2025 Cadillac Optiq First Drive: A Surprising Twist On Chevy's Equinox EV

One of the most surprising EV debuts of last year emerged somewhat out of left field. Now, almost a year later, Chevrolet Equinox EVs seemingly follow me around West LA at nearly every turn. Chevy clearly nailed the perfect recipe for a popular electric crossover and this year, Cadillac wants a taste too with the new all-electric Optiq, which shares a platform with the Equinox.

The ingredients appear fairly straightforward: boost the style points, add some premium materials, bump up the power with standard dual-motor all-wheel drive, and slide in plenty of tech features. The result fits into Caddy's lineup as a slightly more angular crossover harboring sporty aspirations, with just over 300 miles of range and priced just under $60,000 to compete with entry-level luxury EVs including the Tesla Model Y, Audi Q4 e-tron, Genesis GV60, and maybe even the Mercedes-Benz EQB.

Yet precisely because the Optiq shares that Ultium chassis with the Equinox, small doubts persisted in the back of my mind after an early static preview last year. Namely, how Cadillac might improve driving engagement, since most Ultium cars tend to fall into the duller end of the spectrum. That impression mattered less for Equinox, because of the price point but also likely because it weighs the least out of Chevy's electric SUVs, yet Caddy's decision to show off the Optiq on the weather-beaten roads of San Francisco and the Marin headlands still surprised me as a bold move.

For a quick intro the night before, a fleet of Escalades shuttled an assemblage of automotive journalists, influencers, and analysts to the Dolby Laboratories, where we experienced an innovative three-dimensional demonstration of Atmos surround sound. Presumably on some of the best speakers in the world, too, since Elton John and Kendrick Lamar never sounded so good. 

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Only throughout the swanky evening, more suspicions started to fester in my mind grapes, since an automaker focusing so hard on external partner features typically suggests internal doubts about the car itself.

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Climbing into the Optiq the next morning, I took a look around at the familiar 33-inch combined touchscreen, textural materials, and physical switchgear. The fog burning off in SF helped me appreciate a retractable sunshade for the panoramic sunroof, which Cadillac reps described as a customer mandate—even though the flagship Escalade IQ suspiciously lacks exactly such solar protection for a much larger glass canopy.

I naturally spent some time the night before inspired by Dolby, and immediately tried to pull up a few songs from a playlist I concocted full of classics, hip hop, hardcore electronica, and modern pop. Unfortunately, actually finding any of the remastered music via the onboard Amazon Music app essentially required searching at random and crossing fingers, with no way to filter specifically for Dolby Atmos-remastered tunes.

Remember, GM nixed Apple CarPlay on the company's entire EV lineup—a decision I formerly panned but can now admit that with the more GM electrics I drive, the more the use of native range estimates via Google Built-In makes sense. Plus, I might pull together playlists through my own Amazon Music account if I owned an Optiq...

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Instead, my drive partner and I settled in for one of the strangest selections of songs ever collected, which Caddy and Dolby pre-loaded into our tester. The surround sound bumped, in fairness, but lacked much of the depth and fidelity compared to the night before, back in the lab (with a pen and a pad). And in hindsight, the Optiq paled in comparison to the Escalade IQ we drove the next day, which can come with up to 42 speakers—but not Dolby Atmos until the 2026 model year. Okay, fine then, time to drown out the noise and focus on, you know, driving.

The Optiq manages an EPA-estimated 302 miles of range from the same 85-kilowatt-hour battery as the Equinox EV, and the same 300 horsepower with a slightly beefier 354 lb-ft of torque as the dual-motor AWD variant. Are we sandbagging the Chevy to make the Caddy look better? Seems likely, since the AWD Equinox also comes with a bit less range, at 285 miles.

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Those numbers, as expected of any Ultium vehicle by now, seem entirely functional: GM truly sits ahead of the mainstream OEM pack in pure range terms. But the Optiq's suspension emerged as more of a highlight than a few extra pounds-feet of torque, since a Cadillac simply needs to ride much more smoothly than a Chevy despite any sporty aspirations that marketing materials might suggest. 

The first few miles of punishing asphalt as we escaped from San Francisco (not Alcatraz) immediately revealed a level of refinement and comfort that the Equinox lacked on Detroit's rough roads last year.

Then, out onto the winding roads of a windy coastline, by switching up drive modes, I found a level of cornering capability that suggests Cadillac possibly brought those dueling aspirations to reality. Sure, the overall weight bordering on 5,200 pounds still caused the eco-friendly Continental CrossContact tires to start protesting fairly quickly, as a fair amount of body roll loaded up the outside tires right up to, and past, the limits of adhesion.

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Turning off traction control helped to unleash a bit more low-end punch but overall, the gentle "throttle" modulation typical of Ultium EVs still prevented much of the stomach-jerking acceleration that other manufacturers love to emphasize. Meanwhile, once I stopped trying to push-pull the dual motors through corners, and despite a strong headwind, the Optiq's interior remained otherwise almost entirely silent.

NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) clearly takes another step upmarket for the Optiq. On straighter sections of road, tire hum and wind rush all but disappeared, as we enjoyed a seriously serene environment perfect for a coastal drive on a sunny day, spotting a few bird watchers, stopping to slurp down oysters, and generally living the life of your prototypical Cadillac buyers trying to transcend the Bay Area rat race.

Caddy hopes that eco-friendly lifestyle will help the Optiq stand out among luxury shoppers, even if the 302 miles of range make this EV more of a city runabout than a true road tripper. In that regard, the relatively compact footprint of a skateboard chassis allows for plenty of interior volume. 

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I fit into the second row of seats easily at six-foot-one with long limbs, and the trunk cargo capacity of 26 cubic feet (before folding down the back seats) should easily hold even a full family of five's weekend gear. That large volume dictated deleting the front trunk, though, a bummer given the lack of secure storage for those urban environments.

The rest of the interior straddles a fine line between opulent luxury and overt budgetary. I recalled the display car in a Downtown Los Angeles loft space looking somewhat more special, especially lamenting now the glossy plastic finish on wood grain surfaces. Piano key switchgear below the touchscreen also felt slightly less substantial than in the memories of my mind's eye (or finger, maybe). 

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The door panels, in particular, caught my obsessive textural attention best, and I repeatedly fiddled with the interplay between brushed metals, knit upholstery, and leather.

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Speccing a more restrained color than the "Nimbus Metallic" blue or original orangey-red launch color might help to emphasize the overall profile, rather than some of the more cringey external details. Do we truly need those straked rear quarter windows? We definitely don't need the piano black plastic wheel arches and lower fascia, which even on a single dry day of driving started to show dirt and grime accumulation.

Then again, while I crouched at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge snapping pics of the Optiq, a Model Y owner prepping to hit the water for some kind of kite surfing moseyed over to take a look. Plenty of "Anti Elon Tesla Club" and "I Bought This Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy" stickers throughout our tour of the Bay hint at the swelling anti-DOGE tide driving Tesla stock downward—and EV buyers to other automakers. Maybe that perfect confluence of events will help Cadillac sell more Optiqs, while bridging the gap between young aspirational families and more traditional luxury buyers.

At the very least, the Optiq represents only a modest step up in price of about five grand versus a dual-motor Equinox EV. That sum buys more power, more range, standard all-wheel drive, more leather, more aluminum, better speakers, standard Super Cruise... And the list goes on.

Meanwhile, the base FWD Equinox already started to show signs of serious life last year, helping to usher in Chevy's best year of EV sales ever with the Equinox as the single best-seller, and the company as a whole coming in second only behind Tesla by Q4 of 2024. And the Optiq's combination of features only improves upon that recipe, though whether the Cadillac design language and sport-luxury divide help or hinder the whole becoming more than the sum of its parts still sticks in my mind as something of a conundrum.