The 2025 Cadillac Optiq Is a Funky Little EV: First Drive Review

Perhaps you’ve heard of the 2025 Cadillac Optiq. Perhaps you haven’t. Perhaps you acknowledge the -iq suffix as Cadillac’s new branding for electrical automobiles, however can’t actually inform one -iq car from the following. I don’t blame you. However regardless of your familiarity with Cadillac’s new “IQ” automobiles, there’s an underlying thread right here: Cadillac is electrifying its lineup, quick.

And you already know what? I prefer it.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

The Optiq is a part of a significant shift for Cadillac. Lately, the corporate’s launched a slew of recent electrical automobiles beneath the IQ model, largely signified by mannequin names ending in “-iq” (pronounced “ick,” not “eek”). Becoming a member of the Optiq are fashions just like the Lyriq, Vistiq, and Celestiq. The one departure from this rule is the Cadillac Escalade IQ, since saying “Escaladiq” can be… bizarre. (I drove the IQ lately, and it made the Escalade really feel essential once more.)

The Optiq is the most affordable car in Cadillac’s new electrical lineup, with a beginning value of $56,390 with vacation spot charges. It’s a two-row, five-seat crossover that shares a platform with the Chevrolet Equinox EV. Each Optiq has an 85.0-kilowatt-hour battery pack and a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup, with 300 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. Cadillac estimates 302 miles of vary, however the EPA hasn’t launched official vary estimates for the Optiq but.

The Optiq has a full suite of ordinary security gear, together with Normal Motors’ Tremendous Cruise hands-free driver-assistance system. Tremendous Cruise works on about 750,000 miles of mapped roads within the US and Canada, and in my expertise, they’re typically highways. The service is free for 3 years when you purchase a Tremendous Cruise-equipped automobile new, and it’s a subscription service thereafter. If you happen to journey by freeway rather a lot, it’s price it.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Professionals: Quiet & Trendy Inside, Unreal Sound System

There are presently solely two trims of the Optiq: Luxurious and Sport, which have related costs however barely completely different styling. The Luxurious trim has brilliant chrome accents on the surface, whereas the Sport is extra blacked-out. Luxurious-trimmed Optiqs additionally get the choice for a royal blue paint shade referred to as Coastal Blue Metallic, whereas the Sport’s particular paint shade is a bright-lava shade referred to as Monarch Orange.

Contained in the Optiq, there are 4 upholstery choices: black, darkish blue, autumn orange, and lightweight grey with royal blue accents. I’d spec an Optiq with the Sport trim, Monarch Orange paint, and gray-and-royal-blue inside, however I couldn’t inform you if that’s good or not as a result of my “cheesy” radar has been damaged for about 29 years. (I’m 29 years previous.)

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Driving the Optiq isn’t mind-blowing, however it’s snug. The inside is so quiet that your ears should readjust to the silence whenever you shut the doorways, and that noise cancellation continues on the highway: When a harsh rainstorm hit the automobile, I didn’t understand how hurricane-like the situations had been till I acquired out. Within the automobile, it simply felt like a traditional bathe.

The one noise interruptions got here from the Optiq’s security techniques. The entrance and facet collision sensors had been ultra-sensitive, beeping after I didn’t anticipate it. Typically they beeped at bollards on the facet of the highway, and generally they beeped at parked automobiles. I’d moderately the automobile beep an excessive amount of than too little, however it was jarring at first.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Cons: Not a Canyon Carver

There are a couple of drive modes within the Optiq: Tour, Sport, Snow/Ice, and My Mode. Sport mode adjustments the accelerator mapping to be extra responsive, and the Optiq has loads of energy for its dimension and weight. I couldn’t safely slam my foot to the ground within the torrential rain, however after I did hit the pedal, the automobile was fast sufficient to make a traditional purchaser really feel sporty.

That’s essential, as a result of Cadillac positions the Optiq as a sportier mannequin. Once I drove the automobile, the corporate identified its flat, aerodynamic windshield angle and enormous 20- to 21-inch wheels. Additionally they inspired us to drive it laborious on winding roads.

I’ve pushed two sporty EV crossovers laborious on winding roads lately: the Optiq and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Each made me nauseous. It’s probably the mixture of silence and heavy curb weight in an EV, disorienting my physique as a result of it expects to really feel gasoline, grunt, and sound.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Whereas driving (or being pushed) laborious on curvy roads, the Optiq shifted its weight ahead aggressively beneath braking and swayed in sharp turns. If you happen to’re a purchaser who likes ripping your automobiles on good roads—even electrical crossovers—it’s price seeing in the event that they make you sick first.

However the Optiq isn’t about driving laborious. It’s in regards to the inside expertise, and the factor that makes it’s the sound system. It has a 19-speaker Dolby Atmos system customary, and I have not stopped fascinated by it.

Dolby Atmos is principally 3D sound; standard songs are blended in Atmos to be “3D,” the place voices, devices, and beats happen throughout you. Mixers can place them above you, under you, in entrance of you, and behind you They’ll additionally put the voices and beats in movement, floating them round your physique and head. (On the Optiq’s display within the Amazon Music app, Atmos songs had a “Dolby Atmos” tag beneath the artist and music identify. Cadillac says Atmos sound will likely be on sure fashions for 2025, and it’ll be obtainable throughout the corporate’s whole EV lineup for 2026.)

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

In a single music, “Hush” by The Marías, there’s an intro beat that lasts about 10 seconds. A daily speaker will simply play that beat at you. However after I performed the Atmos model within the Optiq, that very same beat made a circle round me, as if a ball of sound was bodily orbiting my head.

In lots of songs performed by way of Atmos, the backup vocals got here from the audio system above and behind me. It was angelic, as if the clouds parted and the singers had been harmonizing down towards Earth.

There are solely two drawbacks with this sound system: The primary is that not all songs are in Atmos, and when you get pleasure from extra obscure music like me, a lot of your playlist gained’t be blended for 3D. The second is that not each Atmos combine has the identical depth—a few of them lean closely on the entrance audio system, making them sound extra like a traditional combine than an Atmos one.

Nonetheless, the expertise is particular. In my reminiscence financial institution, the primary time I heard a music in Atmos (within the Optiq, two weeks in the past) is up there with the primary time I went to a kind of interactive film theaters that spray water on you. It was that spectacular.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

The remainder of the Optiq’s inside is high-class, too. My tester automobile had the light-gray shade scheme with royal-blue accents, and there have been all types of supplies in it: woven yarn constituted of recycled supplies, wooden veneer constituted of recycled newspaper, silver speaker covers, and royal-blue fabric and plastic.

The inside styling jogged my memory of a present on-line development the place individuals joke about “Millennial burger joints” in America. You recognize the place: Appetizers are referred to as “shareables,” the burger comes on a slab of wooden, the ketchup is available in a steel tin, and desserts are milkshakes with whole items of cake on prime. Millennials like commercialized quirk as a result of it makes us really feel distinctive, even when we’re all on the similar burger joint ordering the identical factor.

The inside of the Optiq seems like that too, and it’s not a nasty factor. Cadillac says youthful patrons are a goal marketplace for this automobile, they usually’ll purchase it—hopefully—as a result of it’s designed for them.

Picture by: Alanis King / Motor1

I didn’t anticipate to love the Optiq as a lot as I do, as a result of as a automobile fanatic, it’s laborious to really feel one thing in a luxurious electrical SUV. They’re all fancy, quiet, and quick (generally too quick for a traditional purchaser). Maybe you are feeling the identical means, otherwise you simply haven’t realized to inform the -iq automobiles aside but.

The Optiq is completely different. It is probably not a hardcore canyon carver, however it’s particular as a result of it chooses a expertise: making a purchaser, their music, and their inside really feel particular, whether or not they’re driving to work, dwelling, or that Millennial burger joint.

Simply strive to not drop the cake and milkshake on the seats, alright?

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Alanis King / Motor1