The Cadillac Escalade is a study in contradictions. With the current generation, Cadillac doubled down on tech, giving its biggest and most expensive vehicle an elaborate dashboard display and audio system, along with General Motors’ Super Cruise hands-free driver-assist system. Yet, mechanically, the Escalade is still a cousin to the Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, sporting a retrograde ladder frame and powertrains aimed more at towing than fuel economy.
Enter the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ. It’s still based on a pickup truck, but this time it shares a dedicated electric platform with the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. It’s still got all the tech one could want, but now with an equally modern electric powertrain.
It makes sense for GM to get the most out of its investment by using this platform for a luxury SUV with potentially higher profit margins — pricing starts at $129,990 — but it still needs to be good enough to convince Escalade buyers to go electric, or for other EV buyers to super size their orders.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: design
The IQ’s styling is as up to date as its powertrain. It looks like a futuristic reimagining of an Escalade for a sci-fi movie. The tall hood, broad grille, and stacked headlights are similar to the standard Escalade, but because this is an EV with minimal cooling needs, the grille is blanked off and features light-up elements.
In contrast to the squared-off profile of the regular Escalade, the IQ’s roof takes a dramatic plunge toward the tailgate, where split taillights echo the look of Cadillac’s other EVs. The ridges in the standard Escalade’s body sides have been ironed out, and rounded off wheel arches house enormous 24-inch wheels.
Like other GM EVs, the Escalade IQ is based on a dedicated architecture in which the body structure is built around the battery pack. EVs generally offer packaging flexibility that yields more interior space compared to internal-combustion models, but here it’s just the Escalade IQ’s sheer size that creates that spaciousness.
The IQ’s styling is as up to date as its powertrain.
Cadillac’s latest dwarfs other three-row electric SUVs like the Rivian R1S and Volvo EX90, putting it in a class of its own until another automaker tries to electrify a full-size SUV. And its lack of an engine means the IQ has a 12.2-cubic-foot front trunk. But aside from some additional third-row legroom, passenger and cargo space are pretty close to the non-electric Escalade.
Unlike the non-electric Escalade, though, the IQ is available with an Executive Second Row Seating Package, with 16-way power adjustable captain’s chairs that will give you a massage and airline-style folding tray tables to hold snacks. Combined with the Escalade’s power-operated doors and air suspension that will lower the vehicle for easier ingress and egress, the IQ does luxury-car theatre much better than its dino juice-swilling counterpart.
The situation up front is pretty good as well. The driver and front passenger are greeted by an impressive-looking display that spans the entire dashboard, although that’s also a feature of the standard Escalade thanks to a 2025-model-year refresh. High-quality materials and a varied color palette (our test car had blue leather upholstery) ensure the cabin isn’t all about the screen, though.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: specs
| Length | 224.3 in |
| Width | 94.1 in |
| Height | 76.1 in |
| Wheelbase | 136.2 in |
| Legroom (first/second/third row) | 45.2 in/41.3 in/32.3 in |
| Cargo space (behind first/second/third row) | 119.1 cubic feet/69.1 cubic feet/23.6 cubic feet |
| Frunk space | 12.2 cubic feet |
| Powertrain | Dual-motor all-wheel drive, 200-kWh battery pack |
| Horsepower | 750 hp |
| Torque | 785 lb-ft |
| Range (estimated) | 460 miles |
| Price | $129,990 |
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: tech
The Escalade IQ’s tech features look great on paper. The 55-inch dashboard display incorporates a digital instrument cluster, central touchscreen, and front passenger screen, with a smaller screen placed below for climate control and some vehicle functions. A head-up display is also available, and buyers can choose from 21-speaker, 38-speaker, and 42-speaker AKG audio systems (Dolby Atmos tech is due for the 2026 model year).
However, it’s less pleasant to use the in-car tech than it is to read the spec sheet. Like other recent GM EVs, the Escalade IQ’s infotainment system is based on Google Built-in apps, including Google Maps, Google Assistant, and the Google Play Store. The latter enables in-car video streaming apps like Hulu and YouTube for the front-passenger screen. But GM doesn’t offer standalone Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for phone connectivity.
It’s less pleasant to use the in-car tech than it is to read the spec sheet.
Cadillac’s UX team also spread controls across the dashboard in a less-than-intuitive way, mixing vehicle, climate control, and infotainment functions. Headlights are on the main touchscreen, controls for the IQ’s four-wheel steering are on the secondary screen below, and ride height is changed via a physical button on the dash, for example. Some of these features were grouped on an easy-to-reach panel in the pre-facelift Escalade, but the bigger screen negates that.
Expected driver aids are standard, along with GM’s Super Cruise hands-free highway driving system. Super Cruise’s ability to wrangle a full-size SUV is just as impressive in the IQ as it is in the standard Escalade, and now it’s also possible to have the navigation system plan routes around Super Cruise-compatible roads (they have to be pre-mapped for the system to work). When it’s time to take over full control, Cadillac also now offers a blind-spot camera system, but its low resolution and the way it takes over the entire central element of the dashboard screen were not up to the standards of a six-figure vehicle.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: driving experience
The Escalade IQ’s chassis and powertrain make the regular Escalade look like the old school truck that it is. The electric Escalade features adaptive air suspension, a more rigid structure thanks to its integrated battery pack, and powerful dual electric motors, one turning each axle. But it proves that you can’t cheat physics.
That 200-kilowatt-hour battery pack, consisting of 24 modules stacked in two layers, might help structural rigidity, but it also adds a lot of weight. Like its Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, and GMC Hummer EV platform-mates, the Escalade IQ exceeds the maximum weight for passenger cars. As far as federal regulations are concerned, it’s a heavy-duty truck.
It certainly drives like one. Handling is a bit more confidence-inspiring than the Sierra EV, but that’s to be expected given that there isn’t a pickup bed out back. It would presumably be even worse without the Escalade IQ’s four-wheel steering system, the effect of which was hard to detect. And while huge wheels and low-profile tires have been an obligatory Escalade fashion accessory since the early 2000s, they contributed to ride quality that was decidedly un-luxurious.
The Escalade IQ proves that you can’t cheat physics.
As with the other big GM EVs, the Escalade IQ attempts to make up for fundamental handling and ride-quality issues with party tricks. The dual-motor powertrain generates 750 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque, which makes the Escalade IQ as quick as a sports car. It’ll do zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds using the Velocity Max launch mode, Cadillac says, but maintains truck-like capability with an 8,000-pound towing capacity.
Velocity Max is a rebranding of the Watts to Freedom (WTF) and Wide Open Watts (WOW) modes from GMC and Chevy, respectively, and similarly the Escalade IQ gets its own version of the sideways-crabbing mode available from those brands, called Arrival Mode. A Lowrider Mode also slams the suspension down, which looks cool as heck, but only works at low speeds or while parked.
Features like these are fun, and automakers should definitely continue doing them, but once the novelty wears off you’re left with a vehicle that isn’t any better to drive than its internal-combustion counterpart.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: range and charging
That 200-kWh pack provides a Cadillac-estimated 460 miles of range. That’s the same as in the GMC Sierra EV pickup, and makes the Escalade IQ among the longest-range EVs currently available. However, such a large pack will take a long time to recharge without a powerful charging station.
Cadillac says the Escalade IQ can recover 100 miles of range in 10 minutes when DC fast charging, but that’s only with the most-powerful 350-kilowatt connection. Many public fast chargers are still lower-power, which will add a lot more time to road-trip charging sessions.
Similarly, Cadillac quotes the ability to recover 36.5 miles of range per hour of Level 2 AC charging, but that only applies to the optional 19.2-kW onboard charger, not the standard 11.5-kW unit. In this case, at least, we’re mainly talking about home charging where vehicles will likely be left to charge overnight after being a relatively short distance during the day.
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ: How DT would configure this car
The Escalade IQ finally marries mechanical tech with infotainment tech, but the result still isn’t very pleasant to drive. So why bother?
The $7,500 Executive Second Row option takes full advantage of the Escalade IQ’s main asset — space — by adding truly luxurious appointments. The reclining seats and full center console give more traditional luxury vehicles a run for their money. This option does require the rear-seat entertainment system ($1,995) and a $22,290 upgrade from the base Luxury 1 trim level to Luxury 2, though. Hopefully livery companies will take that hit.
If you can’t hire a chauffeur, the Escalade IQ doesn’t make as much sense. Smaller three-row electric SUVs like the Rivian R1S and Volvo EX90 are much nicer to drive and won’t make your road-trip plans reliant on finding a 350-kW fast charger. Cadillac also has its own smaller three-row electric SUV — the Vistiq — on the way for the 2026 model year, and the two-row Cadillac Lyriq remains one of the most satisfying luxury SUVs for its price — electric or otherwise.
The Escalade IQ seems to mostly exist so that GM could market an electric Escalade. It repackages the powertrain, chassis, and battery tech from the automaker’s more rugged electric SUVs and pickups with a nicer interior and slightly improved driving dynamics. That might make for a compelling corporate product plan, but for anyone who has to do their own driving, it doesn’t make for a compelling EV.
