2025 Cadillac Escalade Combines Pace With Grace

Refresh – to take something existing, and renew its looks while keeping its essence.

For 2025, with the new Cadillac Escalade IQ EV introduced, the 123-year-old GM luxury marque decided its fifth-generation gas-version luxury wagon needed a mid-season refresh. And refreshing this 17.5-foot-long flagship not only included some IQ design hints, but a serious technology, convenience and luxury upgrade.

Walk up to the 2025 Escalade Platinum at night, keyfob in pocket, and this Deep Sea Metallic Cadillac slowly does an LED dance to welcome you. Light blade headlights and taillights pulse as bands of illumination grow; the classic Cadillac badge on the big grille gains a white halo, while shields are projected groundward.

The Escalade dates back to 1998, when Cadillac made a more luxury-focused version of the GMC Yukon Denali. Now in the fourth year of this fifth-gen model, born in 2021, the gloss black mesh grille and surround are bigger. Outer edges flow into razor-thin LED DRLs that glow over stacked multi-element LED headlights and light-blades in gloss black intake-shaped accents. There’s a deep lower intake that thins out to design lines on either side. In back, revised LED taillights are tall and slim as they frame the rear hatch, brilliant red.

The restyle left the flanks alone, carryovers from the Escalade’s GM cousins, the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe, roof and door designs included. But our Escalade wore very big shoes – 24-inch Bridgestone Alenza rubber on 7-spoke buff silver and black alloy wheels, perfectly filling wheel wells. Lower sills get a black slash accent over tucked-in power running boards, while slim gloss black cargo rails are almost seven feet off the ground. More gloss black accents B, C and D pillars. There’s twin rectangular black chrome exhaust tips in gloss black lower bumper trim – decidedly sporty.

At Jacksonville, FL’s Caffeine and Octane, lots of folks walked up to look at it, and maybe one neat touch – a buff alloy Cadillac shield on each front fender. What most that admired it probably don’t know is an aluminum hood and doors are part of the package for some weight savings.

2025 Escalade’s Interior Delights With 55-Inch Screen

The Escalade makes it easy to enter its world with tap buttons inside its glowing door handles, and they power open – stopping short of people or cars next to it thanks to sensors. Then you ascend into lovely jet-black leather seats with heat, cooling and multiple massage, plus dual memory presets. The steering wheel gains a few more controls. Before you is a 55-inch IQ-like screen that runs from AKG speaker to speaker with a glossy wood shelf under it.

The panoramic screen is split into three. The instrument cluster, with a 7,000-rpm tach, digital speedometer and inset audio display, can be configured to show night vision view ahead, a grille’s-eye view of what’s ahead after dark, or a navigation map with inset speedometer. The wall-to-wall screen amazed many who saw it, loving its sophistication and content – and a big move up from last year’s 38-inch display.

The display flows smoothly into a wide-screen navigation map; or split map and infotainment display, or more. Then comes the personal screen in front of the passenger, configurable for YouTube, Hulu, Netflix and other apps – and privacy-screened like a laptop so the driver can’t see it unless parked. It also hosts Wi-Fi hotspots and an internet browser.

Lots of dashboard and door surfaces are done in semi-aniline leather, with more wood accents on doors and center console. Even the glove box door is leather-clad. Its “Open” button is in a touchscreen menu.

That AKG sound system has 42 speakers, including small ones for spatial effects in each head restraint – the whole system is very good. And after a day or two, we found it easy to adjust bass, treble or 3D sound as well as set stations and audio functions via the center console twist/tap/scroll dials and its main menu audio, map and Home screen buttons. But the classic stalk to shift the transmission was still not familiar – or intuitive.

If the dashboard screen is not enough, there’s a center console touchscreen that handles everything from climate control and seat massage to power opening and closing all four doors via a fingertip slide. It has a strip of touch controls to access screens for seat heat/cooling/massage, ambient lighting, outside camera access and the like. That said, it takes two or more dives into those menus to do things like adjust cooled seats, or activate rear child locks.

The screen flows nicely into a wide center console with the afore-mentioned main screen controller and a handy volume knob, with Auto Hold, Auto Engine Off and main climate control buttons nearby. The cup holders get chrome (plastic) trim, with a handy inductive phone charger. And under that center armrest is a small refrigerator.

The leather Executive Second Row seats also have heat, cooling and massage, plus large (12.6-inch) touchscreen displays on the front head restraints for access to streamed video. The center armrest has dual inductive phone charge slots, plus a climate control center screen to open the power doors and more. And shades of Rolls-Royce, fold-out mini-desks for lunch. There’s separate climate controls, more USB ports and a 5G Wi-Fi hotspot. We also had wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Center seats fold and slide forward to access a third-row bench with decent adult room for two, and a third in a pinch. There’s a decent 25.5-cu.-ft. of space behind those 60/40 third-row seats, which can power fold or raise via buttons in back. The rear hatch powers up high enough to clear my head, and its window opens separately. Elegant touch – the hatch opens with a tap of the Cadillac seal in back.

2025 Escalade’s V-8 AWD Delivers Smooth Power

Now, is there pace with this grace?

Our 6,000-plus pound SUV gets a 6.2-liter V-8 with a respectable 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque that can be sent to rear wheels, Auto all-wheel-drive, or full 4-wheel-drive via a 10-speed automatic with paddle shifters too. We had a trailering package with brake bias controls on a lower control panel that looked a bit basic Chevy Silverado, as did the nearby door map pockets. There’s Drive Modes for Tour, Sport, Tow/Haul, Off-Road and My Mode – all set engine and transmission response, plus suspension stiffness, ride height and exhaust note. A Low Mode toggle on the steering wheel allows for manual paddle shifting.

No denying it – a V-8 is still the one to have if smooth power at a tap of the gas pedal is what you want, but there is another Escalade option for those wanting smooth power – the 750-hp (in V-Max mode) all-electric IQ model.

Gas Escalade Reaches 60 MPH in 5.2 Seconds

Throttle tip-in sometimes gave an abruptly quick launch off the line in our gas version. Lesser vehicles were left in the rear-view even when you just gently ladled power. In Tour mode/rear-wheel-drive, our 8,000-mile-old ‘Escalade gave smooth shifts en route to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds with a subdued but nice exhaust snarl. Snap into Sport mode/auto AWD and it reared its nose and launched quickly to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds. It provided precise, quick downshifts when asked and a slightly snarlier exhaust note.

My Mode lets you select suspension, steering and engine sound for a slightly sportier feel if you want, and keep the most economical drive setting.

The EPA says the Escalade does 14 mpg city/18 mpg highway, and 16 combined. Its Auto-Engine Off was transparent in shutting off the V-8 at stops, and refiring as you lift off the brake. Our best average, with Drive Mode in Tour was 13 mpg; we saw as high as 17 mpg on a cruise control highway drive. For comparison, a 2021 Sport Platinum I tested for a since retired website hit 60 mph in 5.4 seconds in Sport, and averaged a best of 17 mpg.

2025 Escalade’s Handling Well-Buffered, Despite Its Heft

The Escalade is composed in motion; quiet, just some tire noise. It had independent suspension up front, and multilink in back, with coil-over shocks and stabilizer bars plus adaptive suspension and magnetic ride control that continually “reads” the road and quickly alters the damping rate of shocks.

The Tour drive mode was my go-to for long-distance, smoothing rough pavement with quick bump control and no harshness, feeling a bit above a Suburban or Yukon for composed ride and big SUV handling. Sport firmed up the ride a bit, still with a comfortable edge, as steering feel got a bit tighter. Either way, bumps were dispatched with a quick and well-buffered edge, although we had some chassis judder after a sharp bump with only me on board.

While this is no sports sedan, ride control seemed to limit roll in turns, firming up as we got pushed harder. All-wheel-drive with electronic limited-slip differential for the rears directed torque to the wheel with the most traction, meaning moderately enthusiastic cornering was drama-free, with no understeer as it pulled us through.

Push harder and traction control halted plow noticeably, while the Escalade’s path wasn’t nudged by a dip mid-turn. Steering was nicely boosted and direct, and the SUV had a decent turning radius. And the brakes controlled our large SUV with decent pedal feel and stops, and no brake fade after some hard use.

More Cadillac Coverage

There’s height-adjustable suspension if you want to take this limo off road. Along with the ability to handle 1,580 pounds of people and cargo, rated to tow 8,100 pounds of Jet Skis and stuff. Adaptive air suspension with Magnetic Ride Control delivers automatic load-leveling, plus raises the ride a few inches off-road – it absorbed bumps, cobblestones, and other road blemishes with ease, nice with those 24-inch wheels. Tapping Off-Road saw sure-footed movement through gravel and mud, ruts absorbed with comfort in the limited muddy lots we trod.

Our Platinum edition had all the safety goodies, on top of the blind spot cameras, seat-bottom buzzers to alert you to things closer than they look in the mirrors, and front/rear/side camera views at the tap of a button to see what’s around you. The rear-view mirror is a wide-screen display with a nice low-light camera.

Then there’s Super Cruise – autonomous hands-free driving and lane changes on interstates and many state highways with a green LED light bar atop the steering wheel when it’s on. The smart cruise that’s part of it maintains speed and distance from folks in front, stops when they do, then resumes when they do. Super Cruise adds full lane-keep, although it can hunt a bit on rougher highways. A tap of the turn signal and it safely changes lanes. My only comment – sometimes it just turns off after an alert, then resumes, like a bad cell-zone.

A base rear-wheel-drive Cadillac Escalade starts at $88,100; our 4-wheel-drive Escalade Sport Platinum started at $119,895 with so much standard. The only options: $7,500 center row executive seating with those massaging thrones; $1,800 for the 24-ich wheels and rubber; $700 for the fridge/freezer; and $625 for that deep blue metallic paint – total was $132,515.

The only domestic competitor is the 210-inch-long Lincoln Navigator Black Label, which starts at just over $116,000 and has a Twin-Turbocharged 3.5L V6 with 440-hp. It’ll hit 60 mph in just under 6 seconds, and has a wide-screen dash display and lots of tech – it’s a bit smaller and lighter than the Cadillac, with a slightly gentler look.

Bottom line: Powerful, tech- and luxury-laden – still the imposing choice to make an entrance, with not much to remind you there’s a Suburban under there.

2025 Cadillac Escalade Sport Platinum Specifications

Vehicle type – 7-passenger four-wheel-drive luxury sports utility vehicle
Base price $119,895 ($132,515as tested)
Engine type – OHV 16-valve aluminum V-8Displacement – 6.2-liter
Horsepower (net) – 420 @ 5,600 rpm
Torque (lb-ft) – 460 @ 4,100 rpm
Transmission – 10-speed automatic
Wheelbase – 120.9 inches
Overall length – 211.9 inches
Overall width – 85 inches
Height – 76.3 inches
Front headroom – 42.3 inches
Front legroom – 44.5 inches
Second row headroom – 38.9 inches
Second row legroom – 41.7 inches
Rear headroom – 38.2 inches
Rear legroom – 34.9 inches
Cargo capacity – 25.5 cu.ft./72.9 w/3rd row folded/121 w/2nd and 3rd row folded
Towing capacity – up to 8,100 lbs.
Curb weight – 6,014 lbs.
Fuel capacity – 24 gallons
Mileage rating – 14-mpg city/18-mpg highway