Video: 2026 Cadillac Vistiq Up Close: The Normal Luxury Electric SUV

Maybe the Tesla Model X is a bit too unusual, with its falcon doors and the potential for some political baggage as well. And maybe the Rivian R1S, despite being really quite nice, you don't trust an upstart electric brand that's only been around for a couple of years. Well, the folks at Cadillac would like to show you this. This is the new 2026 VISTIQ. It's a six or seven passenger, three row electric crossover SUV from Cadillac. What's it all about? Well, let's get into it. So, where does the VISTIQ fit into the Cadillac showroom of electric SUVs? Well, at the very bottom of the spectrum, is the OPTIQ. That is the entry level, two row, five passenger compact electric SUV from Cadillac, coming very soon. And at the top end of the range is the Cadillac Escalade IQ. It's also a three row, electric SUV, but it's going to be the flagship and super expensive. Now, the one we're all most familiar with is the LYRIQ. That is a two row, five passenger electric SUV. This is gonna slot just above the LYRIQ and below the Escalade IQ. Again, this is a three row crossover, so we can seat either six or seven people. And for pricing wise, we expect it to fit probably somewhere in between the LYRIQ and the more expensive Escalade IQ. From a styling standpoint, if you told me that this was simply an updated Cadillac XT6 for the '26 model year, I really wouldn't have questioned you. That's kind of what it looks like. It's a more traditional, two box SUV look than we've seen from a lot of electric SUVs on the market. And that's good, because it enables you to have some decent headroom and cargo room for that third row. This model is a sport. There's gonna be three trim levels available to start with. You get the Lux 1, you get the sport, or the Lux 2. And eventually, you're gonna have a platinum version, which will have all the bells and whistles and a black painted roof. And that's coming a little bit later on into 2025, probably in the summertime. But in terms of the overall look, this one pretty much looks like all the new Cadillacs. You have this shield- Well, not really a grill, but it's a light thing, and it's got a bunch of animations that happen when you approach, when you lock and unlock. And moving down the side, you have a choice of wheel sizes. This is the sport model and it comes with 21 inch wheels, but you can get 22s or 23s, depending on your preference and your trim level. Now, the overall size of this thing is interesting, because it uses the same wheel base as the Cadillac LYRIQ, uses the same platform in fact, but it's wider and it's taller than the LYRIQ, which gives you a lot more room for that third row. Now, something that we're starting to see show up in a number of these Cadillac SUVs is this graphic on the rear quarter windows, here. It is just a graphic. It's stickers, basically. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't. It's interesting, at least. Powering the new VISTIQ is a 102 kilowatt hour battery, which Cadillac says is good to charge from a low capacity to about 80% in 45 minutes at 190 kilowatts, which is not terribly fast, in terms of DC fast charging, but I have a feeling if it's like 20 to 80%, that number's gonna go down a little bit. It has standard all wheel drive. So, two motors making 615 horsepower, 650 pounds feet of torque. And when you push the little velocity max button on the steering wheel, it can go from zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds, according to Cadillac, which is properly quick. It also has available rear wheel steering, which is a new thing for this platform that's shared with the LYRIQ on the Chevrolet Blazer EV. We've only ever seen that on the larger vehicles, like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the GMC Hummer EV. But this actually has rear steering available that can articulate the rear wheels up to three degrees, which really does improve the nimbleness and the handling of a lot of these kinds of vehicles. The interior of the new VISTIQ, frankly, isn't all that different than we've seen from the other Cadillac SUVs. It looks very similar to something like a LYRIQ in here. The screen is exactly the same as the LYRIQ and it runs that Google operating system that we've seen start to proliferate through all of General Motor's products. That does mean that Apple CarPlay is not available in this vehicle, and for some people, that can be a hard pill to swallow, but the Google operating system that they do have does actually work very well, and does offer a lot of integration. The material quality in here is quite nice. Now, this is a sport model, so it doesn't have this really fancy, luxurious upholstery that you'll see in the Lux 2 or the platinum trim, but it's still very nice in here. It feels very well built. All the materials are soft touch and very premium. The one thing that I do have an issue with is that everything in here is touch controls. Everything from the climate control panel to the touch screen here. Even the steering wheel has touch sensitive controls. That's something that we're not huge fans of, but that is the way of the world, and that's where things are going. There are some interesting things in here, in terms of what you get for your money. It has a standard 23 speaker AKG sound system. There is no premium level upgraded audio system. It automatically comes with that. Also comes with standard GM Super Cruise, which is the semi-autonomous, hands-free cruise control that allows you to just basically sit back and relax on the highway, take your hands off the wheel. It'll even change lanes for you. Now, this vehicle has a six passenger setup, so you have captain's chairs in the back. There is a seven passenger option where you can have a bench in the second row, and that will only come on the lower trim levels. The Luxury 1 and the sport model. You go higher than that, and you're gonna get standard captain's chairs. Second row is decently spacious. It is also adjustable for and aft to allow for the third row passengers to negotiate some leg room. Third row is on the small side, in terms of its leg room. Plenty of headroom, though, which is really what the improved height and width of this vehicle is about. You can fit a third row back there. It's not the most spacious third row that you might find in an electric vehicle, but it is useful if you simply need that extra space. And when you don't need that extra space, you could fold those third row seats down, and you have a decent amount of cargo back there, but you also have a well in the floor. There is no frunk in the VISTIQ. That frunk space has basically been incorporated into the rear, underneath the cargo floor, and it is pretty spacious. You could put quite a lot of groceries in there, if you don't want them rolling around in the back of your VISTIQ, and it'll keep them relatively secure. You also have a large, standard panoramic moon roof as well that has a separate glass panel for the third row as well. The third row amenities are really quite nice. You have padded armrests, you have cup holders, you have USB outlets. You also have something unique in here, called five zone climate control. It'll actually determine if somebody is sitting in one of these seats and turn the climate control on or off automatically in order to save energy. Not everything is touch sensitive. There is still one thing that they have left in manual control, and that is the vent controls. Thank God they haven't put that into the touchscreen as well. That is one of the most frustrating and furious things that you can have in an electric vehicle. Keeping these manual, that's absolutely a win. We don't have pricing for the new '26 VISTIQ just yet. That's gonna be coming closer to its on sale date, and that is going to be early 2025. Now, if you'd like to learn more about the new 2026 Cadillac VISTIQ or any of the electric Cadillac SUVs, you can look everything up at cars.com/news. (low tempo music)