GM on Thursday confirmed that it plans to hand-build the Cadillac Celestiq—the upcoming flagship EV for the luxury brand—at the automaker’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
“As Cadillac’s future flagship sedan, Celestiq signifies a new, resurgent era for the brand,” GM president Mark Reuss said in a statement. He confirmed that the Celestiq will be a sedan, not a hatchback as it reaches production.
Cadillac also says that the Celestiq will have the highest volume of 3D-printed components of any GM product yet. That will include more than 100 parts, including structural and cosmetic elements and polymer and metal materials.
Cadillac Celestiq teaser
While the hand-built route is a bit of a surprise, and means the Celestiq will be a very exclusive, low-volume model, GM confirmed what we’ve known all along: that it will be built on GM’s Ultium strategy, encompassing large-format battery cells, modules and pack layouts, a wireless battery management system, shared drive units, GM’s own motor design, and more.
As we noted last week, with GM’s release of teaser photos of the model, we have seen this vehicle up-close before, in an earlier Celestiq concept version that GM confirmed was production-bound in early 2020. GM also showed interim glimpses of the Celestiq in a brand video released last year.
Cadillac Celestiq teased during General Motors’ 2021 CES presentation
But GM has waited more than two years to show the concept, and so we suspect it’s evolved significantly. Reuss’ mention of the sedan form suggests that the rear design of the concept, with its shooting-brake and bubble-window wagon influences, has been made more conventional.
There were a few details of what occupants will find inside. Those in front will get a “pillar-to-pillar freeform display” that GM says will have “active privacy to help mitigate driver distraction”—sounding as if entire areas of the dash might be blacked out or simplified. The roof will be made of suspended-particle smart glass, with four quadrants and each occupant able to set their own level of transparency.
Cadillac Celestiq teased during General Motors’ 2021 CES presentation
GM’s announcement was devoid of one especially important piece of information: a timeline toward production. We’ll place our bets that the Celestiq will arrive by 2026—after some of GM’s mass-market EV products but before Cadillac completes its transformation to an all-electric brand. Cadillac will show the Celestiq in some form in July, with more pictures to come throughout the summer. And hopefully, by then, we’ll be able to estimate how long you might wait for one.
