“You have to try these new electric Cadillacs,” a reliable source told me, a recent auto publisher told me. But I'm skeptical. Often, that's how electric cars are: new brands like Tesla, Polestar, Lucid, and Rivian do all the work to change the car narrative, and then old manufacturers play capture, trying to shape existing models and ideas around their professionals, rather than their professionals, and their customers aren't particularly eager for it. So you end up with a car that, though technically, feels more like an assignment than an inspiring one.
So when General Motors’ luxury teacher Cadillac hasn’t made interesting or related cars for at least a decade, delivering their baseline new electric SUV (their baseline new electric SUV) to my doorstep, it was fresh, cool, and even fun. Cadillac completed the assignment again, but with Optiq, they were eager to pass the pass level.
We can start with the first impression. Many SUVs, even electric cars, have a cooing family atmosphere. But Cadillac is serving Optiq toward younger buyers, so there is a streamlined windshield and D-pillar that gives the car an aerodynamic feel. It's also long in pose, with a 116-inch wheelbase, making it look smooth and spacious. The one I drove had a “crystal white three” that was better than the usual test cars I saw, which were usually the brand colors that irrational consumers wanted. People will want this.
The interior design is also pretty good, although my color is “Autumn Canyon”, which is probably the “Barf Pink” of the automaker, not what I would choose. But the cabin flows well and is filled with soft materials. The Cadillac seems to love its 33-inch screen all over Taiwan that accommodates Apple Carplay. A long way from the car trend back to the knob and buttons, this direction is so prominent that the newly announced slate electric truck will be equipped with rolled-up windows. This is not the case with Optiq in this version. Driving is as immersive as sitting on a captain’s chair in USS Enterprise.
But it's a drive. With Cadillac, Optiq does more than just slap the motor in a slightly fitted prefabricated chassis. It has a synchronous front and rear electric motor that produces 300 horsepower, which is not much standard in contemporary cars, and it also brings you over 300 miles of electric driving range, which is very good. But this makes most of every ERG it generates absolute. The Optiq will accelerate to 60 mph in five seconds, not very fast, but it is good for the SUV and most notably, it is incredibly relaxing. Driving it is a spacious pleasure, and I sometimes drive it in two large hungry Zoomers. That was my son and his friend. At this point, I don't know the other twenties. They claimed that the car was sick.
This is the main gain of driving a quality modern electric car. They all get sick the right way, but can usually also drive softly unless they are explicitly called by an electric sports car. With most, there is never a free ride or a breath of respite, no uncertainty, just a sleek luxury cruise. OPTIQ provides the smoothest suspension in the segment. GM calls its internal hands-free driving system “super bush,” which is exactly what drives Optiq: a flawless super bush.
I have been praying that electric cars have occupied highways for many years, but the general silence of politics, infrastructure and traditional manufacturers has slowed this inevitability. I'd rather drive almost any car than Cadillac's previous base electric model XT4. Overall it's so bad. However, Optiq is a completely different story and a huge turnaround for the brand. The version I drove had a base price of just over $55,000, but the highest price was $63,510, which included an option pack for 21-inch black alloy wheels. The “Barf Pink” interior is an extra $1,100, though. If you want to trim the cost, that's where I recommend cutting.
