- What’s in a reputation? The Escalade IQ is smarter, it seems
- An enormous battery delivers 460 miles of vary
- Cadillac delivers an enormous worth, too: $129,990
For all its red-carpet appearances and secret-service duties over the previous era, the Cadillac Escalade has not been notably leading edge. It’s prospered in a affluent world the place hardship means the wifi in your business-class flight isn’t working. However till now, it hasn’t made the electrical leap like Rivian. It’s been a product of the formulation it invented: an enormous, large-displacement SUV with numerous chrome and plenty of digits in its sticker worth.
For Twentieth-century infants, that is nothing new, however to anybody born since Bush v. Gore, it simply sounds hopeless. Subsequent factor you’ll be telling me, or so the thought bubble goes, is I should dry my garments on a rock by the river whereas I bathe.
All that modifications now. The Escalade now has an IQ appendix to its identify, and the “IQ” does double-entendre obligation. That is the brand new one, with batteries—and actually it’s the smarter Escalade, whether or not you might want to park it, drive it, or present it off.
Whereas it shares the primary identify, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ three-row luxurious SUV stops at that. It has its personal electrical drivetrain, its personal structure (which underpins different huge GM electrical vehicles and SUVs), and its personal hanging, tech-forward design. It additionally has an enormous bona fide: Cadillac says it’s the longest-range electrical SUV available on the market, simply forward of the approaching 450-mile Lucid Gravity.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
2025 Escalade IQ: A efficiency glide path
With batteries beneath, and an always-thinking suspension underfoot, the Escalade IQ performs like a powerlifter with a secret previous as an Olympic rhythmic gymnast. It’s fueled much less by testosterone than the associated Hummer EV—it lacks a WTF mode, which the Hummer EV has embedded in its touchscreens and {hardware} and, actually, in its very existence.
In its WTF place, the Escalade IQ substitutes the sort of all-around composure and swiftness—a propensity to glide by means of unhealthy conditions—that underscores GM’s conventional strengths of powertrain and suspension tuning.
Like that GMC Hummer EV and the also-related Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, the Escalade IQ faucets the primary iteration of GM’s big-battery platform, as soon as referred to as Ultium. It skips three- and four-motor madness and huddles round a dual-motor format, one that attracts power from an estimated 205-kwh battery pack (GM doesn’t disclose its actual capability.
The twin-motor propulsion system reels out as much as 750 hp and 785 lb-ft of torque, which launches it to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and streams that energy to all 4 wheels. To faucet that efficiency, a “V” button on the steering wheel activates a drive mode dubbed “Velocity Max,” which if anything can be a terrific ‘80s-tribute-band identify. Depart that V alone and, in Tour mode, the Escalade IQ runs on a extra workaday 680 hp and 615 lb-ft, whereas nonetheless lugging round 9,000-ish kilos. It’s a must to admire the hustle.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
These different drive modes endow it with a spread of personalities, however regular Tour fits it greatest, with extra relaxed throttle pacing than in Sport. In Tour mode, the steering doesn’t dial up an excessive amount of heft, prefer it does in Sport. A person MyMode permits you to futz with all these—however to take action, you need to faucet the principle touchscreen then attain all the way down to the smaller subpanel to toggle it between modes. There’s room on the steering wheel for a digital toggle change; perhaps a future over-the-air replace will repair this.
The Escalade IQ likes to glide, and when handled like an enormous luxurious machine from one other period, it’s elegant. Maintain all programs in Tour, and the fourth era of GM’s magnetically managed dampers and a four-corner air suspension places the highway as an alternative—beneath you. Each work in live performance with a short-arm, long-arm impartial suspension setup to quell the motions triggered by nearly any highway blemish or pockmark, even on its commonplace 24-inch wheels and 275/50R24 tires.
On the identical time, commonplace rear-wheel steering trims the inputs wanted to pivot it round corners at decrease speeds. It’s an virtually faultless mixture; it swept by means of banked pavement with confidence, then soaked up deep craters on an oceanfront gravel highway with a fraction of the pinnacle toss of one thing just like the Mercedes GLS-Class. The suspension can elevate the experience peak 1.0 inch and decrease it 2.0 inches, to spice up floor clearance or effectivity, or to make it simpler to clamber on this very tall car.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
The Escalade IQ recaptures among the sweat its electrical programs put out by means of regenerative braking programmed with gentle and robust modes, and with a full one-pedal drive mode. The one-pedal mode requires the regular foot of a limo driver to be very easy. It may be adjusted by way of an onscreen icon that’s a protracted attain from the driving force’s seat, or from a spin of a console knob—however just like the drive mode selector, it takes a number of actions on completely different enter paths to get it there. There’s additionally a paddle on the left facet of the steering column that allows variable regen, a hand-me-down enter that dates again to Cadillac’s Volt cousin, the ELR. It’s not one thing I’d use often.
Cadillac estimates the max towing capability at 8,000 kilos. So, sure, it could actually. However for a way lengthy? We weren’t given the chance to check it, or to check any of its 6.9 inches of floor clearance or off-road skill. Who can be so courageous, with a lot at stake? Simply drivers of the Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Expertise or the upcoming Vary Rover EV, we’d guess.
With its 800-volt structure, the Escalade IQ can add 100 miles of vary in 10 minutes on a 350-kw DC quick charger. On a 240-volt outlet at 19.2 amps, Cadillac says it could actually high off at a charge of 37 miles per hour. GM is also testing a home-energy resolution that may combine the IQ as a part of a vehicle-to-grid setup by means of bidirectional charging, however it’s solely being examined in California in the intervening time.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ
2025 Escalade IQ: for “inside quiet”?
The gas-powered Escalade usually transports royalty, so in fact it seems to be majestic in a let-them-eat-cake method. The Escalade IQ? It’s distinctly extra fashionable, with an angled rear roof pillar that appears extra like a midsize Grand Cherokee than the bluff rebuff of its namesake.
However the regal particulars issue into its lengthy, tall hood: it wears vertical LED headlights and a grille-shaped protect on its nostril. From the facet, the bodywork finds a slimmer set of angles and extra attention-grabbing gentle, with a mild downward slope towards the rear. Cadillac says its coefficient of drag is 15% decrease than the ICE-calade, however doesn’t give a determine for that car.
2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL
(The upcoming longer-bodied 2026 Escalade IQL, by the way in which, has the flagged C-pillar of a Chevy Traverse, and doesn’t have the honed tail of the shorter mannequin.)
The IQ leads the ICE-calade on the inside entrance, the place its design led Cadillac to suit each automobiles with a sweep of 55-inch shows, right here draped in iron grey or black trim. The main points show Cadillac’s emergence from its drab Zeppelin period: the ribbed door pulls really feel chilly to the contact, however promise to get sizzling sufficient in summer time to grill a Vienna sausage. The panoramic show is framed by door panels with slatted “rain” trim that shines LED lighting by means of its slots, and thru the vary of ambient lighting choices. A black-roof possibility could be chosen, and fab blue artificial leather-based can drape an exceedingly quiet inside that’s not with out its flaws: among the trim items flex below strain, and an choices record freed from an opulent nappa possibility appears a misfire.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
Press on a button and the doorways swing open on their very own; they’ve sensors to forestall dinging next-door parkers, too. Below the usual panoramic sunroof, the Escalade IQ’s passenger can get a vitamin D refill whereas they sit in consolation. The entrance 5 can, no less than. The Escalade IQ checks in at 224.3 inches, which locations it inside 2.7 inches of the long-wheelbase ICE-calade; its wheelbase goes 2.1 inches additional than the Escalade ESV’s 136.2 inches. However the lavish house that may have resulted isn’t there: the passenger house has been shoved virtually a foot again over the wheels, so the inside room of 119.2 cubic ft behind the primary row falls shy of the 121 cubic ft of the gas-powered Escalade.
It’s no fear within the plentiful house offered to rows one and two; in row three, it’s a transparent compromise. With seven-seat fashions, the power-aided second-row seats can’t transfer far sufficient to ease third-row entry. Six-row fashions go away a pass-through between the middle-row captain’s chairs for a greater than workable resolution. Within the IQ with an executive-rear-seat bundle, a console takes up that pass-through house, although the third-row seat stays in place. Cadillac engineers argue that few individuals will use that again bench on this utility; it’s more cost effective and extra helpful as an occasional use to depart it in there, however the third row solely has OK headroom and never practically sufficient legroom for medium-size passengers.
Cargo house measures 69.1 cubic ft with the third row folded down—because it’s in all probability extra prone to be—and 23.7 cubic ft with all seats raised. There’s additionally a 12.2-cubic-foot entrance trunk that may be fitted with a sliding tray, which aids loading a pair of golf baggage with out scratching or sullying the nostril or garments.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
2025 Escalade IQ: Tremendous Cruise, bidirectional charging—however no Atmos (but)
The Escalade IQ advantages from GM’s know-how growth, during which its hands-free Tremendous Cruise system stars. It now covers greater than 750,000 miles within the U.S. and Canada, and of all of the driver-assist programs, it’s essentially the most refined and useful. The record goes on: blind-spot screens with steering and digicam help, a surround-view digicam system, computerized emergency braking with pedestrian and bicyclist detection, night time imaginative and prescient, and haptic lane-departure alerts that vibrate the seat as a warning. GM’s parking help depends upon close by automobiles to gauge and align itself, so it’s a little bit of a quandary should you don’t need to park subsequent to a different car.
The interfaces that govern the IQ’s 55-inch shows principally settle for inputs by means of the touchscreens that stack on the heart of the sprint. It’s straightforward to get misplaced in these shows till you’ve hung out tapping and swiping to disclose all of the customized tuning that may be carried out—not simply the drive modes, however lighting sequences, door-opening controls, ambient lighting, and so forth. Excellent navigation companies come bundled with an web connection, however like different GM electrical automobiles, the Escalade IQ doesn’t embody assist for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, a transfer GM introduced in 2023.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ check drive evaluation
The Escalade IQ streams video content material to entrance passengers by means of their very own devoted display, whereas audio renders by means of a 19-speaker AKG audio system that’s commonplace. Upgrades can enhance that to 36 or 40 audio system—however the 2025 Escalade IQ doesn’t get the Dolby Atmos sound coming to all Cadillacs for 2026 although it’s included within the new 2025 Optiq midsize crossover. Chalk it as much as timing and {hardware}; the Atmos set up started for the Celestiq alone, however proved so worthy that Cadillac determined to place it in all its automobiles. When you’re an audiophile, it’s well worth the wait.
Now on sale in Sport and Luxurious fashions, with 1 and a pair of trims, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ prices $129,990 in base variations, together with $2,290 in vacation spot expenses. With all the things together with the chief seating bundle, the worth will meet or exceed $159,000. ICE-calades routinely high that at present in V-Collection spec—and the IQ’s faster and extra refined. That IQ within the identify means extra than simply batteries below foot.
Cadillac paid for journey bills in order that we may deliver you this 2025 Escalade IQ check drive evaluation.
