2024 Cadillac Celestiq HALO car rides on air

GM officially unveiled the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq recently, showing off Cadillac‘s most advanced and luxurious car yet, as well as one of the most important vehicles the luxury marque has ever offered. As a high-priced halo car that will be built by hand, the Celestiq will be a low-volume production vehicle and its main objective is to elevate the luxury brand’s image to set a new global standard as the world’s first all-electric ultra-luxury sedan. As such, the Celestiq represents the most unique and technologically advanced vehicle in Cadillac history.

“With an extremely low volume of hand-built vehicles to be offered globally each year and an exclusive declaration process, Celestiq will truly be a custom-commissioned one-of-one,” said global vicepresident of Cadillac, Rory Harvey, in an official statement. “Each client will experience a personalised journey to make their vehicle exactly the way they desire.”

Here we take a look at the suspension characteristics of Cadillac’s new ultra-luxury halo car. For the past several years, Cadillac has been pursuing a set of driving characteristics that it refers to as Isolated Precision. The Celestiq follows that ethos, delivering a luxurious driving experience, while still delivering a level of connectedness to the road.

The range-topping Caddy realises this concept through a suite of cutting-edge, next-gen technologies to provide customers with the sophistication they expect. Doing that required starting with a new platform. Riding on an all-new dedicated architecture that’s technically a variant of the BEV3 platform, the Celestiq integrates the propulsion system’s battery pack and serves as a structural element of the vehicle, contributing to its overall strength, durability and performance. With the architecture out of the way, the next step was the suspension. The Cadillac Celestiq uses a five-link front and rear suspension design, with the geometry tuned to minimise any disturbance from the road reaching the cabin, yet still allowing proper road feel and handling response. Additionally, this suspension design is optimised specifically for the high torque output from the Ultium battery architecture.

Next up, the Cadillac Celestiq uses the latest iteration of GM’s Magnetic Ride Control system, version four. Originally developed for the track-focused Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, the Magnetic Ride Control system is the fastestreacting suspension technology in the world. As its name implies, the system uses magnetorheological fluid to enable greater responsiveness, enhanced isolation, and immediate reaction. Though Cadillac has yet to confirm this, we would imagine that the Celestiq would have different damping settings or modes, adjustable via a setting within the vehicle.

Working hand-in-hand with Magnetic Ride Control is Adaptive Air Suspension. Unlike a more traditional suspension system, like coiled springs, air ride offers more isolation for a better and softer ride quality. From what we can tell at this time, this appears to be a different system from the Magnetic Ride Control and Air Ride Control set-up offered on the GM T1 platformed full-size SUVs.

Joining those technologies is Active Rear Steering, offering up to 3.5 degrees of out-of-phase rear steering, in which the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the front wheels for greater manoeuvrability at low speeds. At higher speeds, the rear wheels will turn in-phase with the front wheels. From there, Active Roll Control – Cadillac’s first use of the feature – significantly contributes to the vehicle’s nimble handling.

It employs stabiliser bars embedded at the front and rear of the chassis to mitigate the rolling force exerted on the vehicle during turns and other manoeuvres, enhancing the feeling of stability, control and occupant comfort. Electric power steering handles the steering functions. It features a variable ratio front electric power steering system, similar to that found on the Cadillac Blackwings, but calibrated specifically for the Celestiq. It works in co-ordination with active rear steering to automatically adjust to the ideal steering ratio depending on vehicle speed, resulting in an engaging and intuitive driving experience. All of those suspension, chassis and steering advances wouldn’t be of much use if their contact with the road surface was not ideal. To that end, the Celestiq will be available with 23-inch forged aluminium wheels with 23-inch summer-only Michelin Pilot Sport EV tyres. GM states that this combination will offer strong rolling resistance performance and precision steering. Designed specifically for Cadillac, the tyres’ tread pattern, self-sealing technology and foam inserts will enable a quiet tyre for greater ride isolation.

“Celestiq offers responsiveness and athleticism typically associated with smaller performance vehicles,” said Tony Roma, Celestiq chief engineer. “We have incorporated Cadillac’s expertise developing advanced chassis and suspension systems into an entirely new experience for the client.” The 2024 Cadillac Celestiq uses a dual motor, Ultium drive system, producing a GM-estimated 600 horsepower and 640lb-ft of torque. Like Cadillac halo models of yore (1957-1960 Eldorado Brougham) the Celestiq will be built in extremely low numbers, and will be assembled by hand at the GM Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Production is expected to kick off in December 2023, with pricing starting north of $300,000 and availability will be by waitlist only. Source: GM Authority.

• Celestiq features four-wheel steering. Power steering is electric.
• Cabin bristles with technology.
• Magnetic Ride Control developed.
• Dash is mostly screens. originally for CT5-V Blackwing.