2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ Review

In a not-so-subtle attempt to maintain corporate naming symmetry but also not abandon the massive cachet it’s built around the Escalade badge, Cadillac has christened its flagship electric SUV the Escalade IQ.

The more I think about it, though, that clunky name serves as a decent metaphor for how this electric vehicle (EV) has been executed: a little inelegant in places, but big on weight and audacity. This is a 750-hp, seven-seat SUV that costs what a small house used to, weighs just as much, and has one of the smartest assisted driving systems in the industry. It also has what feels like the backup camera borrowed from an economy car built a decade ago.

It may be a work in progress, but the bulk of the work here is pretty great. It’s enough to make the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ one of the most gratifying ways to spend $200,000 on a new vehicle.

Styling 9 / 10

There’s something to be said about how an imposingly fancy, blacked-out-to-the-nines vehicle like the Escalade IQ fits within today’s landscape, where visually nefarious, conspicuous consumption isn’t quite as fashionable as it was in, say, the mid-2000s, when the Escalade arguably solidified its icon status. Set aside cultural context and evaluate it as purely as a design, though, and I do like this EV. There are pinstripes in its grille, piano key-mimicking tail lights, and surface details that do their best to visually hide the Escalade IQ’s considerable heft.

Being inside feels like I’m sitting in a first-class lounge for an airline that specifically caters to Texas oil magnates. It’s all dark, shiny wood, vaguely industrial-looking brightwork, and tan leathers — at least in this tester; there’s also a blue upholstery option. Interior door handles are heavy, textured metal, and feel like they came off of an ornate bank vault. All in all, it’s a grand cabin in both the literal and figurative senses of the word.

Safety 9 / 10

Super Cruise hands-free assisted highway driving is a highlight of the Escalade IQ experience. Impressively human-like in its awareness and movements, it’s one of the few hands-off systems I actually feel comfortable taking my hands off of for extended periods. It also pulls off some of the most confident automated lane changes in the industry.

Impressive as the system is, some aspects give it away as a continual work in progress. Auto lane changes are solidly executed, but it’ll occasionally swap lanes on its own accord to get ahead of traffic when I definitely would’ve preferred it to stay put. (This setting can be disabled.)

Automated braking sometimes feels more abrupt than other, less advanced systems, and I noticed consistent, slight shaking from the steering wheel after Super Cruise had been on for a while, almost as if the invisible hands holding the wheel were getting “tired” as time wore on. The system works as fast as 137 km/h and is, in spite of its flaws, certifiably helpful on long, monotonous highway drives.

Features 10 / 10

Gadgets and gizmos are, to some, the very reason to get a vehicle like this, and on that front the Escalade IQ delivers in spades. The entire dash is dominated by a total of 55 inches of screen, with the one in front of the passenger letting them keep an eye on vehicle metrics or watch videos (this is obscured from the driver’s view when in motion), and there’s a night vision function in the instrument display.

Opt for the $9,000 Executive Second-Row package, and the rear captain’s chairs get massage settings to match the ones up front, plus all four of them are heated and cooled and feature positional memory. That’s in the Luxury 2 trim, as well as the Sport 2 trim tested here; the Luxury 1 and Sport 1 versions have heated and ventilated front seats, memory settings for the driver’s side, and heated rear seats.

There are five climate zones, 19- or 36 speakers, depending on trim, and all four doors can close and open automatically with a gentle pull on the handle or a swipe on the screen (there are screens for the rear passengers as well, of course). Airline-style flip-up tray tables for the second row can also be deployed when business absolutely cannot wait.

User-Friendliness 7 / 10

The Escalade IQ may be filled with features, but one glaring omission is support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. As a consolation, the screens run Google-built-in apps, including Google Maps and Spotify. The former works, and I found myself not missing my iOS connection quite as much as I thought I would throughout this test. But still, the option to simply mirror my phone would’ve been nice. The big knob that controls the central touchscreen is appreciated, especially considering using it as an actual touchscreen requires leaning forward because of the Escalade IQ’s cavernous cabin.

Climate settings are controlled using yet another touchscreen, and the usability here is OK, especially if Super Cruise is on, but I found myself kind of missing the physical switches you get in lesser Cadillac EVs like the Lyriq and Optiq. It’s perhaps not exactly a usability issue, but one of the most jarring shortcomings I found with the Escalade IQ is backup and side-view cameras that are weirdly low-resolution — borderline unacceptably so for a $200,000 flagship product.

Practicality 9 / 10

Even more vast than the gas-powered Escalade, this EV is quite massive. (There’s also a bigger one for those who need it.) Its interior layout may not be optimized for maximum volume like a minivan’s would be, but it’s hard to call any spot in its first two rows anything other than hella spacious. There’s a third row, too, but it’s very much reserved for kids or small adults.

Comfort 10 / 10

As a test of its massive range and comfort I took the Escalade IQ on a 600-km road trip, and throughout the journey, I struggled to come up with another vehicle that would offer a more relaxing experience that didn’t have a Bentley or Rolls-Royce badge. With the adaptive air suspension wafting, the seats massaging, and Super Cruise, uh, cruising, the big electric Caddy uses new tech to do what old, no-tech Caddies used to do best: devour kilometres in sumptuous, stress-free, stately style.

Escalades may have historically been associated with massive aftermarket wheels with tiny sidewalls, but this latest electric version’s sheer size means it can still come with factory 24-inch alloys and rock a fairly thick tire that surely contributes to its superbly supple ride.

Power 8.5 / 10

Using an electric motor on each axle, the Escalade IQ makes 615 hp and 680 lb-ft of torque, but those figures are amped up to 750 and 785, respectively, when you put it in so-called “Velocity Max” mode. This makes it quite a quick SUV, especially considering its moon-like curb weight of more than 4,000 kg (8,818 lb). As a reference, a gas-powered Chevrolet Equinox compact crossover weighs less than half as much at around 1,625 kg (3,583 lb), depending on trim.

Zero to 100 km/h is said to take less than five seconds, which is impressive for how much it has to carry around, but don’t go around challenging Teslas or Porsches to any races between the lights. Driven normally, the Escalade IQ accelerates heartily and smoothly, and rarely feels slow. There’s a one-pedal driving mode that can be turned off, and Cadillac estimates a max towing capacity of 3,629 kg (8,000 lb).

Driving Feel 8 / 10

The most vivid way I can describe what it’s like to drive the Escalade IQ is that it feels like piloting a grand piano. There’s the inescapable weight, the sheer space it takes up on the road, and it feels as though the thick, glossy lacquer that covers the wood trim inside has also been used to lubricate the steering and hold up the suspension. It’s a luxury behemoth through and through, and you tower over most other motorists, which is satisfying in a very specific, domineering way.

In a vehicle like this, backroad handling is frankly not the point; the toys, luxury, power, and vibes are, and you do get this sense hustling the Escalade IQ around a quiet twisty road. More functional than fun, standard four-wheel steering makes it feel way smaller and lighter on its feet crawling around town — the tiny turning circle, in particular, will wow you the first time you do a U-turn. The brake pedal feels smooth and substantial to operate, and limo-worthy stops are easy to do, but the one tested here exhibited a mild creaking noise occasionally that broke the immersion of luxury.

Fuel Economy 8 / 10

Fun fact: the Cadillac Escalade IQ is so heavy that it’s exempt from efficiency testing by Natural Resources Canada or the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States; testing is only required for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of less than 4,536 kg (10,000 lb), which the IQ exceeds. That massive heft, however, is exactly what gives it big range. A thoroughly beefy 205-kWh battery delivers a Cadillac-estimated 740 km of range. The Tesla Model X, for reference, uses a battery half as big with a quoted range of 526 km.

Extrapolating energy usage per km during this late-August test, Cadillac’s 740-km figure proved to be slightly conservative, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the battery would last 800 km or more.

At-home AC charging at speed as fast as 19.2 kW is supported, and the quoted recuperation rate is 58 km of range every hour it’s plugged in. DC fast-charging speeds of 350 kW are also supported, where Cadillac claims 160 km of range can be recoupable every 10 minutes.

The user experience surrounding charging also seems to have a few bugs. This unit’s charge port, for example, is motorized and once tried to close itself even when there was clearly still a plug attached. The tailgate randomly opened more than once when I went to close the cap. And while General Motors (GM) was nice enough to supply a Tesla-style adapter, plugging the Escalade IQ into a Supercharger did nothing despite me registering for both the myCadillac and Tesla apps on my phone the night before.

This is an open message to all automakers, not just Cadillac: all we want out of public EV charging is for it to replace the gas station experience, not reinvent it.

Value 8 / 10

In either of the Luxury 1 or Sport 1 starter trims, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ starts at $163,433, including a $2,600 destination charge. The one tested, however, was the $180,000 Sport 2, and after a $5,695 Onyx package that paints a bunch of stuff black, the $9,000 seating kit, $2,395 entertainment systems, and $715 worth of light-up door sills, this one as tested rang out to $197,904 before taxes.

That’s a lot of money, but then again, the Escalade IQ is a lot of vehicle. The size, power, range, tech, ambiance — it all operates on a level that makes its price tag hard to argue against. Other big, luxurious EVs can be had for less money. Notable examples include the stylistically questionable Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and the underbaked Volvo EX90, both of which are smaller. So are both the Rivian R1S and Lucid Gravity, although they serve different purposes than this Caddy.

The Verdict

As a way of smoothly, quickly, and efficiently crossing long distances, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ is hard to beat. It’s silent, quick, stable, and chock full of tech that cossets, entertains, and darn near lets it drive itself. As an item, it’s excessive, showy, and absolutely huge, making a statement anywhere it goes.

It’s far from cheap, and some tech-related shortcomings leave room for improvement, but the most telling result of my time with it is that I don’t really want to road trip in any other vehicle ever again.