New Electric Cadillac Escalade IQL Priced at $132,695
Cadillac has announced the pricing for the 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL, the long-wheelbase version of its flagship SUV. The electric vehicle will start at $132,695, which includes the destination freight charge. Taxes, title, and dealer fees are not included.
If buyers choose the velocity max feature, the Escalade IQL can produce up to 750 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque. According to Cadillac, this will allow the SUV to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.7 seconds.
The Escalade IQL offers more cargo space and is estimated to have a range of 460 miles on a full charge, Cadillac said. The automaker also anticipates faster charging times, with the ability to gain 116 miles of range in 10 minutes using fast-charging stations.
Production of the 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL is slated to begin in mid-2025 at General Motors’ Factory Zero plant in Detroit. The vehicle will be sold in all ten of Cadillac’s markets, which include China and Canada.
Cadillac aims to have an all-electric vehicle lineup by 2030. John Roth, Vice President of Global Cadillac, told the Detroit Free Press that the original vision for the brand, which was first drafted in 2015, is now coming to fruition.
“As you scanned the luxury landscape at that time, you saw brands moving up and becoming truly tier one, and others struggling in the marketplace that I call ‘plus plus’ — with a sister division that just takes a model and puts luxury elements on it,” Roth said.
“Are you truly engineering a portfolio and a platform from the ground up and making it a luxury vehicle? That’s where Cadillac wanted to go.”
Cadillac’s push into electric vehicles comes as the company has finally surpassed pre-pandemic sales figures. Last year, Cadillac sold 160,204 vehicles, a 2.5% increase from the 156,246 sold in 2019, according to the Automotive News Data Center. However, this is still less than the brand’s peak of 235,002 Cadillacs sold in 2005.
The Lyriq, which launched in 2022, saw only 122 vehicles sold in the U.S. due to assembly line issues. Sales increased significantly in 2023, with 9,154 sold, and 28,402 sold in all of 2024.
Roth explained that General Motors would have pursued an EV strategy even without external pressure because of the design freedom that a battery-powered platform offers.
“You end up with cars and SUVs like we have today because you’re no longer constrained by the traditional gas elements that make up a vehicle,” he added. “Blistering fast relative to an ICE counterpart, but one with driving dynamics built into it.”
Escalade sales rebounded quickly after the pandemic, with a total of 41,671 sold last year.
“The new Escalade, is literally its own platform, design, wiring architecture and exterior vehicle design,” Roth said. “If you set the two of them next to each other, they still have Escalade characteristics, but the IQ is a completely different vehicle than its sister.”
Cadillac plans to launch the Optiq compact SUV and a three-row Vistiq SUV next.
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at [email protected].
