Cadillac's New Escalade EV Might Have the Gaudiest Grille Out There
In a world full of flashy light bars Cadillac is leaning all the way in.
In the age of EVs, grilles aren’t a practical piece of automotive design, they’re a billboard. And as I’ve written previously, light bars are all the rage right now, and boy is Cadillac raging.
In a new teaser for its upcoming Escalade IQ EV — the first-ever electrified Escalade — it teased a pretty conspicuous-looking front grille that, while not giving a ton away about the SUV, gives a pretty interesting look at how Cadillac envisions the new Escalade aesthetic.
That aesthetic, if I were to summarize in a couple words, is a lot. As you can see, Cadillac is going for a pretty digital-forward front grille with some wing-like LED lights and even a backlit badge. I’m not sure it qualifies as a light bar per se, but it definitely follows the same logic as grilles with light bars seen on EVs like the Rivian R1S or Ford’s F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
We also got a little peek at some other design choices, including the Escalade IQ’s rear — here, it appears there will be a real light bar — and some not-so-subtle wheel rims. Fans of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 should approve of the latter.
Some fancy rims complement an even fancier grille.
Outside of the few visual teasers we got from Cadillac’s video, we also got a hard date for when the entire Escalade IQ will be announced. If you’re ready to see just how luxurious its first full-size electric SUV will be, you can tune in on August 9 for the full reveal.
