This year's August has proven a worthy month for automotive adoration. It all started with the worldwide introduction of the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser (Prado or 250 across various regions outside North America). The boxy Hyundai Santa Fe was also fully revealed, and the Monterey Car Week took everyone by storm with its many events.
Meanwhile, Cadillac chose to occupy Time Square in New York City for the mighty presentation of the 2025 Escalade IQ full-size, all-electric Ultium-based SUV. It's almost as humongous as the long-wheelbase Escalade ESV with ICE power packs 24 battery modules with more than 200 kWh and has up to 750 hp plus an estimated range of 450 miles (724 km) on a single charge.
Naturally, that makes it a star attraction, especially when considering its $130k price point compared to the $340k Celestiq flagship sedan. Yes, it's also (about) twice as much as a BEV3-based Lyriq crossover, but Cadillac certainly hopes the legend of the Escalade will more than make up for that. Besides, some buyers love to brag about how expensive their Escalade is, meaning this MSRP only works in Escalade IQ's favor.
Anyway, the new battery-powered SUV attracted a lot of attention, both in the real world as well as across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. Speaking of the latter parallel universe, the internet quickly gave it new, posher colors and aftermarket wheels. However, that was not enough for the virtual artist tucked behind the AscarissDesign moniker on social media.
This pixel master has a big craving for neat Caddy projects and just fulfilled his CGI hunger, again, after previously showing us what he can do with a wishful thinking XLR revival or a second-gen Caddy CT6 morphing as a Blackwing Coupe. Now, though, he's fiddling with the Escalade IQ in an old and new way – he's making it a ritzy EV pickup truck that would be proud of its Escalade EXT heritage.
So, the latest behind-the-scenes making-of video shows the CGI expert reworking the body of the Escalade IQ – from the rear three-quarters POV – with a few simple mods to morph it into a pristine pickup truck. Well, it's probably just wishful thinking, but it wouldn't be hard for GM to make that happen.
Remember, the real 2025 Escalade IQ is related to the GMC Hummer EV SUV – and there's an entire bunch of Ultium-based pickup trucks from where that came from, including the GMC Hummer EV, 2024 Chevy Silverado EV, and GMC Sierra EV. However, there are slim to no chances of seeing the Escalade IQ branch out as a revival of the failed Escalade EXT truck because GMC already got dibs on premium EV pickup trucks with the GMC Sierra Denali Edition 1 EV option!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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