New Cadillac Celestiq Pics Show Off 23-Inch Wheels, Bigger Than Escalade’s
The latest previews from Cadillac have the most detail we’ve seen of the brand’s upcoming flagship electric sedan.
Cadillac's Celestiq, its flagship electric sedan, has been rumored for some time. Every day we learn a little more about the mysterious, handbuilt EV that could cost north of $200,000. On Wednesday, Cadillac released pictures that give us the best look we've seen so far. And what we're seeing is pretty impressive.
To start, we haven't seen the vehicle's rear end, interior, or its wheels in this much detail yet. With a little brightening, you can clearly read the size on the Michelin tire mounted to the wheel: 23 inches. That means the Celestiq will have wheels bigger than anything offered on the Escalade, which only features a 22-inch wheel for now. The Silverado EV is expected to offer a 24-inch wheel, however, that's a full-size pickup. Likewise, 23-inch wheels are currently offered on a few European SUVs, most notably the Audi RS Q8, but it doesn't appear that 23-inch wheels have been offered on any other production sedan.
The wheels themselves also appear to be an aero design intended to reduce drag. However, they are still very ornamented.
Moving to the back, the Celestiq's rear fascia is very similar to the Lyriq's. Lower vertical elements are complimented by multi-dimensional hockey stick-looking features that stretch up the vehicle's C-pillar. Unlike the Lyriq, the taillights are not segmented vertically, but rather feature long horizontal strakes.
We've seen a glimpse of the Celestiq's front fascia before and not much more high-level detail of that area has been offered in these shots. The vehicle's profile has been expanded, though. This is a show car, to be clear, however we can't help but notice what appear to be thin camera mirrors sprouting from the A-pillar. The C-pillar is also an area of interest. The razor-sharp rear quarter window profile looks an awful lot like what we saw nearly two decades ago on the brand's Sixteen concept—a Cadillac prototype powered by a 16-cylinder engine.
Inside, we finally get a wider view of the vehicle's seating arrangement and amenities. Screens play a big part, as you might expect. A shot taken from a spacious rear cargo area shows a low-mounted display shared by two rear passengers, a similar layout to other luxury cars. The rear occupants also get seatback screens to themselves, which seem to be very large, very high resolution, and sculpted to the seatback's shape.
The driver and front passenger get similar treatment in displays. A low console-mounted screen is augmented by a pillar-to-pillar unit that will likely display the lion's share of information everyone in the cockpit might want to access. This particular feature has been teased before verbally, but this is the first time we're actually seeing it.
The Celestiq currently has no formal release date, however we will get to see the vehicle in its entirety soon. The whole thing will be previewed in a series of images on July 22.
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