2024 Cadillac Celestiq Hands-On First Look: The $300K Cadillac Must Be Seen To Be Believed

Is the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq flagship for real? This head-turner of an all-electric super sedan is finally in the form of a production model, longer than a Cadillac Escalade fullsize SUV, and priced in stratospheres Cadillac has long dreamed of returning to. Pricing will start in the low $300,000 range and customers can easily add up to $100,000 more to customize it, further ensuring no one else owns the same exact car.

The fact that Cadillac is even going through with production of the Celestiq is as surprising as the vehicle itself. But here it is, fulfillment of a longstanding wish for a flagship. An idea became a vision, then a show car, and now an ultra-luxury sedan that retains almost all the gee-whiz features. The Celestiq has an estimated 600 horsepower, 640 lb-ft of torque, a 0-60 mph time of 3.8 seconds, range of more than 300 miles, and is equipped with a 200 kW DC fast charging system to add 78 miles of range in 10 minutes. Propulsion comes from a 111-kWh battery pack powering a two-motor AWD system.

The Celestiq (pronounced Ceh-LESS-tick) will be handcrafted at GM's Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, where it was designed and engineered. Planned output will be just two models a day for global consumption, starting in December 2023. No more than six vehicles will be in the assembly process at any one time. GM execs say they are already talking to interested consumers.

GM President Mark Reuss recently stopped by the design dome to see a prototype of the finished version for himself. MotorTrend asked him if he will buy one. Yes. He says his wife, Kim, who is an interior designer, will be cut loose to work out the details of their individual car.

All who commission a Celestiq will work through a dealer and with a concierge who will connect them with GM designer. The buyer can come to Michigan to go over ideas and swatches, or the GM designer can travel to them. Any color is possible because each car will be hand-built. Since 115 parts are 3D printed, intricate personalized details are bound by little more than your imagination. Want your signature etched into the metal plate on the dash? Done. Guitar strings, tennis racquet strings, dog hair, pressed flowers from your rose garden—they can be incorporated to make a personal statement. There is no base car or trims. Every Celestiq will be different. The whole process could take up to 10 months to outline and complete.

This is how Cadillac plans to reach the top of the luxury ladder to take on Rolls-Royce, Maybach, and Bentley, while leaving Lincoln in its dust. The team had a Ghost and a Flying Spur to benchmark, but the end result is a car that doesn't look like anything else on the road, said interior design manager Tristan Murphy.

The Celestiq looks like a spaceship, with long languid lines and a windshield steeper than a Corvette, no exterior door handles, a giant hatch, and a huge smart glass roof with embedded antennae. Eliminating the need for a sunshade or headliner creates more headroom and each occupant can control how much light enters their quadrant of the roof, which is a step up from the optional trick glass roof on the new BMW iX EV SUV, which can only fog the full panel.

The Celestiq is exclusively an electric vehicle and uses GM's Ultium battery system with a twist. The new architecture is dedicated to the Celestiq—at least until the idea of a customizable SUV becomes reality. The car uses the same battery cells as a GMC Hummer EV pickup, or even the smaller Cadillac Lyriq midsize crossover, but in the Celestiq they are laid horizontally instead of stacked vertically to keep the car low-slung. And it is not the same skateboard layout because that would make the floor too high.

The Celestiq's five battery modules are shaped differently and stacked to different heights, depending on where they are placed. Higher ones run down the center of the limo-like car; they are stacked nine cells high under the two front seats, 12 under the two rear seats, and only six deep under the foot wells.

The spaceframe is aluminum, most body panels are carbon fiber but the doors had to use a composite to incorporate the sensors that power them open and closed. Even so, the car weighs more than 6,000 pounds.

There are no exterior handles marring the giant side profile; touch a capacitive button on the B pillar or let the vehicle recognize the key fob and open the door upon approach. Use the center console touchscreen to open the door for an arriving passenger.

The Celestiq also marks the return of the "Goddess," the mascot that adorned Cadillac hoods from 1930 through the 1950s. There is an illuminated Goddess on each front fender, in the glass rotary control knobs on the center console, and she appears on the touchscreens.

The lines of the Mondrian Cadillac crest are replicated throughout the car. They adorn the four quadrants of the glass roof, and are etched into the sidewalls of the summer tires developed with Michelin for the 23-inch forged aluminum wheels.

Celestiq continues Cadillac's signature vertical lighting but each individual LED is its own light source, as opposed to a bank of lights, and the Digital Micromirror Device headlamps with 1.3 million pixels per side are integral to the choreographed lighting sequence and projection of the Cadillac Crest that greets the owner as they approach the car in the act of powering up. To quickly check the car's state of charge, use the height of the illumination on the vertical lights as a gauge.

The interior gets the royal treatment with each of the four seats an equal throne in terms of materials and pampering. All have heating, ventilation, neck-warming, recline, massage, and access to screens. Up front it is a 55-inch screen with digital blocking so the driver can't watch the movie playing on the passenger side. The AKG audio system has 38 speakers inside and three outside as part of the electric vehicle sound enhancement system.

The seats are leather, as is the dash, doors, even the floor. Cupholders and cubbies are lined in suede. Everything that looks metal is real metal. A couple notable misses: no sunshades or aromatherapy.

The Celestiq embraces 3D printing and "flex fab" to create unique parts. The largest 3D printed steel component is the steering wheel center. A medical laser for eye surgery was used to etch the delicate symbols on it. More than 300 parts were created by flex fabrication where a machine takes steel sheets and pierces, bends, welds, and processes it, spitting out a finished part that can be used to hold electronics or the center console that runs the length of the car.

Very little was dropped from the show car to put the Celestiq into production. To comply with regulations, conventional side mirrors replaced cameras and the rear side glass can't be tinted. Taillights moved from the hatch to the body and the rear bumper extends further to meet crash structure regulations. But as work continued on the car, features were actually added, like the polished stainless steel D ring that guides the seatbelt, a first use of 3D printing for a safety feature.

The Celestiq has adaptive air suspension, magnetic ride control, active roll control, rear steering, an active rear spoiler, and a full roster of safety and driver-assist systems. It will be equipped with the hardware for Ultra Cruise hands-free driving assist but full capability will not be ready at launch.

"We've been trying to do a flagship for Cadillac for awhile," said vice president of global design Michael Simcoe. The Celestiq can trace its lineage to the Escala concept shown in 2016, which was once on its way to production with a V-8. When the decision was made to pivot to all EVs for the Cadillac brand, the Escala was left behind. A vision model was created for internal eyes only—a caricature before there was a new program for a flagship—and from that initiative the Celestiq show car was created to set the design tone for future Cadillacs.

For such a unique and bespoke car, engineers and designers had to unlearn past practices and think of the car as a blank slate for a customer to design, with the ability to create intricate individual parts with sand casting and 3D printing. Pieces like the brushed and polished machined aluminum trim across the front of the hood would not be possible on a high-volume vehicle, said exterior design manager Taki Karras.

Cadillac has taken a bold step to reclaim its luxury heritage. Time will tell if consumers are ready to embrace it.