Cadillac Escalade ‘IQ’ Teased as the Flagship Luxury SUV’s Electric Variant

We'll know more about the all-electric 'Slade later this year

(Images: General Motors | Cadillac)

The electric Cadillac Escalade IQ isn’t too far away now.

It’s a topsy-turvy world we live in, where I went from just testing out the supercharged Cadillac Escalade-V to talking about its all-electric sibling. That’s what we have here, though, as Cadillac teased the “Escalade IQ” as GM pivots the marque toward a fully EV portfolio.

If you’ve heard that name before, there’s a good reason. The automaker trademarked that name in November 2021, and we’ve also known the electric Escalade has been in development for a little while now. What we don’t know at this point — at least not with certainty — is what the zero-emission drivetrain powering the Escalade IQ will be.

Thanks to Cadillac’s sister companies, though, we can at least take a pretty solid guess. The new Cadillac Escalade IQ will ride on General Motors’ Ultium platform that currently underpins its new-generation EVs, including the Cadillac Lyriq. I suspect the Escalade will pack the larger battery pack and perhaps a triple-motor setup like the GMC Hummer EV, particularly as we’re looking at a similarly classed vehicle to its SUV version.

So far, General Motors has taken a different approach with its electric trucks than Ford did with the F-150 Lightning. So, rather than adapt the gas-powered Escalade to an EV model, it’s likely we’ll see a bespoke vehicle for the electric version, as we get with the Chevrolet Silverado EV.

What will really be interesting, though, is to see whether the Escalade IQ will be closely related to Chevrolet and GMC-branded electric SUVs, as their gas counterparts have been closely related since the GMT400 generation. Will we see a new electric Suburban or Yukon based around the Escalade IQ?

Why “IQ”?

That name may not exactly roll off the tongue, but some folks already feel that way about Cadillac’s EV naming scheme. With “Lyriq” and “Celestiq”, creating something like the “Escaladiq”…”Escaliq”? Yeah, it just wouldn’t work. Besides, GM built so much brand power in that name that it’s the one model it can’t jettison with this whole EV transition. It reworked its whole lineup a few years ago with new names, but it kept the name for its iconic SUV because it more or less prints money for Cadillac.

So, there you have it: It’s almost here, it’s the Escalade IQ, and you might as well get used to it now. Like the gas models, though, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a long-wheelbase L version (GM trademarked Escalade IQL too), but we’ll have to wait for more confirmed info.

Cadillac will reveal the Escalade IQ in its entirety later this year.