GM’s Cadillac Celestiq EV costs $300,000 and can be customized

DETROIT — Cadillac is testing the limits of brand appeal and pricing power with the 2024 Celestiq, a large, custom-built electric car that will cost more than $300,000.

The vehicle – introduced on Monday evening – launches General Motors Company brand in the ultra-luxury segment against the likes of Bentley and Rolls-Royce. This is something that no American brand has done successfully in our time.

Executives say the car is more about creating a “halo car” that helps improve Cadillac’s image, rather than boosting overall sales or profits. But if successful, it could create a new business model for the company with two divisions, one focused on high-end hand-built cars and the other on mass-produced models.

“It’s a brand builder. This is a halo car. It will improve people’s perception of the brand,” Rory Harvey, global vice president of Cadillac, told CNBC. “The business case has evolved and continues to evolve, but it’s not just about the car. It’s about what it does for Cadillac and how it improves other Cadillac options.”

Harvey declined to discuss the car’s profitability or whether the company plans to add additional hand-built models.

Customers will be able to customize virtually every aspect of the vehicle’s interior trim, exterior color, and other non-mechanical elements. They will be able to work with designers and a Cadillac concierge to customize their vehicle.

“I don’t want to think of it as a Mary Kay car, but the reality is that if you want to make a flashy car, that’s the key,” said Michael Simcoe, GM’s vice president of global design, referring to the Celestiq’s unique “Santorini Blue” , presented Monday night.

Despite growing concerns about demand for new mass-produced cars due to rising interest rates and record prices, ultra-luxury buyers continued to spend.

GM plans to produce only hundreds of Celestiq vehicles per year. According to Harvey, he will only be able to produce less than two cars per working day. The car will be sold worldwide, with the largest markets expected to be the US and China.

According to Harvey, the Celestiq will be available by request only, with a “significant deposit” required to begin the build process. According to GM, orders for the car will begin this year and production will begin in December 2023.

In June, GM announced it would invest $81 million in its technology center in suburban Detroit to manually build Celestiq – for the first time, it will produce a vehicle for commercial sales at its sprawling campus in Warren, Michigan.

The car is equipped with technologies such as adaptive air suspension, magnetic traction control and rear steering to balance the ride comfort and performance of the car. It also includes 115 3D printed parts, including a metal steering wheel hub.

Cadillac hasn’t sold hand-built cars for decades, but its competitors in various areas have offered such cars as custom performance models. StellantisIn 2015, Dodge offered custom body kits for its Viper sports car. Since 2016, supplier and contract manufacturer Multimatic Inc. is handcrafting a $500,000 GT sports car for Ford motorwhich stops production car later this year.

The Celestiq is Cadillac’s second all-electric vehicle Crossover Lyriq will go on sale early this year. They are the start of a new line of electric cars and SUVs for the brand, which plans to produce exclusively fully electric cars by 2030.

Celestiq, which GM previewed earlier this year, big At roughly 18 feet long and 7 feet wide, it’s wider and longer than the Cadillac Escalade SUV. It is based on the automaker Ultium platform for electric vehiclesbut with an exclusive car design.

GM says the car is expected to travel more than 300 miles on a single charge, produce 600 horsepower, 640 pound-feet of torque and go from 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds. Range and performance are lower than some of today’s less expensive luxury electric cars, such as the smaller Lucid Air at $169,000.

The Celestiq noticeably lacks exterior door handles. Instead, according to GM, owners can open the doors with the push of a button or automatically open the doors when the driver approaches the vehicle from the key fob.

The Celestiq features five LED interactive displays, including a 55-inch diagonal screen that spans the front of the vehicle’s interior; a “smart glass roof” that includes customizable transparency options; and ultra cruise, GM’s next-generation advanced driver assistance system, which the company says will be able to drive itself in most circumstances.

“When we started this process, we tasked the team with designing the most epic Cadillac ever,” said Brandon Vivian, Celestiq’s executive chief engineer. “But the result was a vehicle unlike any other. … It is an individual celebration of the individuality of the client.”

Vivian said Ultra Cruise capabilities will increase over time. He declined to discuss how that system would differ from GM’s modern Super Cruise systemallowing users to keep their hands off the wheel while driving on pre-mapped divided highways.

Ultra Cruise should be much more capable than the current system, as it is expected to build on Super Cruise’s software and sensor suite, adding lidar, or light and range detection systems that can sense surroundings and help cars avoid obstacles.