performance that has helped the Escalade nameplate dominate the large luxury SUV segment for the last 20 years," the automaker said in a statement.

Although not specified, it's almost certain to use the Ultium electric vehicle architecture that General Motors has developed for its EVs. That's a highly modular platform, intended to be customizable for front, rear, and all-wheel drive vehicles, with varying levels of power and battery capacity. That's allowed GM to position its EVs across different price points, even as it axes its non-Ultium (and most affordable) electric models.

It was only a matter of time before the Escalade got an all-electric version; after all, GM has been upfront about its vision for a fully electrified range across all its brands. Cadillac itself has committed to revealing three new EVs in 2023. However, electrifying the Escalade is a serious business.

The full-sized luxury SUV may have plenty of competition, but it still comfortably out-sold every other Cadillac model in 2022. In fact, more Escalades were sold than any Buick model individually, too. In short, it's Caddy's perennial cash cow, and the automaker knows that its customers like its size, its status, and its brash expression of power.

Distilling all that into an electric vehicle could be a fraught process, but the Cadillac Escalade IQ does have some broader family experience to build upon. GMC's Hummer EV has already demonstrated that the Ultium platform is capable of some frankly ridiculous performance — a 3.0 second 0-60 mph time from a 9,000-pound pickup is as impressive as it is terrifying — so the Escalade IQ needn't worry about being slow.

Speed, though, is only one element. The Escalade's imposing scale is undoubtedly another reason for its perennial popularity, and while the latest generation of internal combustion models may have toned down the Art Deco ostentation of previous iterations, there's no way you can call the SUV subtle. Nor is it particularly aerodynamic, something Cadillac is going to have to address if it wants to pair decent range with the Escalade IQ (or, at least, not without just dropping in a battery pack roughly twice the size of what most other EVs make do with).

Minutiae like that aside, there's no question that electrification and luxury go together well: more so, even than the big V8 and V12 engines that are traditionally found in high-end vehicles. The combination of instantaneous torque and far smoother, quieter motors have proved to be catnip to the big names in expensive cars. Bentley's first all-electric model is expected in 2025, while the first deliveries of the Rolls-Royce Spectre EV are on course to arrive by the end of this year.

The Escalade IQ should, in contrast, be a lot more affordable, though pricing along with all other specifications will have to wait until Cadillac spills more details on the new SUV. That should happen sometime later in 2023, though when the new model will actually land in dealerships remains to be seen.