The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ claims 460 miles of all-electric range. So
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00:00Hi there, I'm Johnny Lieberman from Motor Trend and behind me is the all new 2025 Cadillac
00:15Escalade IQ and this is the largest electric SUV on the planet.
00:21As such, the numbers are truly staggering.
00:24It weighs 9,000 pounds.
00:26In fact, if you get the executive rear seat option, it weighs 9,250 pounds.
00:31However, it's got 750 horsepower and 785 pound feet of torque from its two motors, meaning
00:39that this four and a half ton object can hit 60 miles an hour in 4.7 seconds.
00:45Today we don't care.
00:47Today we're only interested in one number.
00:49That number is 460.
00:51That is the estimated range that Cadillac is saying this vehicle can travel on a single
00:57charge.
00:58We are in cold, rainy, although at the moment sunny San Francisco and we're going to head
01:03down to equally cold, rainy Los Angeles where we're from.
01:06We're going to see if we can do it on a single charge.
01:08Right now, the battery is about 96% saying it can go 450 miles.
01:14Can it?
01:15Let's find out.
01:16We're going to program the route.
01:19Quite famously, General Motors has said no to Apple CarPlay, full Google integration.
01:24Part of the reason why is with EVs, when you put in a destination into the map here, you
01:28want to do route planning.
01:29You want to know where chargers are and things like that.
01:32This is Google Maps.
01:33It's pretty good.
01:34It works.
01:35All right, let's see here.
01:36We're going to go to lunch.
01:37We're going to go to the Madonna Inn and that is three hours, 35 minutes away from here.
01:40It's telling me that on arrival, we'll get there with 41% of the battery left.
01:45Right now, the current state of charge, 95%, says 443 miles of range.
01:50Problem is we want to keep going.
01:52If I come here and I want to add a stop, boom, there it is.
01:58We have 434 mile trip, 443 miles showing.
02:05This is suggesting that we stop and charge in Atascadero before we get to lunch.
02:11Are we going to do that?
02:12No.
02:13We're going to risk it.
02:14We're going to try and actually go all the way to LA on one charge.
02:17Here we go.
02:22Look at all these other drivers around me using their hands on the wheel like suckers.
02:26Me, laugh at luxury.
02:28Check it in.
02:29I got the Super Cruise going.
02:30Motor Trend, we just had our first annual tech awards and we awarded General Motors
02:34Super Cruise our best hands-free driving or level two award.
02:39It's really good.
02:40I'm going to be shocked if I have to touch the steering wheel before we get off the freeway.
02:4480% of the batteries left, 375 miles of range to go, cruising along.
02:50It's raining.
02:51Windshield wipers are on.
02:52I had the massage seats on earlier.
02:54I'm worried that I might drain the battery a little bit, so I'm refraining from being
02:58in the full lap of luxury, but man, this is a nice car.
03:02It just drives really well.
03:04Over and over and over again, I guess General Motors is very conscious of the fact that
03:08this thing weighs as much as it does.
03:10And 9,000 is a big number, but they kept saying, oh, our goal was to make it drive smaller
03:16than it is.
03:18And I don't know if they needed to do that, but yeah, it does not feel like the heaviest
03:23vehicle on sale today, which I think it is.
03:25Part of the way they do it is with the four wheel steering.
03:28Part of it is with really good suspension tuning.
03:30This is the latest version of MagneRide, MagneRide 4, which they say is four times faster reacting
03:37than MagneRide 3.
03:39I think also that really long wheelbase helps out.
03:41Now, if the ride quality is a little brittle, it's on 24s with 35 inch tires.
03:46Again, everything about this car is just epic.
03:49But from where I'm sitting on this road trip, I mean, does it get any better?
03:54Yeah, no.
03:55The answer, no, not really.
03:57This is really, really good.
03:58We're going to keep on trucking south.
03:59According to the nav, two hours and 13 minutes to go.
04:04I will continue enjoying my frosty beverage.
04:07Oh, look at me.
04:08I took the cap off.
04:09I'm drinking it.
04:10I'm not touching that steering wheel.
04:15You know, it's funny.
04:16I'm thinking about the type of luxury this is.
04:19Obviously, it's this American, bigger is better, Texas size luxury.
04:23But I remember years and years ago, before the Rolls Royce Cullinan came out, I was talking
04:28with this guy, Giles Taylor, who was then the head designer at Rolls Royce.
04:34I was asking him about it.
04:35Where is it?
04:36Because they announced it, and it was kind of delayed.
04:37He goes, yeah, you know, we built one, and we showed it to customers.
04:42We showed it to the English people, and they said, yeah, it looks like a Rolls Royce.
04:46Good show.
04:47Carry on.
04:48And we showed it to Germans, and they liked it.
04:49And we went to Russia, and they said, fine.
04:51We went to China, and they said, is that a Rolls Royce badge?
04:54We love it.
04:55We went everywhere, and everybody liked it.
04:56Then we went to America, and we showed it to potential owners, and they said, you call
05:02that an SUV?
05:03I got an Escalade.
05:04It's bigger than that.
05:06So we went home.
05:07We made it 12 inches longer and 8 inches taller.
05:09And the Cullinan is still not that big.
05:11So there is something.
05:14And maybe because our country is so vast, yet relatively unpopulated compared to a lot
05:20of places, that this type of luxury just makes sense.
05:30Still trucking along, but I've noticed a problem.
05:33And that is that we have 287 miles to go and 275 miles of battery left.
05:41So I could slow down.
05:45I don't want to slow down.
05:46We'll probably stop to charge.
05:47Now, could you make it from San Francisco to Los Angeles on this thing, you know, 96,
05:5395% state of charge?
05:55Absolutely.
05:56We could have gone down the five.
05:57Didn't want to do that.
05:58It's beautiful.
05:59It's green.
06:01It's green.
06:02Wine country.
06:03We're coming down the 101.
06:04We did choose to go the long way.
06:05And you know, I got the seat AC on a little bit and I had a massage or two.
06:09Maybe listen to some tunes, charge the phone.
06:12We're not hypermiling.
06:13Could have gone the speed limit.
06:15So yeah, I think we're going to have to charge, but maybe not.
06:18You know what?
06:19Let's see what happens.
06:2160% battery, 273 miles of range left.
06:25Again, that's a big battery with 60% left with 273 miles.
06:31Like, you know, there's many EVs you can buy brand new that don't have 273 miles of range
06:36and we've used 40% of the battery, 217 miles of range left and 250 miles to go.
06:45So I don't think we're going to make it.
06:47We're going to have to charge.
06:48That's it.
06:49I'm still willing to give it a shot, see how far we can get.
06:52We're going to blow past, as I've said before, past the first set of chargers.
06:55I didn't say the first set.
06:58It's where the computer, Google literally, wants us to charge.
07:02We're going to go past that.
07:03We're going to eat and then all kinds of charges to choose from.
07:07We will make it home and we'll also see how fast this thing charges, which is probably
07:13more important than can you go from here to there without stopping?
07:17Because obviously it's a road trip, you stop.
07:21Well, we are almost at 40%, 41% right now, 168 miles of range, but we're pressing on.
07:30We're not going to make it to LA without recharging, but we are hungry.
07:34So we're going to go on and we'll figure out a place to charge.
07:37I'm not too worried about it.
07:51We have an update for you, and that is it's 161 miles from right here to this restaurant
08:01called Joy in Highland Park that we want to get to, and we have 157 miles of range.
08:08What that means is we're not going to make it.
08:10Could we push it?
08:11Could we literally set the cruise below the speed limit, turn off the HVAC, no music,
08:16no massage, do everything you got to do to hypermile and maybe creep in on zero?
08:20Yeah, we maybe could.
08:21We're not going to do that.
08:23Does this change in any way how we feel about the escalated IQ?
08:26No, it doesn't at all.
08:28On a 400 plus road trip, LA to San Francisco, we have to stop for 10 minutes and add some
08:34juice to the battery.
08:36C'est la vie.
08:50The vehicle has 94 miles of range left, maybe 93.
08:54We're going to charge.
08:55Now, we're here at my nemesis, Electrify America.
09:00I checked my account.
09:01I have $94 in credit.
09:03We only need to add like 100 miles of range or so just to be totally safe.
09:07Is it going to work?
09:08It's always a gamble.
09:09So here we go.
09:10Okay, open the door, plug in the thing, got to pull this out.
09:15Okay, so they want you to plug in first.
09:19Okay, I'm plugged in.
09:20Okay, plug in first, it's connecting.
09:24Charger four, swipe to charge, initiating charge.
09:31Welcome Johnny, it's blue, all right, look, current state of charge, 23% and here's what
09:44it's pulling.
09:45Remember, this is a 400-volt system, but it's in series or parallel, meaning it can
09:50imitate an 800-volt system, meaning, woo, fast charging, look at this, 226 kilowatts,
09:58225, we'll take it, 230, 235, 230, 240.
10:05So according to my watch, it is 607, 607.
10:11Check back in 10 minutes.
10:12We've already added a percentage while I've been standing here, and we'll let you know
10:16how it goes.
10:17I'm still sitting at, oh, 272, 271.
10:20That's some nice charging speed there, Cadillac, way to charge.
10:24Okay, look, 617, that's 10 minutes, right?
10:28We've added 53 kilowatts, it's gone from 23% to 45%.
10:32You might say, oh, because Cadillac, what they said is it'll add 100 miles in 10 minutes,
10:40and it's only added 23%.
10:42However, this way, don't trip on the cords.
10:46The real proof will be 201 miles.
10:49So we got here with 93 miles of range, so they knew what they were talking about.
10:55In 10 minutes, it delivered more than 100 miles of range.
10:59Okay, so not quite 20 minutes, 19 minutes, as you can see, 60% state of charge, we've
11:05delivered 88 kilowatt hours to a 205 kilowatt hour pack, under 50 bucks, which is, again,
11:14that's more than you'd pay for charging at home.
11:16But considering the range we got, let's see what the range is.
11:20This is saying 275 miles of range.
11:23So at 60%, this monster of an SUV can go 275 miles.
11:29I think we're good.
11:30I'm going to unplug it and get this show on the road.
11:45We made it.
11:46That's joy.
11:47Welcome to joy.
11:48We made it.
11:49That was our road trip.
11:50It's 10 hours.
11:51It was a long trip.
11:52We got rain, so we had really slow traffic.
11:55We had a long lunch because we were just tired.
11:57We charged for 20 minutes.
11:59Final results were 29%, 125 miles of range left.
12:04So yes, we needed to charge, but we added, we actually added about 125 miles.
12:09We went from like 94 to like 20 whatever.
12:12So we would have got here on fumes or electric fumes.
12:16That's a road trip, San Francisco to Los Angeles, down the scenic way, not the fast way, in
12:20the all new 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ.
12:24Final thoughts, like I barely touched the steering wheel.
12:28Super Cruise is still super.
12:30Love the huge range you get.
12:32Yeah, it's heavy, but hey, you know what?
12:35That's why it's heavy to get that big range.
12:37Combination of air suspension and MagneRide 4.0 is awesome.
12:42Like you're just isolated from the rest of the world, from everything.
12:47Super comfy, all wheel steering, just like on the Hummer, total game changer.
12:53Makes this thing easy to maneuver, even in the crowded kind of urban area like this.
12:58And yeah, it's expensive, but I think it's worth it.
13:01They built a really good XXL luxury EV.
13:06So yeah, I believe strongly that Cadillac accomplished what they set out to do.
13:12Now I'm about to accomplish what I set out to do 10 hours ago and get some shrimp wontons.
13:18So this has been Johnny for Motor Trend.
13:22See you later.
13:24Bye.
13:25Arrivederci.
13:27Hasta luego.