Report: Cadillac Celestiq Could Cost over $300,000
GM isn’t saying anything official just yet, but the Wall Street Journal spoke with “people familiar with the matter” who said the upcoming luxury EV will start at around $300,000 and will have options that could push the price “well beyond” that threshold.The Celestiq won’t be just any Caddy, or just any EV. Plans call for a roof made of smart glass that each person in the car will be able to adjust for their quadrant, as well as using more than 100 3D-printed components.GM is spending $81 million to revamp part of its Global Technical Center so that it can hand-build the Celestiq there. It will be the first production model to come out of the tech center, which has been operating since 1956.
Cadillac’s first plug-in vehicle was the ELR, which wasn’t exactly a success. The sleek luxury coupe that used a version of the plug-in-hybrid powertrain from the Chevrolet Volt only sold around 3000 units in its three-year life span. The ELR bore a starting MSRP of $75,995 when it launched. Now Cadillac reportedly isn’t afraid of slapping an even higher price tag onto its upcoming halo plug-in model, the all-electric Celestiq.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Celestiq EV will cost somewhere around $300,000, with options potentially pushing that to “well beyond” that number, the newspaper reported this week. To make one comparison within the brand, the 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V will start at around $150,000.
Understandably, General Motors isn’t saying anything about price just yet, as the Celestiq isn’t expected to arrive until late 2023 and the vehicle won’t even be fully revealed until late July. The Journal based its pricing expectation on conversations with unnamed “people familiar with the matter.”
One reason for a solid six-figure cost is the fact that GM is planning to make the Celestiq a limited edition, with plans to build fewer than 500 copies.
Another reason the Celestiq could be expensive is because it will be hand-built at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. When production starts, the Celestiq will be the first production vehicle to come out of the tech center since it was established in 1956. This center is not currently set up to build production vehicles, but GM announced this week that it would spend $81 million to upgrade the center with the equipment needed to set up a production line. Renovation work at the tech center campus has already begun, GM said.
“Each [Celestiq] will be hand-built by an amazing team of craftspeople on our historic Technical Center campus, and today’s investment announcement emphasizes our commitment to delivering a world-class Cadillac with nothing but the best in craftsmanship, design, engineering and technology,” GM president Mark Reuss said in a statement.
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The Celestiq will feature plenty of tech that sure sounds expensive. GM has said the EV’s roof will be made of “suspended-particle-device smart glass” divided into quadrants so that each occupant will be able to adjust the level of their part of the roof’s transparency to their own desired level. A pillar-to-pillar dashboard screen and more than 100 3D-printed components will also be used in the Celestiq. GM has already started using 3D-printed (also known as additive manufactured) components including shifter emblems and parts in the transmission in the Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V. GM makes these parts at the Additive Industrialization Center, which opened on the tech center campus in 2020. The Celestiq EV will also come with the latest version of Ultra Cruise, an updated version of GM’s hands-free-on-the-highway driver assistance Super Cruise software.
Despite all of these moves, GM will use some economical methods when it starts producing the Celestiq. The EV will use GM’s Ultium platform, which the automaker will also use in multiple all-electric models, including the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, and Chevy Silverado EV. Using the platform will allow GM to use parts in the Celestiq that it also uses in other Ultium models, including things like battery cells and packs, motors, and integrated power electronics.
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