Jay Leno Drives the Cadillac Celestiq. Few Have Touched This $340,000 Ultra-Luxury Car
Published: 22 Apr 2025, 08:45 UTC • By:
Elena Luchian 
 20 photos
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
                  
The super-exclusive Cadillac Celestiq has just been parked in Jay Leno's Garage. The ultra-luxury model will be ultra-rare, as the automaker will only roll up under 250 examples per year. It is longer than an Escalade and will cost at least three times more because it is basically a futuristic palace on wheels.
It is huge. It is magnetic. It is intimidating. It is the ultra-exclusive Cadillac Celestiq, bearing the same "iq" ending that all the brand's EVs bear but taking luxury to a whole new level. It comes with features extracted from an innovative future, while bringing vintage vibes from the 120-year Cadillac history. The automaker didn't just try to build a good EV. Their sole purpose was to make a good Cadillac. And it looks like a homerun.
Tony Roma, Vehicle Chief Engineer for Cadillac Celestiq, started the Celestiq project with a clean sheet about five years ago. He was also involved in the development of the C8 Corvette. In fact, he supervises just about anything that General Motors rolls out except for trucks and SUVs.
Cadillac will only build the ultra-luxury sedan with a hatchback-style rear end to order by hand. It will be a very low-volume model. "Think of hundreds, not thousands," Tony Roma says. No more than 250 will see the light of day in a year.
Every customer will collaborate with a concierge at Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, meet with the designers, and choose one of the four Design Inspiration themes available: Magnetic (dark black and blue inside and out), Vale (earth tones), Mist (silver exterior over a brown leather interior), or Aurora (sporty red themes). It can sometimes take weeks to decide on the spec.
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
The Celestiq is built on GM's BEV3 platform, which integrates an aluminum spaceframe with carbon fiber body panels. The door panels are sheet molded composite (SMC) and sport embedded sensors. The chassis is made from six castings that are manufactured as separate modules and then welded together.
The front fenders and rear quarter are carbon fiber. The Celestiq comes with an impressive silhouette and intimidating proportions. It is 217.2 inches (5,517 millimeters) long, 81.9 inches (2,081 millimeters) wide, and 57.2 inches (1,453 millimeters) tall, while the wheelbase stretches along 130.2 inches (3,308 millimeters). Tony Roma and Jay Leno agree that it is the biggest wheelbase of any Cadillac in recent memory. It is even longer than that of the Escalade, but the Celestique will cost at least three times as much. The conversation starts at $340,000.
The car has no door handles. You push the button on the B-pillar for the front doors and the one on the C-pillar for the back doors. There is a radar inside, so if you stand too close, the door won't knock you down. Once you push the brake pedal, the doors close.
The rear seats have all the features that those sitting at the front benefit from, including heating and massage, so being chauffeured in the Cadillac Celestiq is just as fun and comfortable as driving it. A 55-inch-diagonal advanced LED display recreates the cinema theater-like ambiance on board.
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
The passenger display with electronic digital blinds, which is an active privacy technology, is designed to allow passengers to enjoy video content while blocking it from the view of the driver, so that it doesn't distract them.
The development team wanted to go for cameras instead of side mirrors, as Audi did for the e-tron EV and Honda did for the e hatchback, sold on the European market, but the technology is not yet legal in the US.
The charging port is located on the right front fender. Once it is plugged in, the front lamps will indicate the charging level. The headlamps use digital micromirrors with 1.3 million pixels each. They are also designed to display a welcoming startup sequence as the driver approaches.
Sitting on a 400-volt architecture, the Celestique is equipped with the 111-kWh Ultium battery pack that stores enough energy for a drive of "just over 300 miles" (Cadillac is still working on the numbers with the Environmental Protection Agency) before the car needs to be plugged in again.
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
Customers can choose the level of regeneration down to one-pedal drive, so the oversized brakes should last forever. "I would never expect you to have to change the brake pads on this car," Tony Roma estimates. Owners will just have to change the brake fluid and flush the coolant system every once in a while, and that is all the maintenance this car needs.
The palace on wheels rides on 23-inch units with Michelin Pilot Sport tires, specifically developed for EVs. Michelin even let the Cadillac designers style the pattern in the sidewall. They don't do this for anybody.
It has four-wheel steering, Active Roll Control with air springs, and MR dampers. It's good for taking the family to dinner just as much as it is good for a winding canyon road. Regardless of the surface, it gives that flying magic carpet sensation on board.
The car features the huge, industry-first Smart Glass Roof with Suspended Particle Device (SPD), a technology that allows the glass to separate into four quadrants, which are basically four zones of variable lighting. Thus, passengers can fine-tune their cabin comfort depending on their mood and preferences.
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
The hood pops to reveal a tiny frunk. "That's hilarious!" Jay Leno concludes. The engineers needed space for the radiator that cools the electronics and the 48-volt battery, used to run the chassis and the heated glass. Part of the drive unit is also there, so there wasn't really much room left for storage.
The Cadillac Celestiq is powered by a dual-motor setup, which generates 650 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque. Cadillac claims it can flash from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in 3.8 seconds. |
