I Used To Hate Giant EVs Like The Cadillac Escalade IQL. Then I Drove One

When General Motors first announced the GMC Hummer EV, I wasn’t too impressed. I wrote a column about how a 9,000-pound monster EV proves that we’re making all of the same mistakes again, valuing overkill over reason, and excess over quality.

Four years later, I don’t think anything I said was wrong. But I don’t think GM was wrong, either. A 9,000-pound EV is unreasonable, but when have Americans ever bought reasonable cars? If you’re going to go oversized and over-the-top, you might as well go electric while you’re at it. Because if you want excess in every regard, there’s no better solution than a massive electric truck with over 400 miles of range, an absurd horsepower figure, and every feature you could possibly imagine. 

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Another gargantuan GM EV, the Cadillac Escalade IQL, proved that to me over a week of testing. It ferried around six adults, covered hundreds of miles, and blasted dozens of tunes from its 38-speaker stereo without ever needing a recharge.

It’s not the three-row Cadillac EV I’d buy. But I’m still glad it exists, excess and all.

Specs & Features

Let’s get the features out of the way, first: The Cadillac has all of them.

My $156,315 Escalade IQL Premium Luxury tester came with heated, cooled, and massaging front thrones. It had absurdly huge 24-inch polished wheels. Its 38 speakers supported Dolby Atmos surround sound through the native Amazon Music and Tidal apps. While I was testing it, it got an update and received Apple Music and Google Gemini AI support. 

It had ambient lighting in every color the human eye can perceive. It had an infrared night-vision camera for light the human eye cannot perceive. It had Super Cruise hands-free highway driving, and lane centering for the roads where that wasn’t supported. It had V2L support and—with a pricey, separately purchased home energy interface—could act as a home backup battery.

All four of its wheels were suspended by cush, height-adjustable air springs, and all four had their own steering equipment. The four-wheel steering could help you maneuver the 228.8-inch dreadnought through a Trader Joe's parking lot or—for no particular reason I could fathom—could steer all four wheels in the same direction, allowing you to move diagonally while keeping your nose pointed dead ahead. It even has power doors, allowing you to open and close them without lifting a finger. In practice this process is too slow and clunky to be useful, but hey, at least you can show off in a few novel ways. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

All of these functions were controlled by screens. And boy, were there screens. The écran de résistance is the 55-inch banner covering the entire dashboard. It’s segmented into a driver display, a central touchscreen for infotainment, and a passenger-facing touchscreen for entertainment. The passenger-side unit can display movies or YouTube videos with separate audio from the main system, streamed to the viewer’s Bluetooth headphones. A special filter makes the video invisible to the driver as soon as the Escalade goes into drive. It’s neat. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

But only a fool would think that a home-theater-sized display would be enough for the standard bearer of American Excess. To establish dominance in this regard, the Escalade features another touchscreen below the main event, plus a head-up display serving as the driver’s extra companion. The technology to add Netflix streaming to the moonroof and Wordle to the rear window doesn’t exist yet, but I fully expect Cadillac to lead the charge there. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Lest your front-row serenity be disrupted by curious (read: annoying) children, the Escalade provides both second-row passengers with screens of their own, plus a rear climate-control screen. There are HDMI imports and power plugs for video game consoles for the entertainment displays, plus a slew of native apps. Everyone gets their own bluetooth audio capability, and everyone can use the 5G-based mobile hotspot. Play your cards right and you can drive for hours with your partner and two children, never having to talk to any of them. If that ain’t the American dream, I don’t know what is. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

With 460 miles of range and over 400 miles of 70 mph highway range, little Johnny should be able to get through at least 42 episodes of Bluey between road trip stops. And with 350 kW charging, the Escalade won’t have to sit still for too long. Adding 100 miles of range takes about 10 minutes, per GM, though there's no official 10-80% charge time. An Out Of Spec test recorded a 48-minute 10-80% charge time thanks to some thermal issues, and in general these big GM EVs have relatively long charge times. Blame the gargantuan 205 kWh battery and the laws of physics for that. Oh, and make sure to get your Tesla Supercharger or Electrify America subscription locked and loaded; with such a huge battery, fast charging gets expensive fast.

Speaking of fast, the Escalade IQ… is. It’ll sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, a terrifying feat for something that weighs more than an armored Humvee. It’s best for efficiency and the world around if you rarely tip into its 785 lb-ft torque supply, but I am a fool, and so I did quite often, with a big smile on my face. Result: Weeklong efficiency of 2.1 miles per kWh over around 250 miles of mostly city driving. The Escalade maintains its reputation for energy guzzlings even in the electric era. At least it’s on-brand.

Cadillac Escalade IQ: Driving Experience

The Escalade IQL is three things I love: big, fast, and comfy. I don’t typically want or need all three at once, but I can’t deny it was a charming combination. The Escalade was floaty and unbothered in general, with little connection to the road. But those 24-inch wheels were the main liability, transmitting sharper potholes and highway undulations into the cabin more than a more modest set would. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

The cabin was plenty hushed, too, with only a bit of wind noise to keep you aware of your speed. You need it; sitting so high up, in such a fast and isolated vehicle, it was easy to accidentally blow past speed limits. The all-glass roof was nice, too, lighting up the sumptuous and gigantic cabin.

Passengers in all three rows reported plenty of space, although the third row is not quite as cavernous as the external dimensions imply. The Toyota Sienna minivan bests it on third-row legroom and clobbers it on storage space behind the third row despite being 25-inches shorter. This is not news: Minivans are far more space efficient than large SUVs, but Americans have made it incredibly clear over the last 20 years that they do not give a damn. I shout into the void regardless. The packaging efficiency of EVs makes up for the form-factor disadvantage; factor in the 12.2 cubic-foot frunk and the Escalade bests the Sienna. 

The Escalade IQ's frunk is giant.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

The four-wheel-steering system also helps close some of the the practicality gap between the Escalade and more conservatively sized family haulers. I found the Escalade nimble enough to handle parking lots and garages, though the width and the limited sightlines over the massive hood made it more stressful than I’d have liked. And I was traversing the open-air expanses of Midwestern shopping malls. I’m unsure how I’d feel if I had tested this in California or New York, with their smaller parking lots.

If you’re used to driving a pickup truck, the Escalade IQL will do you quite well. If you’re used to driving a modest passenger car fit for normal sized humans doing normal errands, well, you can take your commie ass to the Fiat dealer. I’d imagine most of us fall somewhere in the middle. I certainly do, which is why this isn’t quite the Cadillac I’d buy.

Why The Cadillac Vistiq Is A Better Option

Excess is great in theory. It’s tougher when you have to pay for it. At $156,315 as-tested, the Escalade IQL is pricey to buy. At 2.1 miles per kWh, it’s also relatively pricey to run, even if it’ll still trounce the gas-powered Escalade on fuel costs assuming you charge at home. 

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Source: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Cadillac’s other three-row EV, the Vistiq, starts at $79,390, nearly $50,000 cheaper than the non-L Escalade IQ’s $127,405 base price. My loaded Vistiq Premium Luxury tester was $95,415, still thirty-two grand cheaper, and came with everything you’d ever want. It had Super Cruise and an AKG audio system and four-wheel steering and 615 horsepower. It had three rows, extremely comfortable massing front seats, and a lovely interior.

It had less space than the Escalade, for sure, and 300 rather than 460 miles of rated range. But the reward for this was an SUV that rode better, looked better, handled better, and cost far less. I liked driving it far more, and was far sadder to give it back. 

The Escalade IQL definitely has a larger trunk than the Vistiq, but I like driving the Vistiq far more.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Best of all, it delivers all of the performance and space the average family needs with less than half the battery materials used in the Escalade. If you care even a lick about building a more sustainable future for the car industry—as I assume most InsideEVs readers do—it’s worth the trade-off.

Conclusion

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t be so obsessed with giant trucks and SUVs. They’re excessive, they’re inefficient, and they make our roads less safe for more reasonably sized vehicles. But I can’t blame anyone; I love driving huge trucks and SUVs, and with a blank check I’d probably own some kind of truck. Yet our obsession with them has been bad for the planet.

I thought the transition to EVs would be a chance to reevaluate our vehicle needs. I still think it will be, eventually. But first, we need to get people to give up their gas vehicles for electric ones. That’s the Escalade IQ’s mission, and one it does well. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Through conversations with a dozen or so Midwesterners in their sixties, I found a better reception for the Escalade than I have for almost any other EV I’ve tested. The range wasn’t just enough, it was too much to ever worry. It wasn’t just big, it was big in a way that made their gas SUVs look inadequate. The cabin wasn’t just opulent; it was cooler than anything they’d ever seen in a gas car. The price tag put it out of reach for all of them, but for maybe the first time, I saw them see an EV as an object of true desire, not of eat-your-vegetables pragmatism.

These are the people the Escalade IQ is designed for. Young coastal buyers like me will be well-served with Rivian R2s and Tesla Model 3s. But heartland buyers don’t just want good-enough, they want something so roundly excessive that they’ll never have to worry. 

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

The Escalade IQL is that truck. For better and for worse, it is the most of everything. It is built for a nation with a preferred serving size of “too much,” for the land of free refills. As a product of the Midwest, and a passionate abuser of free refills, I love it. But as a critic and someone who cares about the future, I’d rather have the Vistiq.

After seeing everyone light up around the Escalade IQL, though, I’m more glad than ever that both options exist.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com. 

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