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The 2024 Cadillac Celestiq is a hand-built, ultra-luxury electric sedan positioned as a flagship halo car for GM's premium brand, with an estimated price starting around $300,000. As a direct competitor to vehicles like the Lucid Air and Mercedes-Benz EQS, it distinguishes itself with a highly customizable interior, groundbreaking technology like a 55-inch dashboard display, and GM's upcoming Ultra Cruise advanced driver-assistance system.
The Celestiq’s exterior design draws inspiration from Cadillac’s heritage models, such as the 1950s Eldorado, but executes it with a modern, fastback silhouette. Key design elements include a low stance, an elongated hood, and a sharply sloping roofline. It shares a strong family resemblance with the smaller Lyriq SUV, particularly in its vertical LED lighting elements and a blanked-out grille that signifies its electric powertrain. Built on GM’s flexible Ultium platform—the same architecture underpinning the GMC Hummer EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV—the Celestiq will feature all-wheel drive. While official performance figures like 0-60 mph acceleration and driving range are still undisclosed, its advanced platform suggests highly competitive capabilities.
The cabin is designed as a four-passenger lounge, centered around a dramatic piece of technology: a 55-inch advanced LED screen that spans the entire width of the dashboard. To address potential driver distraction, Cadillac has incorporated a "digital blind" feature, allowing the front passenger to view content that is blocked from the driver's line of sight. Rear-seat passengers are treated to individual screens mounted in the front seatbacks. Another highlight is the customizable glass roof, which uses a suspended-particle-device system. This allows each occupant to electronically adjust the transparency level of their own section of the roof for personalized comfort. A massive center console runs between the seats, housing physical controls and additional screens for vehicle functions.
The Celestiq will be one of the first vehicles to debut GM's new Ultra Cruise system. This is an evolution of the brand's current Super Cruise system, which offers Level 2 partial automation (meaning it combines adaptive cruise control with lane-centering for hands-free driving on compatible highways). Ultra Cruise is designed to expand operational capabilities to over 2 million miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada, eventually handling more complex maneuvers like automated lane changes, navigation-assisted turns, and parking maneuvers. Based on our assessment experience with Super Cruise, Ultra Cruise is expected to set a new benchmark for convenience in the luxury segment.
With an estimated price between $300,000 and $350,000, the Celestiq enters an exclusive segment of ultra-luxury electric vehicles. Its primary competitors include the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan, which starts around $105,000, and the high-performance variants of the Lucid Air, which can exceed $170,000. The Celestiq's value proposition is not based on volume but on extreme personalization, cutting-edge technology, and its status as a hand-crafted, low-production vehicle. It will be built at GM's Global Technical Center in Michigan, utilizing more 3D-printed parts than any previous GM vehicle to enable its high level of customization.
For potential buyers, the key considerations are the Celestiq's unparalleled level of customization against its exceptionally high price point. Its success will hinge on delivering a technological experience, particularly with Ultra Cruise, that justifies its premium over more established rivals in the electric luxury space.
