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Six-Figure Luxury EV Comparison: 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ vs. 2026 Lucid Gravity

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1.8K views 41 replies 19 participants last post by  Cobaltss_King  
#1 ·
2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ vs. 2026 Lucid Gravity Tested: Six-Figure Luxury EVs
Two very different takes on the three-row, high-dollar electric SUV.
Aug 22, 2025
Dan Edmunds, Technical Editor
Car and Driver

Looking at the pair of them, one wouldn't put them on the same planet, let alone place them in a comparison test together. The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ looks positively massive next to the 2026 Lucid Gravity. And it is, stretching more than two feet longer, 3.7 inches wider, and standing up to 11.9 inches taller on what looks like (but isn't) a traditional body-on-frame SUV platform. The Gravity, on the other hand, has the proportions of a crossover, or even a wagon, with a much lower step-in height. Moreover, the Escalade IQ weighs a prodigious 9120 pounds, exceeding the Gravity's mass by one-and-a-half tons.

And yet, both electric SUVs package three rows of seating, offer considerable range, and are priced firmly in the luxury arena, well north of $100,000 as tested. Furthermore, each one has rear-wheel steering to trim its turning radius, and both have dual-motor powertrains. Each can max out the current crop of 350-kW DC fast-chargers, although the Lucid will go to 400 kilowatts if anyone builds equipment that can deliver that.

Both the weight and the height differences are due largely to battery size, although packaging and styling factor in as well. The Escalade has a massive underfloor battery that amounts to 205 kWh, and its cells are necessarily stacked two high throughout. This makes the IQ's floor considerably higher, and the overall shape of the thing therefore apes that of the gas-powered Escalade. The Gravity, on the other hand, makes do with a single-layer battery (save for a small portion of double-stacked cells under the front seats) that's sized at just 123 kWh. Lucid has raised the roofline compared to the Air sedan, but it retained the brand's penchant for smart packaging.

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#15 ·
The Vistiq in some ways is better than Escalade IQ. For example, Vistiq Is better driver’s vehicle than the Escalade IQ. It’s quicker than the IQ as well with a 0-60 time of 3.7 while the IQ gets to 60 in 4.6 seconds. The Vistiq is a better value.
 
#3 ·
The Cadillac is everything that is wrong with BEV’s. Sure it’s luxurious but the size and weight of it is comical at this point. It weighs over 9000lbs which is 3000lbs more than the Lucid and its performance is not impressive at all unless you are comparing it vs its weight. Its real life range is the same as the Lucid despite the massive battery pack.
 
#4 ·
I mean GM and Cadillac needs to relaize and understand their nameplate means nothing today, they cant expect people to pay 10k more for a far lesser product, and to me looking at the 2 of these vehicles the choice is pretty easy to me at least. Tesla sells because of it's insane performance, GM if you leave that out you will be nothing but an after thought in the EV game, you cant charge outrageous prices and then give far less then your competition, you will 150% fail if that is your strategy! People do not buy EV cars to be planet friendly, spare me the nonsense and fake virtue signaling about anyone buying these products to help save the planet!
 
#5 ·
I’m sorry, but that article smacks like a typical car and driver bias. To me they’re comparing apples to oranges, yes the Cadillac is way too heavy but it’s more of a traditional SUV compared to an almost wagon. I think they wrote the article as if they were comparing two sports cars. and in that vain of course they’re going to pick the Lucid because it’s quicker and handles better but it’s also a smaller vehicle. Personally I think the Escalade looks much better than the Gravity and in this class I don’t think people are worried about their gigantic SUV can’t go 0 to 60 in under five seconds and go around the corner at 100 miles an hour.
 
#8 · (Edited)
GM needs to get that battery weight down, which I expect will come with the next gen battery chemistry.

I get why C&D gave the win to the Lucid - nice interior, better performance, etc.. But for me the Lucid looks like a minivan and loses because of that. Not that I'm ever going to be in the market for something the size of these, but I'd be very happy with the Escalade's beautiful looks inside and out - not a whiff of minivan in the Cadillac's looks. While I do like strong acceleration, I'm fine with the 0-60 time of the Escalade as I'm not buying something in this class to scare the crap out of my 7 passengers with hard acceleration.
 
#12 ·
The Lucid looks like a minivan, granted a badass minivan, but still very minivan-esque. And I can attest; the Escalade IQ is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS in real life. To me, they're in different leagues. $142K for an Escalade is obscene, but I guess ridiculous prices are the norm now.

This line was brutal: "VERDICT: A better car to be picked up in at the airport than to drive every day."
 
#13 ·
It’s taken FOREVER but we can finally say the Slade has Range Rover status. The few faults it has doesn’t matter. It’s the more desirable vehicle period.
 
#27 ·
The 1961 thru 1967 Lincoln Continental convertibles weighed in at approximately 3 tons, 6,000 pounds, got 8 - 9 mpg of premium gasoline, and had much less passenger and cargo space than the Escalade IQ. Maybe C&D in the 1960s compared these Lincolns to the contemporary Mercedes-Benz 220 and complained that the Lincolns were not as fuel efficient as the Mercedes.
Aside from it's obviously much taller height, larger wheels (22 vs 15) and ground clearance, the Escalade's footprint is smaller than the Grand Safari. More of an observation from me...as massive as the Escalade appears, I was surprised when comparing it's dimensions with the Grand Safari, which, in my recollection, never seemed that big. Heck, the GM A-body wagons of the era were longer than the Escalade (215.4" vs 211.9"). I wouldn't have guessed that!
I'm not sure finding the most extreme examples of oversized land barges in automotive history exactly disproves my point that a single person driving the Escalade ESV in a crowded urban setting is ridiculous. It's the automotive equivalent of obese women dressing like Taylor Swift. Let's just not.
 
#31 ·
IC & BE vehicles make the same level of noise above 20 MPH; hence the Gov't mandate on BE noise / musical emitters below 20 MPH; it's all tire & wind noise above that. In fact, many BE's make more noise at sub-10 MPH speeds due to that very same noise emitter. Of course there are exceptions : modified exhausts, Mustang GTs, Charger EV with Fratzonic 'exhaust'...
 
#32 ·
I do agree there's not much of a difference above 20 mph, but in a city there is a lot of stop and go, probably spending more time under 20 mph than above. And don't forget to take into account hills in a city.

Oslo is a notably smaller city than NYC so perhaps an unfair comparison***. I attributed the difference in noise level to two primary things other than city size. One is the buildings themselves - NYC streets are deep canyons of hard glass, metal and stone that trap and reflect back sounds. Oslo must have a six story limit, letting sound escape and the buildings are more contoured, probably helping to dissipate the sound somewhat. And the second is there is simply less sound being generated in the first place due to BEV's.

*** But I'd say my local city (that is smaller than Oslo) is a lot noisier and most buildings are less than six stories

And I'm not one of these "everything in Europe is better" people. But from a sound perspective Oslo wins.
 
#35 ·
Lucid looks like a minivan, not the same class as the Escalade...... :rolleyes:
 
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#39 ·
I had a unique opportunity over the weekend, 2-day, out of town soccer trip; 625 total miles in an Escalade IQ.

We left 100% state of charge, early Saturday morning, topped up to 80% about 150 miles in, at a Rivian fast-charger ($34.00) this was our bathroom/breakfast stop, and gave us enough range, to not worry about charging Saturday evening, or Sunday morning, as we had to go to another city nearby for Sunday's match. We had just enough charge to make it back to the same Rivian fast-charger on the way home and charged just enough ($61.00) to make it the rest of the way home, with a little bit of cushion (8%). Counting the full recharge once we got back to home-base, it would take about $40.00 at home charging rates to return the Escalade IQ to 100% we left with.

625 miles, approximately 315 kWh total energy consumed; and $135.00 total spend; $0.216 per mile.

We could have made the trip in an ICE truck for less than $90.00; $0.144 per mile or took an ICE CUV for about $60.00; $0.096 per mile; either would have only needed one top=up to make the trip.

We have another trip next month, except it'll be over 1,000 miles in 3-days, nice ride aside, we are looking at driving something different.