From a distance, the luxury electric-vehicle market doesn’t look great. The three big German luxury brands—BMW, Mercedes and Audi—all have struggled with declining sales in China and a softer-than-expected EV market. Volvo isn’t doing too hot, either. The Japanese automakers have barely tried with their luxury offerings, and Lincoln has yet to bring an EV to market.
Yet there’s one bright spot in this mess: Cadillac.
(Welcome to Power Moves, an InsideEVs column on the winners and losers of the EV race. Here, I explore how one of the world’s most vital industries is navigating its biggest shake-up ever.)
The brand has quietly become America’s no. 1 luxury EV seller as of late. After a rocky initial start with the bug-plagued Lyriq, the company has embarked on an all-out product assault. It fixed the Lyriq, then launched the Escalade IQ, Optiq, Vistiq, Lyriq-V and Celestiq all within the last year.
Each of these cars looks captivating, offers around 300 miles of range or more and uses GM’s latest software architecture. They are all somewhere between good and great, and consumers are starting to notice.
The brand just reported its best first half in nearly 20 years. Let’s break down why Cadillac is winning right now, and why an EV revolution was always bound to disrupt the luxury market.
The Formula
Here’s a simple truth: Electric cars make better luxury cars.
They are quieter, smoother and simpler. For buyers with home charging—which includes the majority of luxury car shoppers—they are more convenient, and tend to offer better software and tech features than their conventionally powered counterparts.
But there is a catch. Batteries are expensive. If you want to compete with internal-combustion volume products on price, you’re going to have to cost-cut the thing to hell. This is where designs like the Volkswagen ID.4 and Mercedes EQS misfired, offering a cheaper experience than their cheaper, gas alternatives. Cadillac didn’t make that mistake.
It used the EV transition as an opportunity to inject new life into its staid old lineup. It reworked its designs inside and out with fresh styling, new technology and better materials.
The stodgy XT5 and underwhelming XT6 are heading out, paving the way for the perfectly positioned Optiq and yacht-like Vistiq. The Escalade still reigns as the moneymaker, but it’s now flanked by an electric version that can do 500 miles on a charge. The Lyriq, already a smash hit, gets better for ‘26 with new cooling upgrades, standard Super Cruise and an ultra-hot V version.
In every major SUV segment, Cadillac offers an electric option with competitive pricing, GM’s sharp infotainment stack and its excellent Super Cruise driver assistance technology. Each model offers over 300 miles of range for most trims, and all of them have excellent route-planning and navigation software. And all of them get cushy suspensions and a smoother powertrain than the best gas cars can offer.
There’s nothing proprietary about this approach. The key to Cadillac’s success is that it’s just leveraging General Motors’ scale and a first-mover advantage to win over first-time EV buyers in almost every segment. While BMW may sell you an excellent electric option in a few segments (for now), and Audi’s best tech is available in the Q6, you can get a decent Cadillac in almost every class it operates in. Plus, since they all use the ultra-high-volume Ultium battery cells, they’re cheaper than most alternatives.
The Results
To call Cadillac’s recent moves a coup would be underselling it. A full 71% of Lyriq and Optiq shoppers come from rival brands. That’s a stunning conquest figure, the likes of which you almost never see. It’s proof that buyers will flock to compelling EVs.
These buyers are also younger and have higher incomes than Cadillac buyers of the past. The average age of a Vistiq or Escalade IQ buyer is 47 or 48 years old, very young for their segments, and the Celestiq is reaching for the type of monied clientele that hasn’t cared about Cadillacs in 50 years.
By any measure, the brand is in its best position in years. “There’s momentum across the entire portfolio right now,” Brad Franz, global product marketing director for Cadillac, told InsideEVs recently.
Franz says the company is benefitting from having the right lineup at the right time. While its EVs are surging, it’s also building the best V8 muscle sedans and Escalades it has ever made. Meanwhile, it’s rolling out standard Super Cruise to almost every model, finally capitalizing on GM’s leadership in hands-free driving at a time when customers are all clamoring for it.
“That is a feature that in the luxury space we know that consumers want,” Franz said. We’re probably going to get to a point sooner rather than later that it’s a demand, not a want. For us to be out there right now in the ‘26 model year, having that kind of availability across the Cadillac lineup is going to serve us.”
“The feedback we get on it is incredible,” he added.
I believe it. I spent last Wednesday stuck in rush-hour Seattle traffic in a Lyriq-V. Between Super Cruise and the AKG audio system with Dolby Atmos support, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy while stuck in traffic. Then, when the road got twisty, I released 615 silent horses and let ‘em run.
That’s the sort of experience luxury EVs provide, and Cadillac selling most buyers their first EV is bound to pay off. I mean, if you’re coming from a four-cylinder Lincoln to an electric Cadillac, it’s just going to feel like a whole new world.
“Show me another brand that has had this kind of a product resurgence,” Franz told me.
What’s Next For Cadillac?
There’s a reason that automakers don’t typically roll out such aggressive product incentives. Right now, almost every car in the Cadillac lineup is new or recently refreshed. The oldest designs are the gas-powered vehicles, which are bound to go hybrid or electric eventually. But the short-term challenge is keeping buyers excited as the release cadence slows down and the tax credit goes away.
The company certainly has more work to do. While the Utlium cars have some shared advantages, they also have shared weaknesses. Very few of GM's EVs are what you'd call fast-charging champions. They’re also all heavy for their segments, and their packaging is less efficient than in EVs from other automakers, which is why most of them don’t have front trunks.
A GM engineer confirmed to InsideEVs that reducing mass and improving packaging are the top priorities for future EVs. The software team also seems to recognize that, while they may be among the top of the field for legacy automakers, Tesla, Rivian and a few others still lead the pack.
Then there’s the upcoming onslaught of third-gen EVs from companies like BMW, Audi and Mercedes, all due out in the next year. Soon, Cadillac will contend with the BMW Neue Klasse cars or the growing portfolio on Mercedes' promising MMA platform, like the new CLA. And there's always the question of what the upstart brands from China will do next.
It’s far from an easy road ahead for Cadillac. But for the first time in decades, the brand appears to be on track. The next question is whether the brand can stay in pole position.
Contact the author: mack.hogan@insideevs.com
