For over two decades, Cadillac had its sights on the German competition. With a line of genuinely great sports sedans, the brand tried to recapture its former role as a standard-bearer for cars worldwide. That plan, though successful in producing some great products, never quite shook off its image of being a step behind the world's best luxury brands. Despite that, Cadillac has mustered the gall to take on Rolls-Royce with a $300,000 hand-built EV. We spoke to a few executives to find out why they think the Celestiq can win over ultra-luxury customers.
"I think the big thing is that, there's been a lot that we've done as we're moving into EVs, where we're looking into the past to define our future," Melissa Grady Dias, chief marketing officer for Cadillac, told Road & Track. "Not leaning into heritage, but looking into what actually made Cadillac the icon that it's been. And if you go back to when Cadillac was referred to as the 'Standard of the World,' the vehicles were hand built and bespoke to the person that was ordering them. So that became a bit of an inspiration."
The result of this is an extraordinary focus on personalization. Options for customizing the Celestiq go far beyond those available to Porsche customers and, arguably, even those that standard-bearer Rolls-Royce offers on its mainstream models. The car can be painted to match any sample provided, of course, but also fitted with just about any upholstery or trim you can image. Pick your material and let Cadillac's buyers source, test, and adapt it for automotive use.
That's all relatively normal in the ultra-luxury world, but the part where Cadillac pulls ahead is in its heavy use of additive manufacturing and laser etching. Because so many pieces are either detailed using programmable lasers or produced with infinitely flexible 3D metal printing, tweaking details is easy. For instance, the cupholder bezel on the Celestiq depicts silhouettes of a few classic Cadillacs selected by the brand. One customer requested his Celestiq feature silhouettes of his own Cadillacs. Since the part is 3D printed, producing the new part is as easy as making a new 3D file for the printer. Whether you want custom vent surrounds, clothing hanger hooks, or by-hand paint jobs, it's all on the table.
"It really truly becomes specific to that person. It's way beyond just the embroidery on a headrest or picking your piping color. Which, again, we're going to do all of that easy, low-hanging fruit, but we can really get in and actually make these beautiful and specific to each customer," one member of the design team told Road & Track.
And, Grady Dias notes, all of this customization is available on a car that already represents the pinnacle of performance and luxury as GM sees it. The Celestiq has MagneRide 4 (the world's best damping system in my estimation), a four-panel electrically dimming glass roof with embedded LEDs, Ultra Cruise hands-free driving (an improvement on what Super Cruise, already the world's best hands-free driver assistant), a 38-speaker AKG audio system, rear-seat recliners, a 55-inch custom display, screens for all three passengers to watch movies, three-chamber air suspension, active anti-roll bars, a 600-hp dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric powertrain, and headlights that work as 1.3-megapixel projectors to display start-up animations.
Cadillac has long been accused of skimping on the details, but in the case of the Celestiq, it's hard to think of anything it overlooked. The wheels are more intricately machined than any others I've seen on a production car. Grady Dias is hopeful that it'll be enough to win over Cadillac skeptics.
"Honestly, we'll [try to] convince them, but the vehicle will really convince them. I've driven it and there are really no compromises. Nobody's going to have a question once they get behind the wheel. A completely hand-built, bespoke-to-you vehicle is just a very different class of thing."
Perhaps the biggest difference between this and Cadillac's pursuit of BMW is that the company is no longer following anyone else's lead. The company will find itself competing with Rolls-Royce for buyers, especially now that Rolls-Royce has announced its own EV, but its approach to luxury is noticeably different. Cadillac places greater emphasis on performance and technology than Rolls-Royce. Mercedes-Maybach has a similar focus on technology, while the pursuit of performance is something Cadillac shares with Bentley. But neither of those brands offer nearly as much in the way of customization, or have thus far launched EVs, so Cadillac is clearly claiming new ground. The company is done trying to imitate the success of others and is trying, once again, to reclaim what made it great in the first place.
"I want to say this the right way, but I don't really see us 'chasing' anything," Grady Dias says. "This car is, we believe, setting the class. You don't want to compare yourself and box yourself into something. As we move into EVs, we're really looking not at our competition but at our consumers."
Arguably the most fickle member of the Road & Track staff, Reviews Editor Mack Hogan is likely the only person to ever cross shop an ND Miata with an Isuzu Vehicross. He founded the automotive reviews section of CNBC during his sophomore year of college and has been writing about cars ever since.
