Review: Cadillac Optiq 2025

The 2025 Cadillac Optiq is the US brand’s shot at capturing buyers of small, high-end EVs in North America and several other markets. It’s the latest in a lineup of five electric models from a brand recasting itself as all (or mostly) electric, tech-forward, and truly global—unlike its US luxury-barge image of past decades.

I spent eight days in an Optiq in early May, and drove 840 miles throughout upstate New York and environs, and also New York City. It’s a quiet and comfortable small-SUV EV cruiser, and has real promise. I came away mostly impressed, with a few reservations around its software that I hadn’t seen in other GM vehicles with the Ultium battery and power train architecture.

Courtesy of Cadillac

Still, at a starting price of around $50,000, the Optiq is doing well. We’ll know how well in early July, when GM releases its Q2 sales figures. On the other hand, the Optiq is assembled in Mexico, so at time of publication, making it potentially subject to new tariffs.

Big Battery, Not the Fastest Charging

The Optiq is powered by an 85-kilowatt-hour battery pack using nickel-manganese-cobalt-aluminum cells from Ultium LLC battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee. All-wheel drive is standard, with combined output from its two motors quoted at 224 kilowatts (300 horsepower) and 354 pound-feet (480 Newton meters) of torque. EPA combined range rating is 302 miles, though we’d realistically peg it at around 260 miles (including highway speeds, heat or air conditioning, etc)—still beyond the distance most drivers will go without a rest stop.

Cadillac uses Google Maps in the dash to route Optiq drivers among charging stations if they enter a destination exceeding the car’s range. It’s not yet up to Tesla standards of seamlessness, nor are the charging stations from many networks among which it routes drivers as reliable as Superchargers. Helpfully, though, it tells you if a charging site is “slow”, “fast,” or “very fast”. If a DC fast-charging site is set as a destination, the car automatically preconditions its battery, popping up a “Charge Assist” message.

Still, it’s not the fastest charging EV—the Genesis GV60 can charge at up to 300 kW in ideal conditions. The difference is only a few minutes, but Cadillac is behind in the specs war. I didn’t fast-charge at very low battery percentages, but the fastest rate I saw was 107 kW charging from 25 to 60 percent, far from the station’s rated 150-kW capacity. Yes, that included preconditioning before arrival. Cadillac claims drivers can add up to 79 miles of range in 10 minutes—again, under ideal circumstances of battery temperature, ambient temperature, and low state of charge.

Courtesy of Cadillac

The onboard AC charger is capable of up to 11.5 kW, though most public charging stations and many home units remain at 6.6 or 7.2 kW. Parked without charging overnight, I noticed a 3 percent loss of battery capacity—though it happened just once. “Range calculation updates occur when the vehicle is at rest; a +/-5 percent change [to remaining battery capacity] can occur, with zero draw present,” Cadillac said. “Other GM EVs using Google routing software should behave similarly.”

Very oddly, drivers cannot see the battery percentage in the instrument cluster—unless the car is turned off. Huh? No carmaker we know of only displays the gas gauge when the engine is off.

Superb Super Cruise, Prepare for Fees

The Optiq offers GM’s excellent Super Cruise hands-off adaptive cruise control. I view it as the best in the business, and now it includes automatic lane changes. If the car ahead is moving more slowly than your desired speed, the Optiq checks that the overtaking lane is clear, signals, moves into it, passes the other vehicle, and then (hurray) moves back into the slower lane.

I particularly like the GM practice of alerting the driver to lane changes and lane departures by vibrating the bolster on the affected side, rather than an audible warning that alerts passengers the car is telling the driver something.

One oddity: Early hands-free systems from various makers often handed control back to the driver on “seeing” road-work zones, usually orange cones. The Optiq simply flagged us “Construction Zone detected” as I slowly passed a service truck in an adjacent lane that had a stack of orange cones in it. Reminder: “Self-driving-car” software is not human.

Courtesy of Cadillac

The Google mapping and routing worked predictably enough for anyone who’s previously used Google Maps. The surprise came as the predicted battery charge at the destination changed frequently; on a 250-mile trip, I watched predictions vary from 10 to 24 percent at the same destination as I traveled.

“The Optiq’s algorithm minimizes your time,” Cadillac said in response, “based on your battery state and the chargers in your area. It picks the route and charge stations for fastest [travel] time. The remaining-at-destination calculations are based on models of the vehicle using traffic patterns and elevation changes along the route. Fluctuation can come from changes to traffic patterns, winds, and driver behaviors.”

Certainly a deal-breaker for some, there is no mobile-phone mirroring, so Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are entirely absent (as they are in Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid as well). Instead, drivers enter their user names and passwords into apps in the dash screen, and the car provides the connectivity over its cellular connection. For three years.

After that, owners must pay $15 per month to continue “App Access” … or revert to their phone, without the safety of having it mirrored onto the cash display. That’s on top of $25 per month for Super Cruise after its own 36-month trial. It’s all part of the billions a year in incremental “digital services revenue” carmakers have promised the financial world. Buyers are the losers here; now they must pay monthly for a feature they used to get for free.

Oh, That Rear End

This is the smallest and shortest Cadillac, and while I found the front two-thirds of the Optiq fine, the rear end was jumbled at best. There’s a kicked-up beltline over a short rear overhang, the brand’s vertical rear lights, and an odd pattern of not-quite horizontal lines on the third side windows. Cadillac’s larger SUVs and the Celestiq ultra-luxury sedan do a better and more coherent job with the same design language.

The beltline is high, and only the glass roof kept the interior from feeling claustrophobic. But, what an interior. It’s lovely, with woven-cloth fabrics, some mild bright-blue accents in the one I drove, and a handful of sustainable materials: yarn made from 100 percent recycled materials woven into patterned accent fabrics, and “PaperWood” veneer from tulip wood and recycled newspaper.

Courtesy of Cadillac

Courtesy of Cadillac

It’s also one of the quietest cars I’ve ever driven, EV or not. Passengers are treated to a calm, smooth, pleasant, and altogether nice experience inside. That makes it an easy vehicle in which to cover miles—especially with the Super Cruise hands-off adaptive cruise control.

Interior space for four is generous, and while it may be a “compact” SUV in North American terms, three people can ride in the rear seat without hating each other. Like all GM’s EVs below the big trucks, there’s no front trunk. That’s a missed bet. It also lacks a rear wiper; Cadillac claims the airflow through its “rear flow-through spoiler channels high-velocity air” to keep the rear window clean. Sloppy spring rainstorms in upstate New York beg to differ. Cadillac also suggests using the video rear-view mirror as an alternative to glass you can actually see through.

Wait for the Hot Rod?

Acceleration of the Optiq can best be described as deliberate. It’s not slow, and “Sport” mode is punchier, if any Cadillac driver ever uses it. GM has some of the best regenerative braking and one-pedal driving algorithms in the business, and overall the Optiq is easy to drive and holds the road adequately. Its weight and damping smooth bad roads and makes potholes shallower.

But it offers absolutely none of the kick-in-the-back acceleration that sold a lot of EVs in the early years. That cues up the Optiq-V hot-rod model Cadillac has just announced. In the same compact crossover vehicle, power rises to a quoted 382h kW (519 hp) and 650 pound-feet (880 NM) of torque. In “Velocity Max” mode, Cadillac says the Optiq-V will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. Estimated range is 275 miles; it’ll enter production this autumn.

As befits the priciest Optiq, starting at $68,795, it includes a 19-speaker AKG audio system with Dolby Atmos, various trim + badging differences, and standard Super Cruise. Most interesting, the Optiq-V will be the first EV in GM’s portfolio to charge via a native NACS (North American Charging Standard) connector. The rest of the Optiq line will undoubtedly follow, but given GM’s announcement back in June 2023 that it would adopt NACS, the time is ripe.

WIRED's 2025 Cadillac Optiq Sport 2, in Argent Silver Metallic with a black roof (both extra-cost options) and the Sky Cool Grey with Santorini Blue interior—which was lovely—carried a base price of $55,595. Adding a handful of options, including 21-inch gloss black wheels, plus a high mandatory $1,495 destination charge, brought the bottom line to $62,065.

However, keep in mind that if you forgo the lux image, for quite a bit less you can get the recently facelifted and excellent Ioniq 5 with more horsepower, more range, and faster charging. You're even nudging into outrageous 641 hp Ioniq 5n territory at this price. And both have CarPlay and Android Auto with no monthly fee—but you won't get stellar Super Cruise or brand bragging rights.