The Electric Slade: The 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL Luxury

Damn.

I mean, seriously.

Damn.

A Cadillac Escalade is an imposing vehicle. But the Cadillac Escalade IQL is even more so. It's not an Escalade with the gasoline powertrain swapped out for an electric motor and a battery pack, it is its own distinct vehicle---17 inches longer than an internal combustion Escalade, an inch taller and an inch wider.

It's the Hummer EV SUV, but three feet longer and wearing a tux.

It is also very nearly as polarizing as it would be if it were painted in Afterburner Tintcoat with the Hummer logo on the (not really a) grille.

In the dead of a winter of protest, where dark-colored American SUVs have taken on more than the usual tinge of menace, a Black Raven-colored behemoth wearing Cadillac badges and rolling nearly silently through the streets of an American capitol city (in this case, Sacramento, California), elicits a lot of stares and very few of them are of envy or wonder.

I got so many dirty looks at the wheel that the first time I parked, I got out to make sure the license plate didn't spell out something insulting or obscene.

If these people would talk to me, I could make the case that I'm a mild-mannered automotive journalist not looking to hurt anyone, and that this vehicle feels the same way. This is no 12-mile-per-gallon-worth-of-premium dinosaur cannibalizing its ancestors! This is a giant of the age of the electric vehicle! Putting nary a particle of tailpipe pollutants into the air!

It's all true.

I have the feeling it would also be a hard sell.

There's an old Monty Python sketch that uses the phrase "Marxist Tycoon". This feels more like "Hedonistic Environmentalist."

The Escalade IQL is a thing we couldn't have imagined 15 years ago---a no-compromises luxury SUV that runs entirely on electricity and that can travel 460 miles per charge, with recharging that can add 116 miles back every 10 minutes on a 350kWh DC fast charger. That works out to 28 minutes to go from 10% to 80%.

And it does that while making 750 horsepower and 785 lb-ft of torque, which is enough to propel its 9,000 pounds (not a typo---nine thousand pounds---four and a half tons) from a standing start to 60 miles per hour in 4.7 seconds.

All those figures are connected. It's able to go so far and so fast because of such a big battery pack. And that's where the 3,000 extra pounds compared to a gasoline-engined Escalade come from.

Cargo capacity is as massive as the Escalade IQL itself. There's 24.2 cubic feet behind the third row of seats. Fold them and it's 75.4 cubic feet. Fold the second row and you've got 125.2 cubic feet---plus the 12.2 cubic feet in the frunk (front trunk, which Cadillac has branded the "eTrunk").

The Escalade IQL seats seven (two in the front, two in the middle, three in the rear) in luxury, with second-row occupants able to control their own climate and their own entertainment.

The base price of the 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL Luxury is $130,405---$132,795 with destination. That money buys a whole lot of standard equipment (see the window sticker at the end of the review).

There's not much left to have in the way of extra-cost options. Our tester was equipped with the rear seat entertainment system ($1,995) and Bluetooth headphones ($400) and that's it. So the bottom line on the window sticker reads $135,190.

No, I'm still not happy that I can't have Apple CarPlay, but if I had the money to buy a Cadillac Escalade IQL, I have the feeling that would not be among my highest priorities in life anymore.

Just call it a hunch.

As I said last month in my review of the Chevrolet Equinox EV, GM is the industry overachiever when it comes to electric vehicles. They make twelve of them. And this is the most impressive of all.

2026 Cadillac Escalade IQL at a glance:

Price: $130,405 base/$135,190 as tested

Battery: 205 kwH

Horsepower: 750

Torque: 785 lb-ft

Transmission: One-speed automatic

Curb Weight: 9,000 lbs

0-60 Acceleration (manufacturer data): 4.7 seconds

Manufacturer Fuel Economy Estimate: 59 MPGe

Manufacturer Range Estimate: 460 miles

Charging time estimate (manufacturer): 28 minutes (10%-80% via DC fast charger)/13 hours (full charge with Level 2 charging)

Click in the upper right of the window sticker to expand to fullscreen.