- Cadillac’s “Opulent Velocity” idea debuted at this time at Monterey Automotive Week. It guarantees “zero emission hypercar luxurious efficiency.”
- It is an electrical 2+2 coupe with “butterfly doorways,” augmented actuality inside and extra superior automated driving capabilities than present iterations of Tremendous Cruise.
- A working prototype, it may preview future electrical Cadillac V-Collection automobiles, in addition to updates to GM’s Ultium electrical platform.
Basic Motors promised a do-over 12 months for electrical automobiles in 2024, and it definitely appears to be delivering there—particularly in terms of Cadillac. The Lyriq has seen explosive gross sales, and we’re about to see the debuts of necessary fashions just like the Escalade IQ, Optiq and Vistiq. However for those who’re like me and you continue to admire the old-school efficiency automobiles just like the CTS-V and ATS-V, chances are you’ll be questioning: The place’s the electrical Cadillac V-Collection?
Now, a brand new idea making its debut at Monterey Automotive Week reveals that the V does have a battery-powered future. Meet the Cadillac Opulent Velocity idea, which GM says will trace at the place issues may go subsequent.
“Opulent Velocity is an experience-based design research,” Bryan Nesbitt, govt director of World Cadillac Design, mentioned in an announcement. “It is the long run imaginative and prescient of luxurious efficiency, incorporating Cadillac’s management in hands-free driving capabilities, electrification and efficiency excellence. Opulent Velocity expresses essentially the most clever integration of expertise, luxurious and exhilaration characterised by Cadillac’s halo V-Collection variants, and future electrification design expressions.”
As with many ideas, this one is being known as a design research, that means it is much less a direct preview of an upcoming precise mannequin and extra an indicator of the place design and expertise may go subsequent at Cadillac.
However on a name with reporters final week, GM officers indicated that this idea is a working prototype—and that it reveals off the place the Ultium platform goes subsequent as properly.
“Once we look [at], as an instance, the facility that is required, we’re finding out how finest to ship the efficiency aspirations of this automobile,” mentioned Brandon Vivian, the Govt Chief Engineer at Cadillac. “It is going to be a model of Ultium that’s but to return.”
Past that, precise specs—battery dimension, vary, energy and so forth—are MIA for now. However here is what we do know.
In a refreshing change of tempo from the infinite sea of electrical crossovers on the market, this can be a two-plus-two coupe that includes “butterfly doorways” that is lengthy, huge and low. In total design, it apes the low-volume, ultra-niche Cadillac Celestiq ultra-luxe sedan, however appears to be like about 10 years forward of that.
The identify is intentional, apparently. “Opulent” refers back to the luxury-focused expertise at work right here, together with Stage 4 autonomous driving—that means totally self-driving, one thing no commercially obtainable automobile is able to but—augmented actuality shows that blur the strains between windshield and dashboard and “curated artwork, leisure and ambient gentle” if you’re driving hands-free. Which you’ll have to do, as a result of in that mode, the steering wheel and pedals appear to vanish.
However it’s meant to be pushed, too. “Velocity” engages the hand and toes controls and uncorks “Cadillac’s Blackwing track-proven engineering.” There’s even a “ghost automobile” that seems on the HUD so that you can comply with or attempt to finest in your observe days, Gran Turismo-style. “Moreover, Velocity mode visualizes the potential to dictate driving enhancements, together with street overlays, lively details about street circumstances and full management over lively aero and suspension dampening settings,” Cadillac officers mentioned in a information launch.
So will this idea yield something actual? Down the road, it looks like that is very potential. Whereas it is a departure from Cadillac’s present EV language, the Opulent Velocity does appear extra future-focused than the present crop of automobiles which are very closely ICE-derived in design.
38 Images
Cadillac
“There are some concepts in right here which are type of foreshadowing issues we’re excited by ,” Nesbitt informed reporters final week. These embrace “transferring the floor vocabulary of the automobile and the mixing of the tech of the automobile, and a few of that graphic type of execution married to that floor improvement.”
If that is what’s subsequent for Cadillac, I like what I see up to now. What do you assume? Tell us within the feedback.
Contact the creator: [email protected]
