2025 Cadillac Escalade First Look
Cadillac's big-body SUV gets a new face, an enormous screen, and power-opening doors.
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It's big, bold, and imposing — with room for the whole crew. For 25 years, the Cadillac Escalade has positioned itself as the ultimate American luxury vehicle. For the 2025 model year, Caddy has done a major update to the posh SUV, adding new styling, interior tech, and opulent luxury features.
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The 2025 Escalade Gets a Refreshed Face and Illuminated Grille
The 2025 Escalade gets a face-lift, updating the exterior design language that was last changed in the 2021 model year. Up front, you'll find an intimidating look, with narrow horizontal LED accent lights hovering just above an enormous grille. The actual headlights now run vertically at the outer edges of the front bumper — a styling element seen on Cadillac's all-electric SUVs, such as the Lyriq and the upcoming, largely unrelated Escalade IQ.
The enormous front grille now features an illuminated Cadillac badge, and higher-trim Escalade models now add illumination to the grille surround, so folks will know you've arrived in style, day or night.
Designers know that most people associate headlights as the "eyes" in a car's face, and the horizontal LED accent lights at the top corners of the grille give the 2025 Escalade a serious, no-nonsense expression.
Enormous 24-inch wheels are now available — the largest ever fitted to the Escalade from the factory — and Cadillac has added three new paint colors: a green-gray hue called Aegean Stone, Deep Sea Metallic navy blue, and Latte Metallic bronze. Styling at the sides and rear of the Escalade remains largely the same as the outgoing model.
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The Escalade's Dashboard Is Mostly Screens
Inside the 2025 Escalade, you'll first notice the downright massive screen. Sitting atop the dashboard and running the full width of the interior, this 55.0-inch-diagonal piece of curved glass actually holds two screens. The left-hand side is a 35.0-inch-diagonal unit that serves as the driver's instrument panel and the center-dash touchscreen, controlling functions such as navigation and audio.
On the passenger side, a 20.0-inch screen gives front-seat occupants something to tap and stare at. Cadillac says the passenger screen is polarized to block it from the driver's view, limiting distractions.
Should wall-to-wall screens still not satisfy you, a third touchscreen lives on the lower half of the dashboard, offering tap-and-swipe controls for the climate system. And as far as getting into the posh interior, forget about yanking an old-fashioned handle. On high-end 2025 Escalades, you enter by pressing an exterior button that motors your door open for you.
Once inside, you tap the lower touchscreen to close or open your door. If that's not opulent enough, owners can program the driver's door to open automatically as they walk up with the key fob in their purse or pocket. A three-year complimentary subscription to the automaker's Super Cruise hands-off highway driving tech is standard on all 2025 Escalade models.
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The Escalade's Cabin Is Jam Packed With Luxury Features
The 2025 Escalade is available in two interior configurations. The standard layout holds eight occupants in three rows, while the optional Executive Second Row package offers individual heated, ventilated, and massaging second-row captain's chairs with built-in stereo speakers. Befitting an on-the-go exec, this package adds a 12.6-inch seatback screen for each second-row passenger, along with fold-out tray tables, dual wireless phone chargers, and a center-console command center for climate and audio controls.
New for 2025, the Escalade adds the option of Renaissance Red leather upholstery, joining Jet Black and Sheer Gray. Wood trim is available in high-gloss or dark open-pore finishes, and the interior lighting hue can be customized between 126 color options. As you'd expect, premium audio is also on the menu. The standard AKG Studio system has 19 speakers, while the upgraded AKG Studio Reference system crams in 36 speakers — or 40 if you choose the Executive Second Row interior.
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The Escalade Is Available in Six Trims, Including the Mighty Escalade-V
Most 2025 Escalade models will get power from a 6.2-liter V8 engine making 420 horsepower. If you want your house-sized SUV to sprint like a muscle car, the outrageous Escalade-V returns for 2025. Packing a supercharged V8, the Escalade-V churns out a whopping 682 horsepower. When car enthusiast publication Car and Driver tested it, this engine propelled the 2023 Escalade-V from zero to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. For comparison, that's just one-tenth of a second off the time the magazine was able to achieve with the current-generation Mustang GT.
That makes the Escalade-V quicker than the all-electric Escalade IQ, a model that shares the gas-fueled Escalade's swagger but little in the way of its design or mechanical features.
The 2025 Escalade is available in regular length or Suburban-length ESV, which adds more than 13 inches. Along with upping the cargo space, it provides more legroom in the third row.
Each body style is available in one of six trims: Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport, Premium Luxury Platinum, Sport Platinum, and V-Series. Cadillac has not yet announced pricing or fuel economy, but production of the 2025 Escalade is set to begin in late 2024.
Written by humans.
Edited by humans.
Bob SorokanichBob Sorokanich is a car-obsessed journalist and editor who manages to maintain an old Mini Cooper and a love affair with automobiles while living in New York City. When he's not thinking about cars, he's riding his motorcycle, and when he's not riding his motorcycle, he's anticipating his next joy ride.
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