Electric Escalade!! So much Tech!: 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ

A fully electric escalade. Yes, you heard that right. This is the new Escalade IQ. It is a fully electric Cadillac Escalade. And yes, it has just as much, if not more, luxury than the gas-powered Escalade. It has more luxury than you could even want. I mean, just one thing. Watch this. Yeah, I will say my daughter, I still drive her to and from school, and she thinks that feature is utterly ridiculous and useless. But when I mentioned it to my husband, he said, well, I'm sure at some point somebody thought power windows were useless as well. So hey, we're entering a new age here with power opening and closing doors. I think it's really cool. We have a very cool light up front grille. Of course, it's a solid grille because this is electric. All right, of course, as you'd expect, the Escalade IQ is incredibly comfortable with air suspension and magnetic ride control. It has a massive battery, so 740 kilometers in range. That's 460 miles. And it's a dual motor, all-wheel drive, and 615 horsepower, 680 pound-feet of torque. But it has a velocity max button on the steering wheel. That will get you 750 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque. So plenty of power, even though it is a giant, heavy electric car. Very comfortable ride. The cameras help with parking such a big beast, as does the rear steering. If you like that, the arrival mode steering is only up to 25 miles per hour. So I will say getting used to parking a car with rear steering is also challenging because you may be used to backing in your big SUV with no rear steering, and then suddenly you're backing in your big-ass SUV with rear steering, and it feels completely different. And this one is a high degree of rear steering. It's like crab walk in the Hummer. And so it's a completely different feeling. It would take a while to get used to. But again, without the rear steering, without putting in an mode, it's still easy to park because of the good cameras and sensors. But it is a massive, very heavy EV. So we are on Highway 1. We're on the TransCanada Highway, which is a mapped highway on GM's Super Cruise. And of course, this Escalade IQ has Super Cruise. So what does that mean? Super Cruise means we have a sensor watching me, making sure I'm paying attention. We have this green light here letting me know that Super Cruise is engaged. I have set the speed to 85 and it's doing a great job. It's staying within traffic. We just went over a really narrow bridge. I have not had to use my hands or feet, not once since I set it. Super Cruise truly is amazing. I've even been in the Acadia where it chose to change lanes for me. I didn't even make that choice, but if I chose to change lanes here right now, if I just turned on my turn signal, it would make sure it was safe to change lanes and it would change lanes for me. Super Cruise is incredibly amazing for stop-and-go traffic. So for the last, I don't want to say maybe 15 minutes, we were in stop-and-go traffic and it's just so much easier on your body and your stress to just like not use your hands and feet in traffic. You're just making sure you're staying in the flow, it's stopping and going. It senses right away if somebody cuts in front of you and puts on the brakes. So I really do love Super Cruise and of course it is standard here in the very bougie electric Escalade. And the coolest thing about Super Cruise is it will choose to change lanes for me. Right now I'm in the fast lane so it's not going to choose to go into the slow lane, but I have had experience with Super Cruise where I'm in the slow lane but I come up to a vehicle in front of me that's going slower and it chooses to change lanes and go around the slower vehicle for me. And I think that is completely amazing technology and I absolutely love Super Cruise. I think it's the coolest thing. In fact, I'll show you lane change right now. I'm fortunately the car behind me decided to speed up so now it's not going to change lanes for me, but I am going to change lanes now because we need to get off on the next exit. It's very uniquely Cadillac of course. All lit up. It does do a little dance for you as you walk up. I will show you in the dark if I can hopefully remember to shoot some video in the dark this week. It also, while it's charging, this has a light up animation as well. So Cadillac, we've seen it on the Lyric as well. Really cool light up sequences. This is Raven Black. So this is the no charge color option. These are massive 24 inch wheels which are standard on the Escalade IQ. Coming soon, I think it's out already, but it's coming for 2026, is an even longer Escalade IQ. So it's even bigger than this. And we have a massive e-trunk. They're calling it on here or I think that's what Cadillac is calling it. I still call it a frunk. It's a front trunk because it's electric. Let's have a look and see how big it is. Power opening and closing front trunk. And it's really long as you can see, like incredibly long. And we have a household plug in here as well. And then we have an interior latch or opening button in case, you know, for some reason somebody would get caught in there. Let me see if I can show you how big it is. So I'm five foot one. I'm sitting almost all the way at the back. It's huge. Oh, and our windshield washer fluid thingy is right here as well. And yes, the car is running right now because my daughter's with me and she's inside. So from the side, you can see just how big this thing is with these giant 24 inch wheels. I cannot believe there is an L coming. I have not seen it in person yet, but there is an extra long version of this coming for 2026. We get some more beautiful Cadillac lighting on the rear end of this. I love that they've hidden the rear wiper below this spoiler and a nice big brake light up here. The simplicity is beautiful, I will say. And I love the tow hitch is covered up as well. Of course, no rear exhaust. And as for towing, this can tow up to 8000 pounds. And then this is a Cadillac thing. So this is the torque number in Newton meters. And then the E stands for electric and four, I would imagine means all wheel drive or four wheel drive because all Escalade IQs are because all Escalade IQs are all wheel drive, dual motor. Love that the Cadillac badge on the back is clear. It's different than the colored or red standard Cadillac badge. Love that charging cable came back here. We have an okay amount of room behind the third row. And then we have a tiny little storage area underneath here, which is just enough to store the charging cable. I do have the charging cable at home because I've been charging at home overnight with this, we do have some tie downs back here. And we have a household plug, we can fold the third row seats from back here as well. Alright, a nice leather steering wheel, of course, with some haptic buttons, which we'll talk about in a sec. This is our super cruise light up. So when it's green, it's using super cruise. When it's red, it's warning you to pay attention or it's about to disengage. And then we have a huge head up display, which I know is impossible to see on camera. And then we have this huge 55 inch pillar to pillar display. And yes, you have just seen this on the gas Cadillac Escalade. And yes, it's here in the Escalade IQ. And you would have seen it on my Cadillac Celestic because that concept is where all this tech came from. Sorry, back to the steering wheel again for a sec. We have our heated steering wheel on here, we have our super cruise button, we have our some music controls. And then this red V button, which means velocity max mode. So this is like the ultimate amount of horsepower for the IQ. And that's how you engage it. The screen in the middle, we can control our climate for first, second and third row. We can also adjust all of our seating positions for first and second row. We can even turn on ventilated and heated seats for the second row from back here, back to driver and passenger. Pretty cool. And then of course, we have our climate, which I just said, and then we have our doors. And then we have our door controls on here as well to open and close all four doors. What I wanted to show you as well. So this does have rear steering, but only when you put it in arrival mode and only up to 25 miles per hour. So it's for slow, semi-diagonal driving. It's not really diagonal driving, but it's almost like crab walk, but it's not quite like crab walk. And like I say, it's only up to 25 miles per hour. But yeah, I do like the screen. I've gotten used to it this week. It's very handy. Everything's in here. And then we have our dial, which controls the infotainment, wireless charging pad, wireless charging pad, two cup holders, and a huge center console. Inside is two USB-C chargers, 12 volt and an HDMI for the passenger to watch something. So you can put a movie or something on there. This infotainment is a purely Google automotive system. So it's Google-based, no CarPlay, no Android Auto. So I find that disappointing. I miss CarPlay when I'm in a GM EV. That is a thing for GM EVs and I miss it. We have our towing stuff here as well. And then on the left here, I can do some minor things like lift and lower the vehicle, open the frunk, open the trunk. And then we have memory seating over here for three different two memory spots. And then we have a digital rear view mirror as well, which I really appreciate. This has the executive package on it for the second row seats. And that means these seats are more posh and we have more options here in this giant center console. And yes, the rear doors are electronic and open and close for you as well. This color interior is called Harbor Blue, and it is gorgeous. It is a dark, deep blue leather. Of course, these are perforated because they are ventilated and heated and massaging for this executive package. And look at this. I have little tables back here. I actually first saw this on the Celestic, which was the concept to production ultra luxury Cadillac. And these things like this came down from that concept, which is what concept cars are for. It's to innovate and create new technology and new luxury features like this. But yes, I have a little table right here. Both sides have this. This little screen has our second and third row climate. We also have all of our seat settings in here, heated and ventilated and massage and power position seat, which I did play with this week. You can change these seat positions from the driver's seat as well, which is super handy. Then we have our charging. These are wireless and it works immediately, which is amazing. And then we have our doors, ambient lighting and conversation enhance, which just helps the driver hear you better. But let's show you these doors. I just think that it's so wild. And we also have USB-C chargers here and cup holders. And then we have a whole little storage area underneath here, which I love because that would be the perfect size for a handbag. And then we have two HDMI ports here for the rear entertainment system. So this whole executive package with the rear entertainment, this these crazy seats is a 9000 Canadian dollar option. And I want to point out something else, gorgeous leather and wood, of course, in the interior here. But these AKG speakers, this is a 40 speaker AKG sound system. So they're here, they're on the door, they're everywhere. And I'm just noticing there's hooks here, too, which is fantastic, like a jacket hook and then a really beautiful suede headliner. And I will say these executive seats make it harder to get into the third row. So I was getting this to use the third row all the time. I probably wouldn't get the executive package for the second row seats. I will say I can move this this seat from this button here. And what's cool is these seat backs actually have pockets. I've never seen that on a second row before, but I'm not going to move this all the way back because if I did, it would be on my legs. So I'm going to move it back just a little bit. These seats are quite low to the ground, but I do have cupholders and USB-C chargers on both sides. I have three vents, which is great and some lights back here. We don't have latch in the third row, but we do have tethers or lower anchors on the back for car seats. And then, of course, we have latch and tethers for the second row seats. Headroom wise, I'm five foot one. It's not bad, but I would say like this pillar here and this darkness makes this window really small. And I wouldn't want to spend a ton of room, ton of time back here as an adult. So although this has a ton of range, I will say I've not had a good experience with charging this at home. And that's probably because it's a giant battery pack. And that's probably the only reason. So I am going to have to take this to a DC fast charging station before I return it in a few days. I personally prefer an EV with less range that charges well at home overnight. Although I will say, if I bought another EV, yes, I used to own an EV, I may actually install one anyway because I've been having more and more EVs and it's just so much easier with a level two. So what is all of this luxury cost? Well, the Escalade IQ is what you think. It is expensive. It starts at $127,000 and $160,000 Canadian dollars. This is the Sport 2, which is the top spec. And we have the executive package with that crazy fancy second row. So this one as spec, $192,000 Canadian dollars and $160,000 US dollars. That is a good chunk of change. And I will say, I know that there would be luxury taxes on that here in Canada. I don't know about the US. So that is not your final price. That is the sticker price before taxes. Let me know what you think of this Escalade IQ. Is this the luxury EV that you're buying? Let me know and leave me a question or a comment. Please do subscribe. We'll see you guys soon.