2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ revealed with 3600kg towing capacity

Just days after it was spied testing, General Motors has revealed the all-new 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ, a huge new flagship electric SUV that will come with a massive 200kWh battery, 724km of range and a 3600kg-plus towing capacity – and it could be coming Down Under.

Riding on enormous 24-inch wheels and featuring a dashboard-wide infotainment screen, the first battery-electric version of Cadillac’s iconic full-size SUV rides on the same GM Ultium platform as the Chevrolet Equinox EV and the flagship Cadillac Celestiq super-sedan.

Set to be sold alongside the existing combustion-powered model in the US, the Escalade IQ could become the flagship of a three-pronged electric Cadillac SUV range in Australia, including the smaller Lyriq and the upcoming Optiq.

GM has trademarked the Optiq, Lyriq and Escalade IQ names in Australia, where the Cadillac brand could be launched with the large, extra-large and full-size electric SUVs as part of GM’s plan to make its 120-year-old luxury marque an EV-only brand by 2030 and return it to selected right-hand drive markets in a “regional ambidextrous strategy”.

But while the Optiq will be a large SUV about the same size as a Kia Sorento and the Lyriq is Toyota LandCruiser-size at five metres long, the Escalade is absolutely enormous at 5697mm long, 2389mm wide (with mirrors) and 1934mm high, all riding on a 3460mm wheelbase.

That makes it about 600mm longer than the regular Escalade but about 65mm shorter than the long-wheelbase Escalade ESV, although the IQ’s wheelbase is longer than both of its ICE counterparts.

Inside, Cadillac says that also delivers massive amounts of head, shoulder and leg room for occupants in all three rows, behind which is 670 litres of cargo space, extending to 1958 litres with the third row folded and no less than 3374 litres behind the front seats, with an extra 345-litre ‘frunk’ up front.

Centre-row captain’s chairs will be available, bringing a 12.3-inch entertainment screen for each individual bucket seat, plus a smaller touch-screen command centre in the full-length console.

Up front, the highlight is three digital screens totaling no less than 55 diagonal inches of LCD real estate, including a driver’s instrument cluster and adjoining central touch-screen, plus a second unit for the front passenger.

High-end features will include a 19-speaker sound system as standard, an optional 40-speaker AKG stereo, intricate herringbone perforations for the leather seat trim and laser-etched wood trim that’s backlit at night.

Like other future GM vehicles, the Escalade IQ will go without Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, but safety will be well addressed via a range of Super Cruise driver assistance technologies including autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction assist, plus a high-definition 360-degree camera system.

All of this pales beside the Escalade IQ’s powertrain statistics, however, which include a mammoth 200kWh lithium-ion battery – almost twice as big and capacious as the Lyriq’s (102kWh) and almost as big as the GMC Hummer EV’s (212kWh) – offering an official estimated range of 450 miles (724km), bettering the 490km range of the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and the 628km range of the Rivian R1S.

Like the Hummer, the Escalade IQ will employ an 800-volt electrical architecture and so it’s likely to have the same maximum DC charging rate of 350kW, but GM says the battery will provide up to 100 miles (160km) of range in 10 minutes of charging on a public fast-charger, 37 miles (60km) of range per hour via a 240-volt 19.2kW AC outlet, and 14.8 miles (24km) of range per hour using the standard 240-volt 7.7kW onboard charger.

The big Cadillac EV will also offer a vehicle-to-home (V2H) bi-directional charging system, allowing owners to draw power directly from their vehicle via a home charger sold separately, as well as vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality for powering electrical appliances.

More impressive are the Escalade IQ’s dual permanent-magnet motors, providing for all-wheel drive and producing no less than 505kW/834Nm in Normal Mode and up to 560kW/1064Nm in Velocity Max mode – enough shove for a claimed 0-100km/h figure of about five seconds and a towing capacity of 8000 pounds (3628kg).

One-pedal driving, selectable brake regeneration and a heat pump to reduce the energy load from the five-zone automatic climate control system will be standard, alongside air suspension, MagneRide dampers, 24-inch alloy wheels, 275/50 R24 tyres and rear-wheel steering, reducing the turning circle to 12.0 metres.

Cadillac’s newest IQ model wears a different exterior design to the fifth-generation Escalade launched in 2021, with vertical headlights, an illuminated grille, forward-sloping D-pillar and pronounced shoulder line giving it a sleeker and more futuristic appearance while retaining the imposing overall design theme of Escalades dating back to 1999.

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is scheduled for production at GM’s Factory Zero facility in Hamtramck, Michigan by early 2024, ahead of first US deliveries by the end of next year.

Cadillac says pricing for the IQ will start at $US130,000. That equates to almost $A200,000 and makes the EV a lot pricier than the standard Escalade (from about $US80,000) that rides on the same GMT1XX ladder-frame platform as the Chevrolet Suburban/GMC Yukon XL and the Chevy Tahoe/GMC Yukon, which is under consideration for local conversion and release alongside the Silverado pick-up by GMSV.

GM backflipped on its plan to launch Cadillac in Australia at the 11th hour back in January 2009, when imports of the large CTS sports sedan were instead sent to New Zealand, before it axed local Commodore production in 2017 and killed off Holden in 2020 – when the GMSV brand was established to sell locally converted Chevrolet Silverado pick-ups, Camaro muscle-cars and the Corvette supercar.

GM has flip-flopped several times since then, suggesting it would introduce the Cadillac CT6 sedan here in 2015, before later that year ruling out Cadillac for Australia or any other RHD market before 2030, then pulling back that estimate to at least 2021 or 2022.

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