Cadillac Celestiq First Drive: The Bespoke, 360,000 EV here

The first practical experience with it with $ 360,000, Cadillac Celeste was in Ultraluxury as a rear passengers. It was mid -April, and I was on his way for dinner in West Hollywood. Although General Motors insists that most Celestiq buyers are drivers, the company wanted to create a vehicle that may be particularly convincing for those who prefer their driver to be done.

Cadillac was once known for her homes, dedicated luxury vehicles, working to restore Mujo with it Celest all photovoltaic. From the 655 hp fabrication fully, Cilest may be more vehicle than the tiredness that Cadillac has ever released-and certainly the most specialized.

Cadillac returns to the era of the ground yacht in the 1960s with Celestiq, which it believes can compete with Bentley and Rolls-Royce. The auto company also hopes to help Celestiq that the brand is due to its 40 -year title as “world level”, advanced, American -made, Luxury compounds in a new era of electricity.

“The idea was to make the best car in the world, but only spoke to make it EV,” says Celestiq, chief executive of Celestiq.

The luxury is striking, even from the back seat.

The second row is large and luxurious with a pair of multi -road adjustable seats, with massage capabilities and a 8 -inch central touch screen where you can adjust everything from your small climate to the way the huge glass ceiling is shaded.

This ceiling is something from the technological Marfito. It is not only one of the largest in the automotive world, but it is also made of smart glass, allowing each of the four passengers to set the ingredient in every quadruple using touch screens in the front and rear seats. According to Rome, glass travels all over the world (starting with Peru and ends in Michigan) because technology and paint are very specialized.

Even the entry and exit from Celestiq is a high-tech relationship-all doors are run (similar to those in Iqalade IQ), allowing you to use touch screen control tools to open and close the doors from the front or back seats. This has presented a new challenge to electrical engineers, because the translation of a gesture on a touch screen into the physical work of opening and opening heavy doors, took a lot of work, according to Kelly Drexler, a great quality engineer at the GM Laboratory in General Motors in Warren.

In the foreground, there is a high -resolution screen from column to column, 55 -inch introduction, taking over everything of information and entertainment (with a built -in Google) to safety control tools. The screens are significantly clear and bright, even in the glow of southern California. Cadillac says they have a pixel density similar to 8K TVs.

The auto industry company has worked closely with Dolby Atmos to bring the cinematic sound inward, quality and impressive quality thanks to the AKG 38 speakers, with loudspeakers in the headrests.

Outside, there are a lot of hidden but wonderful features. SUPER CRUISE driving system and cameras used to upgrade. We call it “Ultra Cruise” or notThe system is run by cameras and radar, as well as Lidar, to use on secondary roads. Although it is not yet available, Celestiq gets the equipment to ensure its work in the future when GM gives it green light. Sensors are hidden under the carbon fiber body panels that look like the metal so that they can “see” through them. The huge vast pants cover is also one huge carbon fiber, which allowed designers to move the cut lines down to the side panels and maintain the low Cestiq appearance.

A quick Barak is directed with genetically modified energy and engineering under it

Rome is not only responsible for Cilest. He is also the chief executive engineer in Corvette and GM performance cars, and his contracts have reached his experience with this part to a large extent how Cilestiq is on the road. Some of the best GM engineering came from commentators and movement transport materials working on Corvette – such as those supervised by Rome.

While the car weighs more than Escalade that works with gas (more than 6000 pounds), it can do 0-60 in less than four seconds. Even with all this weight, it is amazingly flat, and although it is “no” on off -road like its German competitors, it seems more connected than any other seats than Uberluxury in the market.

We took part of the road to Angeles Christ, one of the famous winds that southern California enjoy. I expected the 18 -foot car (longer than Escalade) to feel like a blog whale swiming towards the Great Togonga Canyon, but Selest eats curves very quickly and a complaint with Michelin’s experimental tires.

It was comfortable when clicking on it, and the suspension absorbs every part of the sun-whispered mountain roads thanks to the GM magnetic control system, which was a pioneer in Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. It is one of the fastest comments technology in the market – and one of the best we have seen. Electromagnetic magnets and magnetic liquid system use shock absorbers to adjust damping rates in response to road conditions, technology in Corvette today.

This setting gives you four engine modes: snow, sports, tour, and customized “My Mode”, which allows you to control the direction, strangling, suspension and preservation modes for easy access.

The giant car also gets the active back guidance (which is needed) up to 3.5 degrees, making it much easier to negotiate with small parking lots. We took the road to the center of Los Angeles (during the peak hour), where we had to make rotation through two passes of traffic to reach a destination. Saying that it was a Mashmara experience in a 360,000 dollar car is cheaply, but Celesti made the turn fine, although the radius radius is still huge at 45 feet.

Celestiq also runs heads in the streets of Los Angeles. During this event, we stopped in Warner Bros. Studios. On his way out, one of the directors on the golf cart and went to the question about it, commenting on the extent of its appearance on the street.

Design and engineering challenge

What makes the amazing Celestiq ignore a tremendous engineering challenge: Celestiq is jointly designed by automotive designers and engineers who worked closely together to cook something unique.

Designers threw glove to the engineering team, and insist on maintaining a low and long Celestiq ceiling line. At the same time, engineers wanted the car to get at least 300 miles of the range, which requires a certain number of battery cells. These batteries occupy an internal space for passengers, which are a problem with design and passenger comfort.

To meet in the middle, engineers had to make some changes on a 111 -kilowatt battery package that supports Cilest. Most battery packs are completely flat and placed under the floor of the car. The engineers initially believed that they would be able to use the lyric battery design to meet the scope requirements for the Selist – but this meant the lifting of the roof line to keep the rear passengers. On a flat floor, the back passengers had to sit with their knees around their ears. The design and engineering teams were at risk, and as a result, the engineers from the ground moved to the “fake” transport tunnel so that the designers can reduce the shoe in the back seat to rest. The batteries accumulate from 9 to 12 high cells in the inner part of Celestiq.

Celestiq is also the first “handcrafted” vehicle at the General Motors Craft Center at Warren Technology Center in Warren, Michigan. Six mega of aluminum (which is made of 3D printed sands) is the bottom of the car, the first time that the company has used this technology on a wider scale. There are more than 115 3D printed parts on Celestiq.

A 12 craftsman team assembles each Selest at six stations at the Craftsmen Center, and Rome says it is the maximum output, the team can build two Celestiqs daily, with a total production of 400 per year. Currently, the literal center has a field for the second line if the demand increases. If the customer asks for everything (meaning color, materials, etc., all is not customized), Cadillac says it takes 12 weeks for assembly completely.

The sky is the maximum when you design your Celestiq. “The only limit is the amount of money you want to spend,” says Rome, noting that there are more than 350,000 different groups of colors and materials that you can choose. According to the company, about 40 per cent of customers who requested Celestiqs chose to get out of these multiple groups for full customization.

The Concierge team in Cadillac House is at the Warren Technology Center, where developed customers come to the Celistac design, one of the first entry points for these wealthy individuals. Connections there says that customers can get the wild as they like with materials and colors, provided that requests do not affect the safety or engineering of the car. Anything that raises safety or construction fears (for example, if you decide that you want a meteorite for the Earth in your paint, which may interfere with CELESTIQ safety devices), the Concierge team brings it back to the other teams of the test before Cadillac agrees to the request.

The design team went to the point of allocating the bolts inside the car. Each visible nail is sealed with “world level”, and can be changed to the owner’s name or a special date, for example. The company uses borrowed jewelry technologies to customize these features.

The Convention team had already had some beautiful wild orders, including those they called the “Game of Thrones”. Although the car may enter or do not enter production, it is currently designed with Red Velvet seats (something the safety team had to test to ensure that the airbags would work if published), and a dark external color. There were conversations about the use of stone inside as well.

This level of allocation is not only for the offer – it confirms Cadillac’s commitment to authenticity and craftsmanship at a price point that requires both.

“You can get some of our competitors, and you can find the ingredients they re -use, and they are very clear, and I understand why they do it,” says Rome. “Cadillac is competing in the price sector and in a class we have not even tried since this long period. So we really wanted to make sure that every one details were real.”

This authenticity is translated into a vehicle that costs nearly that As an average house in the United States.

Whether Silest will raise the company to the brand level for some of its German competitors is another complete question. General Motort Chen was a decades-long battle to return to its climax as a luxurious American brand, and it was slow-making car manufacturer She renewed her picture in 2018. It took seven years until Celestiq reaches production, and customer delivery processes are supposed to start within about a month.

All the company’s company in Celestiq will move to other Cadillac offers. It is clear that General Motors doubles in the advanced market and the use of engineering, technology and design to continue trying to re -establish themselves as a new standard for the world.