The 2025 Cadillac Optiq is the US brand’s shot at capturing buyers of small, high-end EVs in North America and several other markets. It’s the latest in a lineup of five electric models from a brand recasting itself as all (or mostly) electric, tech-forward, and truly global—unlike its US luxury-barge image of past decades.
I spent eight days in an Optiq in early May, and drove 840 miles throughout upstate New York and environs, and also New York City. It’s a quiet and comfortable small-SUV EV cruiser, and has real promise. I came away mostly impressed, with a few reservations around its software that I hadn’t seen in other GM vehicles with the Ultium battery and power train architecture.
Courtesy of Cadillac
Still, at a starting price of around $50,000, the Optiq is doing well. We’ll know how well in early July, when GM releases its Q2 sales figures. On the other hand, the Optiq is assembled in Mexico, so at time of publication, making it potentially subject to new tariffs.
Big Battery, Not the Fastest Charging
The Optiq is powered by an 85-kilowatt-hour battery pack using nickel-manganese-cobalt-aluminum cells from Ultium LLC battery plants in Ohio and Tennessee. All-wheel drive is standard, with combined output from its two motors quoted at 224 kilowatts (300 horsepower) and 354 pound-feet (480 Newton meters) of torque. EPA combined range rating is 302 miles, though we’d realistically peg it at around 260 miles (including highway speeds, heat or air conditioning, etc)—still beyond the distance most drivers will go without a rest stop.
Cadillac uses Google Maps in the dash to route Optiq drivers among charging stations if they enter a destination exceeding the car’s range. It’s not yet up to Tesla standards of seamlessness, nor are the charging stations from many networks among which it routes drivers as reliable as Superchargers. Helpfully, though, it tells you if a charging site is “slow”, “fast,” or “very fast”. If a DC fast-charging site is set as a destination, the car automatically preconditions its battery, popping up a “Charge Assist” message.
Still, it’s not the fastest charging EV—the Genesis GV60 can charge at up to 300 kW in ideal conditions. The difference is only a few minutes, but Cadillac is behind in the specs war. I didn’t fast-charge at very low battery percentages, but the fastest rate I saw was 107 kW charging from 25 to 60 percent, far from the station’s rated 150-kW capacity. Yes, that included preconditioning before arrival. Cadillac claims drivers can add up to 79 miles of range in 10 minutes—again, under ideal circumstances of battery temperature, ambient temperature, and low state of charge.