One of the best parts of being at Monterey Car Week is just driving around the peninsula and carspotting. You’ll see everything from Ferrari 250 GTOs and unrestored pre-war Bugattis to brand new hypercars and one-off concepts casually sitting in traffic or in parking lots. It’s really incredible. But this year, the car I spotted that had me the most excited was a metallic yellow electric Cadillac.
I was driving through Pebble Beach with a friend when we passed by a parking lot attached to some sports fields, where this Cyber Yellow Celestiq was sitting in the shade beneath some trees. I yelped and pulled a totally legal U-turn so I could park and check it out, and luckily the driver, a member of the General Motors design team, graciously opened the car up and chatted with us about it.
I’ve been obsessed with the Celestiq since the near-production prototype was unveiled in 2022. I just think it’s a phenomenal piece of design, especially after spotting a bright red one (with a white and blue interior!) in my hotel valet at Car Week last year, the first time I had seen one in person. Many people say the Celestiq just looks like a stretched Lyriq — that is just how a design language works, guys — but in person you’d never mistake one for the other. The Celestiq is huge, about half a foot longer than an Escalade, and it has dramatic proportions and exaggerated lights and details. I love that long rear overhang, fastback shape and glass hatch; the whole thing has total French vibes. The drama is enhanced by an outrageous color like this metallic yellow, though the Celestiq also looks great in darker, classier shades.
Unfortunately, this Celestiq had a very tame interior, with black leather and accents of aluminum and warm matte-finish wood. I think the cabin still looks pretty special even in this basic spec, but it’s much better suited to a brighter color scheme with more contrast. You really need the screens to be on to get the full effect, too. But even as a prototype in a less-than-ideal spec and setting, it all looks very well finished.
The Celestiq also sounds very cool. I’m all for EVs getting artificial noises, whether they be aping an internal combustion motor or a sci-fi spaceship, and at low speeds the Celestiq emits a pedestrian-warning sound that is distinct and recognizable. It’s kind of like a sound bath, or a frequency made by a theremin, and I think it suits the design ethos of the car well.
Sadly, I’ve only seen this yellow one and that red one last year, despite Cadillac having nearly half a dozen driving around Monterey this year and others getting shown off at various events over the past few years. Earlier in the summer I missed a neon green test car in downtown Detroit by five minutes, and that knowledge nearly ruined my trip. It’s hard to think of the last new car that I’ve yearned to spot this much.
Once deliveries of the $340,000 Celestiq commence later this year, it’ll remain a rare sight, though hopefully living close to Beverly Hills I’ll see more than most people. Cadillac says it can only hand-build a couple Celestiqs per day at its Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, working out to just a few hundred each year. Each one will be totally bespoke in terms of spec, too. As an example of the customization potential, one customer, a professional athlete, had their player number engraved throughout the car, according to Car and Driver. And before you say “who is gonna spend that much on an expensive electric Cadillac,” the first 18 months of production were already sold out by the end of 2022.
Back in the 1950s through the ‘70s, Cadillac was known for gigantic, ostentatious cars like the iconic Eldorado Biarritz, which was slathered in chrome and wild design elements like tail fins and rocket-esque bumpers. The 1959 Biarritz cost $7,401 when new, almost four times the average cost of a new car that year. I see the Celestiq as being in the same vein as those classics. It’s big, it’s controversial, it’s expensive, it’s showy, it’s impossible to mistake for anything else — hence why Cadillac brought back its Goddess mascot for the car. Sure, I wish Cadillac would have made cars like the Sixteen and Ciel, but we should be happy the Celestiq exists. It’s a concept made real, exactly the type of flagship that I think Cadillac needs.
The Celestiq isn’t the only such flagship vehicle that Cadillac is working on, either. At Car Week it unveiled the Sollei, a two-door convertible based on the Celestiq with an interior made from mushrooms. While billed as just a concept, it looks like Cadillac could easily put it into production — one of the benefits of using a skateboard EV platform. Beyond just being able to, it seems like Cadillac wants to start selling limited-run cars like the Sollei, as evidenced by it being brought around the peninsula to impress potential buyers. One morning, it was proudly parked in my hotel’s valet, getting just as much attention as the Bugattis across from it.
