The Cadillac Celestiq is GM’s moonshot EV. Longer than an Escalade and about as expensive as a Rolls-Royce Ghost, it’s the most technically advanced and luxurious vehicle from the brand, ever. It’ll also be even rarer than initially anticipated.
Cadillac plans to build just 25 Celestiqs this year, the brand confirmed to Motor1. But it has yet to sell every allocation, with a spokesperson telling us “nearly all” build slots are spoken for. So if you want one of the very first Celestiqs to roll off the line, you still have time.
Photo by: Cadillac
The numbers are a shift from previous expectations. Back when the Celestiq was revealed in 2022, Tony Roma, Cadillac’s chief engineer of performance cars, said the brand had “many many more [buyers] than we’re going to be able to build in the first year or 18 months.” Either some prospective customers backed out of their allocations, or GM figured out a way to speed up production since announcing the car.
Yearly production is expected to climb significantly next year, should order books begin to fill. But relative to a normal production Cadillac, the Celestiq will be a drop in the bucket. “We are building less than two a day,” a spokesperson told Motor1. That coincides with what Roma told Jay Leno on a recent episode of the comedian’s YouTube series, Jay Leno’s Garage.
“This is super low-volume,” Roma told Leno. “We’re not announcing the exact volume, but think more like hundreds, not thousands.”
If you want a Celestiq, you’ll need to be rolling in cash. Cadillac has yet to reveal an exact MSRP for the gargantuan four-door limousine, saying only it costs “north of $300,000.” There’s an endless sea of customization aspects for buyers, too, adding to the bottom line.
The Celestiq was never meant to be a big seller. It’s more of a marketing exercise to grow brand recognition for Cadillac and GM’s battery tech. Even if Cadillac pushes the Celestiq’s assembly line in Michigan to capacity, you’re more likely to see one as a cameo on your favorite TV show than in real life.
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