The Cadillac Escalade IQ is MotorTrend’s 2026 SUV of The Year
What defines an American luxury car? Not just who makes it and where, but its essence. For as long as there have been American luxury goods, the answer has been space. Whether it’s land, the mansion built on that land, or the car parked in the driveway, luxury has been directly correlated with how much space you own. What you fill that space with, of course, matters. Comfort, convenience, and quietness have always been essential, motivating countless technological innovations along the way. American luxury isn’t just about being the biggest. It’s about being the plushest. It’s about having the most toys. Sometimes it’s just about plain old extravagance. The Cadillac Escalade IQ delivers on every single count. That’s why it’s Motor Trend’s 2026 SUV of the year. This year was one for the record books. 45 vehicles from 34 name plates, 23 of them EVs. That’s more than half the field. That’s never happened before. Everything from entry-level first cars all the way up to worldclass luxury. But as always, SV of the Year is not a comparison test. The vehicles are not being judged directly against one another. Instead, they’re being judged against our six key criteria. Advancement in design, engineering excellence, performance of intended function, value, safety, and efficiency. We have to start with advancement design because it’s as big as this vehicle. Cadillac designers were tasked with turning an iconic car into an EV, and that’s never an easy job, but they’ve done it. This is unmistakably an Escalade, but it’s also unmistakably something new and different. But all the Cadillac cues are there. The vertical lights are new, but integrated beautifully. The light grill gives it its own distinct signature. The proportions are perfect. The sculpted sides break up some of that visual mass and help it look smaller, and that tapering roof line makes it look almost sporty. Never has a vehicle this big looked this elegant. The story is the same inside. It used to be certain luxury brands, even Cadillac, would try to save a buck here or there on the interior when they think you weren’t looking. But no more. Now it’s all about attention to detail. The Celesteic made a statement and that has carried down across all of the Cadillac EV lineup. That means that when you see metal in here, it’s real metal. When you see wood, it’s real wood. When you see leather, it’s real leather. And it’s not just the materials, but it’s how they’re used. The leather, for instance, has interesting patterns cut into it. The metal speaker grills are laser cut with interesting patterns. Even the wood is actually laser etched so that the ambient lighting shines through at night, but disappears during the day. And it’s not just for the people in the front seats, either. Unlike some luxury cars, the quality carries through all the way. Altogether, it creates an environment of comfort and serenity, whether you’re being chauffeurred or the car is doing the driving or whether you prefer to drive yourself. Let’s go for a ride and I’ll show you. This kind of environment right here really showcases why our judges loved the Escalade IQ so much. The engineering excellence in this vehicle really is top to bottom. It rides down the road in a way that a car this heavy just shouldn’t be able to. I mean, this thing is 9,100 plus pounds. And you know, it’s not a Rolls-Royce Cullinin, but if the Cullinin weighed 30% more, yeah, maybe it would be about the same. And that doesn’t mean it drives like a boat either. This is a enormous luxury SUV, and those are not known for their handling. But this one goes around the corner with a surprising confidence. It’s a vehicle that despite how big it looks, even looking over this hood, feels so much smaller when you drive it. It feels comfortable doing this, right? We’re not spinning any speed records here. But I don’t have to slow way down for every corner so that I don’t throw my passengers around in the cabin. It’s controlled. It’s elegant. And instead of feel like you’re driving a, you know, a penthouse apartment, I mean, it it feels like a much smaller, easier to drive vehicle than it is. And that makes it a much easier car to drive, especially when you’re going a long distance, right? This has an estimated 460 mi of range. That’s 6 hours of driving on the highway, even more. And even in our road trip range test where we drive at a constant 70 mph until the battery has gone from 100% down to 5%. That’s still goes 415 miles. My personal favorite criteria is performance of intended function because it means how does this vehicle do the job that it was designed to do? And what was this one designed to do? This was designed to be the ultimate luxury SUV. It is designed to be very quiet. It’s designed to be very comfortable. It’s designed to cater to all your whims and wants and things you didn’t even know that you wanted in a vehicle, but it’s also designed to carry up to seven people and all of your luggage. It has to do a lot of things. And there’s not a single one of those where it struggles. And that’s what really put it over the top for a lot of our judges that you can’t point to it and say, “Oh, well, it charges too slow.” or oh well it doesn’t go far enough or the ride quality in the back is terrible and who would ever want to be shower. You can’t say any of those things. It does every job that it’s asked of it and it does them very very well. It makes for an incredibly well-rounded vehicle and that’s how you win this kind of competition. And most of what we’ve talked about already is baseline luxury. But you can make this vehicle even more luxurious especially if you don’t feel like driving yourself. If you prefer to be driven, well, there’s the executive rear seat package which gets you heated, cooled, massaging, reclining second row seats with a big center console like you get in the front that has its own command screen for all the vehicle’s functions and cup holders and wireless phone chargers and everything you could possibly need on your way to the airport for your private jet flight off to your glamorous vacation. And then there’s the peace resistance. Super Cruise on major freeways, on state highways, fully hands-free driving so long as you’re looking at the road. This is something that comes in so handy. Whether it’s sitting in traffic on your commute or whether you’re on that big long 6-hour road trip we talked about between charging stops, why not let the car do some of that work for you? And this is a system that GM promises will get better in the future. You’ll be able to even look away from the road sometimes. But already, we think it’s the best system on the market. It’s the most consistent and is safe and makes you feel comfortable with it. You know, you’re not worried that it’s going to do something weird on you. We’ve had some other systems that suddenly make strange turns or stops or things that are really unsettling. It never happens with Super Cruise. And more than that, it’s tied into other systems on the car. It’ll do an automatic lane change if the car in front of you is going slower than you like. It also is integrated with Google Maps, so it knows within a couple miles of your exit that you should be in the right lane. It’ll start moving you over there. And then just before you get to the exit, it’ll tell you, “Hey, you’re leaving the mapped road soon. You should take over so that you can continue driving.” It really takes a lot of the mental load off of sitting in that bumper to bumper traffic or cruising on that endless aerostraight highway. And more than that, as it makes a perfect unassisted lane change all by itself right now to go around this slower car in front of us. And it’s not just for the daily commute or the, you know, occasional road trip either. you want to take your boat to that uh lake that’s four hours away or take the trailer camping in the mountains, no big deal. Super Cruise works with trailers as well. So, it’s just one more feature in this car that makes driving so much easier and less stressful. Cars have been quiet and comfortable for a very long time. So, modern luxury is about more than just that. It’s about all the extras. All the things that the car does that maybe you don’t necessarily need, but that you want or that you didn’t even know you wanted, but once you have them, you really like them, right? Like, does it need four-wheel steering that makes it super maneuverable? No, but it’s really nice. Does it need a 42 speakeraker AKG studio reference stereo system? No, but it sounds amazing. Do you need power opening doors and an arrival mode at the club? No, you don’t need any of these things. But these are all features that surprise and delight. And once you use them, you kind of like them. And you notice that a lot of the direct competitors don’t offer them. The Escalade IQ is absolutely loaded with technology. Technology that makes it easier and more pleasant to drive, that makes it more comfortable and convenient for everybody on board and makes them safer, too. Technology that basically eliminates range anxiety and makes charging a minor chore, not a big burden, even when you’re towing. All of that wrapped up in a package is artfully crafted inside and out. A value that none of its closest competitors could even come close to matching at the same price. And that is why the Cadillac Slate IQ is Motor Trend’s 2026 SV of the year. For more, go to motortrend.com.
The Cadillac Escalade IQ just claimed MotorTrend’s 2026 SUV of the Year—and it’s redefining what luxury means in the EV era.
From its jaw-dropping 55-inch dash display to its 415-mile real-world range, this all-electric Escalade returns Cadillac to the “Standard of the World.”
#CadillacEscaladeIQ #MotorTrend #LuxuryEV #SUVOfTheYear #ElectricEscalade #CarReview #EVInnovation
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