Cadillac is trying to relive their glory days by going back to a time when they were the standard of the world. Cadillac has been around for 120 years, and way back before you and I were born, they made very big and very expensive cars. In those early days of automotive history, a Cadillac cost more than a Rolls-Royce, and the new $300,000 Cadillac CELESTIQ is hoping to make history repeat itself.
That’s right. $300,000 for a Cadillac, and that’s just the starting price. I’m sure Cadillac can come up with some crazy 5-figure options that can be added to the car. The CELESTIQ is a vision of the brand’s future handcrafted and all-electric flagship sedan. Conceived to lead Cadillac’s electric future and inspired by the brand’s 120-year heritage, it serves as a touchstone for the Cadillac design and engineering teams.
“The CELESTIQ show car is the purest expression of Cadillac. It brings to life the most integrated expressions of design and innovation in the brand’s history, coalescing in a defining statement of a true Cadillac flagship.” – Magalie Debellis, manager, Cadillac Advanced Design
In developing the CELESTIQ, the team immersed themselves in the “artisanship and customization” that defined early Cadillac sedans such as the bespoke V-16 powered coaches of the prewar era, and the hand-built 1957 Eldorado Brougham. The CELESTIQ is the culmination of that heritage, brought to life with innovative production methods and new technologies.
“Those vehicles represented the pinnacle of luxury in their respective eras, and helped make Cadillac the standard of the world. The CELESTIQ show car — also a sedan, because the configuration offers the very best luxury experience — builds on that pedigree and captures the spirt of arrival they expressed.” – Tony Roma, chief engineer
The clean sheet design will be made on the Ultium-based EV architecture and will be all wheel drive. Other than that, Cadillac revealed nothing about the powertrain, battery size, or range.
The car does previews some of the materials, innovative technologies and hand-crafted attention to detail to express Cadillac’s vision for the future. Highlights include five high-definition, advanced LED interactive displays, including a 55-inch-diagonal advanced LED display, along with expected industry firsts such as a variable-transmission Smart Glass Roof and Ultra Cruise, GM’s next evolution of available hands-free driver assistance technology.
The Smart Glass Roof features Suspended Particle Device (SPD) technology that allows for four zones of variable lighting, enabling passengers to fine-tune their cabin experience for completely personalized comfort and visibility. Additionally, the 55-inch-diagonal advanced LED display introduces a passenger display with electronic digital blinds, an active privacy technology, which is designed to allow passengers to enjoy video content while blocking it from the view of the driver.
The CELESTIQ will be handcrafted and assemble at GM’s Global Technical Center. GM is investing $81 million into the GTC to prepare the campus to build the CELESTIQ. The landmark campus was originally designed by Eero Saarinen and serve as the heart of the company’s engineering and design efforts. The CELESTIQ will be the first production vehicle built there since the center’s inauguration in May 1956.
Cadillac would need to sell a minimum of 270 CELESTIQ to recover the cost of the GTC investment, and probably another 330 to recover the R&D costs. Will they be able to find 600 people willing to pay $300,000 for a Cadillac? Time will tell if the CELESTIQ can make Cadillac the standard of the world again.
