2024 Cadillac Celestiq Is the Brand's $340K Hand-Built Flagship EV

• The 2024 Cadillac Celestiq debuts as the most extravagant and expensive model the brand has ever built.

• The electric Celestiq is an avant-garde, four-seater hatchback that's made by hand and built to order.

• Cadillac fits every model with an expected 600 horsepower, an estimated 300 miles of range, and a base price of around $340,000.

UPDATE 8/8/23: The Cadillac Celestiq will have a base price around $340,000. That's according to GM Authority, who reported that Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Grady Dias in a recent post on social media revealed the car's starting price—which doesn't include the destination fee. A Cadillac spokesperson has since confirmed to Car and Driver that the Celestiq's starting MSRP will be approximately $340K. However, they declined to share the destination fee at this time.

When was the last time Cadillac was truly considered the Standard of the World? If you're like us and have to phone a friend to answer that question, then you might need to have your grandparents' landline on speed dial. The point is it's been a long time, but the brand looks to return to those former glory days as a legit luxury coachbuilder with the 2024 Celestiq, a moonshot model the company claims is one of the most important in its 120-year history.

For those already familiar with the Celestiq concept that Cadillac revealed back in July, the production car's specialness won't be a surprise, especially since it's nearly identical to the preceding show car. Cadillac basically just replaced the concept's camera-fed exterior mirrors with traditional ones and called it good.

Still, here's a quick recap or primer: The Celestiq is a battery-electric avant-garde four-passenger hatchback that's built by hand and tailor-made for individual customers. It also features a bespoke platform based on General Motors' Ultimum battery technology.

A Caddy for Kings and Queens

If you haven't already connected the dots, this Caddy isn't attainable for blue-collar folks, no matter how fat their yearly bonus check is. And that's the point. Cadillac commissioned this ambitious car to reconnect with its heritage, reboot its image, and be the flagship of the brand's plans to go entirely electric by 2030.

Needless to say, the Celestiq is extremely expensive, with a $340,000-plus base price that'll rise based on customers' individual customizations. Cadillac also says it will only build a limited number every year at GM's Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Those allocations will only be available to those on a waitlist.

So, what does Celestiq mean and where did the name come from? That's not important. What's important is that it doesn't have a generic alphanumeric moniker like some other models Cadillac sells.

It also maintains Cadillac's plan to use the suffix "iq" at the end of its electric vehicles' model names, a trend that began with the recently introduced Lyriq electric SUV. That's better than the Celestiq being called the CT7 or something similarly uninspiring.

Dramatiq Celestiq

What's not uninspiring is the Celestiq's dramatiq (see what we did there?) proportions. We were lucky enough to see it in person, and to call it stunning is an understatement.

Shining in hand-painted Santorini Blue (just one of 200 available exterior colors Cadillac mastered for the Celestiq, not counting the infinite color-match options), the big EV looks incredibly long and low-slung. We're told its windshield is angled steeper than that of the latest Corvette.

Unlike the mid-engined Chevy sports car, the electric Celestiq's bodywork is tastefully sculpted. Its slippery surface hides extensive carbon-fiber body panels that are virtually void of defined lines.

There's no belt molding or door handles, either. The large power-operated front and rear doors open at the touch of discreet buttons on the B-pillar, but not before the Celestiq welcomes the driver with a light show when it detects the key fob is within 15 feet. We're told the sequence takes advantage of Cadillac's first-ever "digital micromirror" headlights that feature 1.3 million pixels each.

While the Celestiq's grille design and hockey-stick-like taillights look similar to those of the Lyriq, its remaining details offer a unique showcase of the particular manufacturing processes Cadillac employs to build this machine. The Celestiq's underbody consists of six mega-sized aluminum castings that are said to reduce normally necessary components by 30–40 parts apiece.

Every model also features 300-plus fabricated bits that are made through a process that can bend and fold metal like origami (as opposed to traditional stamping techniques). Cadillac also went crazy with 3-D printing on the Celestiq, and the EV boasts 115 such parts on the likes of its steering wheel and interior trim.