The Cadillac Escalade IQ is monumental, in that it’s practically both the size and the weight of a monument. We’re talking a machine 224.3 inches long in its standard-wheelbase configuration, weighing a minimum of 9,000 pounds, and carrying nearly 2.5 times the batteries of a Hyundai Ioniq 5. It’s a rolling love letter to conspicuous consumption, yet its standard color selection isn’t particularly conspicuous. Beyond a lovely orange and a deep shade of red, every other regular option is some sort of white, silver, grey, or black. That’s about to change, provided your pockets are deep enough.
That’s because GM’s poshest electric SUV is getting a Curated by Cadillac package, which adds a touch of Celestiq ceremony to an Escalade IQ. Much like the Curated by Cadillac package for the CT5-V Blackwing, the treatment for the Escalade IQ includes an enormous selection of paint colors, leathers, and trims, some of which are sure to suit your personal taste. Cadillac claims 160 different exterior finishes and 44 different interior colors are on offer, ranging from subtle to absolutely wild.
Granted, that doesn’t mean 160 distinct colors are on offer. That number seems to include high-gloss, satin, and matte finishes across select hues, although some of the selection is gloriously outrageous. Check out the color wall below. Yellows and oranges and a bright green loud enough to serve as a beacon. Fantastic. Also, browns. So many gorgeous browns.
Plus, it’s likely that 44 interior colors are underselling things a bit, judging by just how much varies in the photos Cadillac has released of demo units. Want contrasting inserts or whole bolsters? How about piping? Stitching? The console? The sheer number of permutations on hand is exceptional, as it should be, considering what the Curated by Cadillac program costs.
For context, Porsche currently charges $13,620 for extended-palette paint and $5,260 for deviated seat inserts and stitching on a Cayenne, and while that’s not as extensive as Cadillac’s program, it’s also not as expensive. However, process variations seem to be where pretty much all the expense lies. With Porsche’s PTS program and BMW’s Individual program, cars get painted in special runs and then put on the general assembly line for completion. With the Curated by Cadillac program, every special-order Escalade IQ gets pulled off the Hamtramck assembly line and finished by hand in the same Warren, Michigan facility where the mid-six-figure Celestiq electric sedans are built. It sounds labor-intensive, and Cadillac is charging $54,995 for the privilege.
That’s a huge amount of money for paint, leather, and trims. It’s more than an entire base-model Optiq crossover. More than wrapping a frankly enormous Escalade IQ once every five years for two decades. It’s expensive in the context of Porsche options, a rather bold move for Cadillac. Still, someone out there has to be brave and paid enough to spec their Escalade IQ in an outrageous hue, and I’ll salute them once it’s delivered. The world needs more bright and colorful things to deliver us from millennial grey.
Top graphic image: Cadillac
At a $54K upcharge, hand-assembled or not, I would expect a full paint-to-sample program, not just the ability to select an expanded palette of colors.
I also think Cadillac ought to open up this sort of customization on the ICE Escalade, especially the V, and not just the EV one.
Network issues duplicated my comment.
Escalades are black, it’s basically a law of nature. This is like, what was that thing in HHGttG where you could make a spaceship invisible by just making it look so ridiculous people’s brains broke and just decided they couldn’t see it after all? Maybe it’s a security feature, invisible car, might be worth $55k at that.
My friend, when he was searching for a 2018-2020 Escalade ESV Platinum, specifically did not want a black one, because he didn’t want to be mistaken for a livery driver. He ended up with a lovely 2019 in Red Passion Tintcoat.
In my mind, that’s about as showy a color as I would consider for an SUV. I do not like large SUVs in bright colors. A yellow Escalade sounds like an abomination.
No, that was the SEP (Someone Else’s Problem) field, which would make objects invisible.
The ship part was the Disaster Area band’s ship, which was described as:
“It was a ship of classic simplicity and devastating power, a ship that looked as if it were sculpted from a single block of obsidian. It was so black that it was almost impossible to see how much space it took up… Only something really expensive could be that ugly.“
How many people have to select this per year to make it profitable? Probably not many.
People often buy Escalades over Mercedes or BMW or Bentley because they’re larger vehicles. This is probably something that Cadillac should have been offering from the beginning.
Is this what’s called ” We offered an EV but no one bought, which means EV sales are a dead end.”?
Yes…
I’m still listening…
You lost me.
I don’t.
Is “Paid Way Too Much For This Shit Orange” a color option?
Fifty-five Thousand Dollars?!?! That’s bananas!!!
Usually I think commenters here are way too try-hard with the word play, but this feels understated and well done. Hat tip to you.
For that kind of upcharge, I think I’d just take it to Maaco.
They’ll sell dozens! Dozens!
With a $50,000 upcharge, they’d likely be happy with 100 being sold.
I doubt most of those colors will ever come to be.
Because GM decided what the slow selling and undesirable Escalade IQ needed was a 55k price bump for the customization people wanted… brilliant. For reference, GM sold ~8k Escalade IQs last year, and about 41k ICE Escalades. One would think the ICE vehicle is the one to bring the customization option to.
We all live in a yellow thug machine …
Everybody now?
This is a perfect vehicle to paint the colour of earth moving equipment. How much more for a reflective orange triangle sign on the tailgate?
GM betting big on people having more money than sense.
Which, honestly, doesn’t feel like a bad bet these days. And at this price, they probably don’t need too many people to tick this box for it to be financially viable.
Although this does make me wonder what it would cost to just have a regular IQ repainted and reupholstered.
I’ve never had a car entirely repainted/reupholstered, but even if you allocate $10 for a wrap, that leaves a considerable balance for reupholstery work. So, your idea could probably save $10-20K, depending on details. A considerable sum but let’s be realistic… anyone buying one of these spends that much on a spa weekend up the coast.
I agree and also think it’s a safe bet. I’m guessing one NBA player gets one and then they quickly sell another 50 to other players and then another couple hundred to rich people who think they are also cool like the players.
If they did it for ICE Escalades they’d probably be able to upcharge $100k and still fill the order book for this exact reason.
Hooray for color, but why just for rich people. For $54k you could have Xzibit wrap your car and have Katzkin custom color seat covers. Pimp Our Own Ride. P.O.O.R.
I’ll just take mine to Earl Scheib as a big middle finger to Cadillac.
Wider choice of colors = good.
Having to share the road with a four-and-a-half ton electric projectile = not so good.
Also, 9,000 pounds is truly a f*ck-ton! Won’t there be some local roads and small bridges here and there that the EV Escalade won’t legally be able to traverse?
It’s four-and-a-half f*ck-tons!
Or more accurately, four-and-a-half I-don’t-give-a-f*ck-tons. Because the kind of people that will buy this look at such minutiae as engineering constraints and common sense as trivial considerations that the little people have to think about, and that they themselves do not.
There’s two 3T (6,000lb) limit bridges in Detroit, within a hour of the Factory Zero plant.
That’s more than the price of two Toyota Corollas, and paying someone else to wrap them in whatever shade of yellow that your heart desires.
It’s also more then the weight of two Corollas.
For that price – shouldn’t you be able to paint it whatever color you want? Limits to the interior options I can see, but paint? It’s a neat offering, but, I think they’re going to run into a lot of people who expect more specialization for that kind of money.
Rolls Royce doesn’t limit you to just yellow.
I’ll paint it yellow for $200 and it will look a lot more…let’s say *uniq* than anything out of the factory.
A
BanksyCheapsy original.I’d wrap it for a tenth of their asking price and you could have ANY color or patterns too. You could even refresh it every 3-5 years.
$200 is *uniq*, Is that just for the Rustoleum, or also the prep and masking consumables? I”m cheap too, so I have to ask if that was the total price.
Oh I make my own yellow “paint”. The good news is it’s a lot more environmentally friendly than Rustoleum. The bad news, well, you don’t want to know.
(If yellow isn’t your color I make a brown too.)
Yellow for the exterior and brown for the inside. In my opinion it would suit the owners who would buy a 9000lb abomination. I have strong opinions.
I can do the interior in a splatter pattern at no extra charge.
I’ll supply the baked beans!
Add some corn if you want yellow accents.
Maybe get that truck bed liner done.
with the right prep and primer and a lot of red wine you can also make purple too I found out
Good to know. I may be expanding my palette.
Pea Green may also soon be an option.
I have a neighbor with an IQ. It looks huge, even when it’s parked next to their other daily, an F-250 SD.
People paying this much for an appearance upgrade certainly deserve to be separated from the cash, it’s just a shame they couldn’t pick a better place to blow it.
That lack of ability to pick a better place to blow it is the necessary ingredient to why they deserve to be separated from the cash. They go hand in hand.
Like blow.
Reminds me a lot of the old Chevrolet color Ochre. It’s awesome.
Yes, but not at all worth it. Even Porsche doesn’t charge that much for cool colors.
True but they do charge you to not add stuff
Yes, I too read the article.
Just think about the one of one depreciation specials we can pick up in a year or two. The Boomer Boards beckon!
It seems crazy to offer this on the slow-selling, $20,000+ discounted IQ and not the regular Slade, but maybe it’s coming with the new generation?