The Cadillac Celestiq signaled a brand new course for the model when it debuted practically two years in the past. The limited-production, bespoke electrical automobile gave prospects near-limitless customization choices—a daring new method for the luxurious model. However what comes subsequent for Cadillac’s commissioned vehicles? The Celestiq will not be a one-hit marvel if the brand new Sollei convertible idea previews the automaker’s future course.
The Sollei evokes reminiscences of the equally smooth Ciel from 2011 that by no means made it to manufacturing. The Sollei—a mixture of SOL, for the solar, and LEIpositive—is a brand new design. Nevertheless it’s not an accident that it seems just like the Celestiq, Cadillac’s first new hand-built automobile in over half a century. The 2 share the whole lot forward of the A-pillar and a cabin and use the identical Ultium platform.
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All the things behind that’s all Sollei, together with the 5.68-foot-long doorways. It has a mid-body line operating down the facet connecting the acquainted headlights and the brand new taillights—they stretch throughout the rear in a single component. The idea lacks typical door handles and as an alternative has skinny buttons positioned within the aluminum halo that rings the cabin, giving the automobile a clear, minimal design that’s imagined to get out of the way in which of the automobile’s finer particulars, says Takahiko Suginoshita, the automobile’s lead exterior designer.
Cadillac tinted the steel in and out in a brand new end referred to as “Aurora,” named after the Northern and Southern Lights, together with the stable billet aluminum windshield body and grill header. The corporate makes use of real supplies in its bespoke commissions and particularly focuses on not utilizing plastic, mentioned Erin Crossly, Cadillac Celestiq’s design director. “All the things that appears like steel is steel,” she mentioned.
The idea really shines inside, with meticulously hand-cut and hand-laid wooden veneers with open-pore finishes. The seats characteristic a sunburst motif of their perforation, quilting, and embroidery, and Cadillac added a pink iridescent pigment to the Nappa leather-based to create a color-changing impact. The Sollei can be the primary Cadillac to characteristic a brand new, renewable bio-based materials referred to as High-quality Mycelium. The corporate makes use of it on the charging mats and door pockets.
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Cadillac
Cadillac features a customized steel and leather-wrapped case for 4 3D-printed fowl calls that matches within the rear heart console. It sits beneath the built-in beverage chiller with an influence glass door between the rear seats. Cadillac additionally created a leather-bound journal with hand-painted fowl illustrations, together with a leather-based instrument roll for pens and pencils so passengers can seize the birds they see.
Cadillac revived its Manila Cream paint coloration for the idea, which the corporate had initially used on its vehicles in 1957 and 1958, with 23-inch aluminum wheels sitting on the corners. It did not present the Sollei with the convertible high within the up place, but it surely’s meant to have a material roof, which it previewed in a few sketches.
Cadillac careworn greater than as soon as that the Sollei is only a idea—an idea that simply occurs to share a cabin with the Celestiq, a entrance finish with the Celestiq, and a platform with the Celestiq. It even options the model’s 55-inch, dash-spanning show.
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“What a automobile like Sollei does is that it permits us to offer these inventive people contained in the Cadillac group an opportunity to specific themselves, and I feel they’ve performed a very good job of expressing what a 2+2 convertible might appear to be,” mentioned John Roth, Cadillac’s international vice chairman.
It has been 15 years since Cadillac provided a convertible, the XLR, and practically 50 because the final El Dorado convertible. A number of years in the past, its sellers expressed curiosity in wanting a convertible within the lineup, which might stand out within the luxurious phase dominated by crossovers and SUVs. If Cadillac needs to proceed setting the “Customary of the World,” providing a surprising, bespoke convertible would set it aside.
