I have to admit that I didn't think much of the Cadillac Optiq when it first debuted, or even right up until I got some seat time in one. It's not that General Motors isn't making good electric vehicles; these days, it very much is, and it has the sales numbers to back this up.
Instead, it's just that a “new midsize electric luxury crossover” excites me about as much as the release of yet another superhero movie. Most of them are fine. A few are abysmal. But on the whole, it's all stuff we've seen before.
But every now and then, something new surprises you. And I'm pleased to say the Optiq did exactly that—starting with its refreshingly original cabin.
Look at this! It's blue! Aggressively blue, in fact. And that's only part of the story: the Optiq's cabin is filled with a charming assortment of different textures, materials, touchpoints and colored accents.
My Optiq tester's interior scheme is called Sky Cool Gray with Santorini Blue accents, a zero-cost upgrade from the base car's (called Luxury 1) all-black cabin. But that's not all: upgrade to the nicer Luxury 2 or Sport 2 trims, and you can double down with the Phantom Blue trim's navy leather seats, dashboard and door accents.
Reader: If you buy an Optiq, resist the temptation to get the tan or all-black leather. Cadillac doesn't make bad interiors (not anymore, anyway) and so I am sure they're very nice. But you deserve some spice in your life. Be bold. Be interesting. Get one of the blue interiors. You will be dead someday, like all of us, and the chance to drive something interesting—and kind of weird—should not be passed up during your limited time on earth.
Let me be clear that I mean "weird" in the nicest possible way here. The EV world needs more weird. Every car company is trying to figure out an electrified, software-driven future so desperately that they don't take risks in other ways.
The ethos behind most EVs we test is generally "do more screen," itself a derivative of "be more like Tesla, primarily for cost-cutting reasons." There are certainly reasons why this happens. They aren't always good for the consumer, however, nor do they end up being all that memorable. It's also hard to define a brand by being exactly like the other brands.
The Optiq itself is certainly screen-forward. It has a 33-inch LED display with something called 9K resolution. The software suite will be familiar to anyone who's driven another GM EV. But the neon blue accents? Now we're talking.
The dashboard trim, storage area below the center console, door cards and other bits really serve to spice up this cabin. The interesting touches go beyond the cabin; one pervasive material is the "patterned accent fabric" that's woven from 100% recycled polyester yarn, and it's splayed across the doors and dash too.
And then there's that center console. That chrome-adorned rotary-dial control knob looks almost like some interior bit from your grandfather's Cadillac, back in the tailfin era. I don't know how else to describe it, but it has this old-school vibe that pairs well with a modern electric car.
The whole Santorini Blue package is just fun. It reminds me of the avant-garde stuff that the French automakers used to put out, before the demands of modern technology and corporate ownership made them a lot more boring. It's also deep in Cadillac's DNA, as the company's glory-days cars offered wild blue and red interiors, among other combinations. The Optiq's blue interiors—both of them, really—seem like GM let its interior designers enjoy their jobs, and that energy is apparent throughout.
It's certainly a nice antidote to screen-focused EV minimalism. I've had about all of that I can take for a bit. It's time to bring some maximalism to this field for a change.
We need more stuff like this. More carbon fiber and recycled materials like the BMW i3. More wacky stuff like the Genesis GV60's Crystal Sphere. Hell, half the cars we saw in China this year were purple. Life doesn't have to be just an endless sea of gray.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
Gallery: 2025 Cadillac Optiq
