The Electric IQ Makes the Escalade Feel Important Again: First Drive Review

The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ, otherwise known as the first electric Escalade, is a big deal. The Escalade has been a cultural staple for decades. No matter the use case—a VIP chauffeur or a school drop-off—a shiny black Escalade signals straight-to-the-point wealth. People in Escalades mean business.

These days, American culture is more complicated. “Serious business” can mean a Rivian, a Genesis, a Lucid, a Polestar, or any number of high-end brands that litter the market. Over the years, the black Escalade went from the staple to one of the many. But the Escalade IQ aims to change that.

The Escalade IQ debuted in 2023, but it’s finally hitting dealerships this year. With a massive 205.0-kilowatt-hour battery pack and two electric motors, it makes 750 horsepower and 780 pound-feet of torque, which gets it to 60 miles per hour in less than 5.0 seconds. Cadillac estimates 460 miles of driving range.

Compared to the gas-powered Escalade, the IQ’s body lines look smoothed-over and more modern—but it maintains that signature Escalade shape. The IQ’s EV-ified body gets fancy pinstriping and intricate light patterns in place of a traditional grille. And in true Escalade style, every test vehicle during the first drive event was black.

The Escalade IQ starts at $127,700 (with destination) compared to $87,595 for the gas version. Unfortunately, Cadillac was not able to include a Monroney for the IQ, which means I can’t tell you exactly what options were equipped, or its final price. I can tell you that it had regular second-row captain’s chairs instead of Cadillac’s “executive second row” (a roughly $10,000 option with massagers, ventilation, wireless phone charging, and 14-way power-adjusted seats). But I spent a couple hours in the Escalade IQ, mostly in the front seat anyway.

Pros: Sophisticated Styling, Super Comfortable, Ample Tech Front & Rear

Driving the Escalade IQ epitomizes a quiet-luxury experience: The car glided up and down the speedometer in complete silence. There was so little friction when I pressed the brakes—zero, actually—that it felt like the gentle finger of God was slowing me down. In its normal driving modes, the Escalade IQ is calibrated to deliver the smoothest driving possible.

Press the red “V” on the steering wheel, and that activates “Velocity Max” mode. Velocity Max changes the throttle mapping to a 750-hp rocket mode. Imagine strapping NOS on a school bus full of gold, taking it to the drag strip, then stomping the accelerator pedal. That’s about what it’s like to floor an Escalade IQ. Be safe out there, kids!

There are also driving technologies to make the Escalade IQ more maneuverable and efficient, like four-wheel steer and one-pedal driving. With four-wheel steer, the front and back wheels will both steer to reduce your turning radius in tight maneuvers.

Four-wheel steer is perplexingly good in a giant vehicle like the Escalade. I did a couple of U-turns in the IQ, and it took the maneuvers so easily that it felt like a much smaller car—that is, until I pulled up to a stoplight and was eye-level with a nearby tree branch.

General Motors’ Super Cruise hands-free driving technology, meanwhile, handled the highways for me, even in a poor-visibility torrential downpour.

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

Cons: Confusing Frunk Opening, Invasive Side-View Cameras

Cadillac also had everyone use the IQ’s Arrival Mode (a fancy way to say “crab walk”) to make the four-wheel-steer system turn the front and back wheels the same way, allowing the car to drive diagonally. Cadillac hopes drivers will use Arrival Mode to crab walk up to a valet or red-carpet entrance, and I can see the vision. Why be a normie and maneuver your steering wheel when you can just glide in diagonally?

One-pedal driving is one of my favorite EV features, because it allows you to drive with just the accelerator pedal. When you lift off the pedal, the car slows via regenerative braking, by sending energy captured in deceleration back to the battery. If it’s good, a one-pedal system allows you to perfectly modulate that single pedal and rest both feet at stoplights because you don’t have to hold the brake.

Thankfully, the Escalade IQ has a good one-pedal driving system. If you lift your foot fully off the accelerator on the IQ’s highest one-pedal setting, the braking is a nudge on the harsh side. But it’s not that noticeable, and a competent chauffeur (or normie driver) will learn how to stop smoothly regardless of the braking system used.

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

But the IQ is more than a pleasure to drive. In my particular test car, each door opened via power assist, courtesy of a bar icon on the central touchscreen up front. You slide those bars on the display to open and close each door. (You can also open the doors via latch, the normal way.)

The rear hatch opens when you touch the silvery clear Escalade logo on the back of the car, the charging port has a power door, and the frunk is so big that an adult can lie in it.

The front passenger can also watch high-resolution YouTube videos on their side of the 55.0-inch pillar-to-pillar front screen, and the driver won’t be able to see the video at all while driving. Instead, the Escalade IQ will polarize the screen to make it black and limit distractions.

In addition to that, the Escalade IQ has exterior colors like “Black Cherry” and “Midnight Frost” matte blue, which you can pair with ornate interiors. I climbed in a cherry-colored display car with a navy blue interior and thought, “In a world of black Escalades, I’d get this one.”

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

My time in the Escalade IQ was limited, but there were two issues. The first was that, because I could open the trunk by touching the rear Escalade logo, I kept doing that at the front of the car to access the frunk. Then I’d stand and wait. Then I’d press it again. Wait. Press. Wait. Press harder. Wait.

As an owner or Escalade IQ chauffeur, you’d get used to this. As a person trying and failing to open the frunk—perhaps in a crowded valet area—you just feel low-IQ. (Sorry. I had to.)

The second issue in the Escalade IQ is that it has a turn-signal camera, which appears when you hit the signal to show you the lane next to you. The issue is, instead of showing up as a smaller display on your driver-instrument cluster, the camera feed appears, massively, in the middle of your infotainment screen. Every time I used a turn signal, the camera feed covered my entire navigation map.

Not only did this make me wonder if I was turning onto the correct street, but it also made me go: “Why is such a potato of a camera feeding video to this giant, beautiful screen I also use to watch 4K YouTube videos?” You know how people say certain things can class the joint up? That camera feed does the opposite. (I can relate.)

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

As I drove the Escalade IQ—missing a turn here and there due to that invasive camera feed—I realized how desensitized I’d become to the Escalade. I’d seen it. I’d heard it. I knew it. But these days, I’d rather look at something like a Lucid, because it’s new, fancy, and different.

That’s because objects of grandeur have to get noticeably fancier, more futuristic, and more ornate to keep the attention of those around them, and the Escalade IQ does that. It represents the next generation of suit-and-tie chauffeur cars, where the person inside arrives with style, silence, zero tailpipe emissions, and possibly a crab walk—sorry, “Arrival Mode.”

The IQ has arrived, and with it returns my pedestrian-standing-curbside-at-the-valet fascination with the Escalade. That’s exactly what Cadillac needs.