Monster SUV ruled out for Australia for now: Cadillac leaves door slightly open to the supercharged 6.2-litre V8-powered 2025 Escalade, the luxury SUV equivalent of the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150

Cadillac has re-committed to being an EV-only brand in Australia when it launches locally later this year, at least for the foreseeable future. The American brand did concede the latest version of its world-famous Escalade SUV was an intriguing proposition.

When asked about the new 2025 version, which was just revealed last week, Cadillac’s local managing director Jess Bala had much to say.

“That was my baby, I revealed it to our dealers two years ago. The reaction we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is exactly the reaction we got from them live.”

“It is a stunning car, but for us it’s about picking the vehicles for our market, and we have to factor in the customer base and price-points and things like that.”

“We’ve shared that we’re an EV-only brand, but that doesn’t mean that we've stopped assessing everything that’s in GM’s portfolio and constantly looking at what might be the best fit for us as our market evolves because there are so many options”

So no for now, but perhaps not forever for the Cadillac SUV? “Just from a priorities standpoint - We are obviously bringing the Yukon out under our GMSV brand, which is a very similar vehicle, too.” Bala said, reminding that Cadillac was not the only GM-backed brand in the Australian market.

GM hasn’t put strict limits on what its overseas divisions could do, according to Bala.

“We can do anything we’d like to do essentially. Obviously there are bigger discussions, which have to happen from a GM standpoint and what’s the right fit for the company as a whole as well. Looking at vehicles like Escalade and where it plays globally as well. It’s not just a matter of what we’d like to do, but from an entire company standpoint as well.”

Bala added that “it was a fair assumption” the Escalade would need to be converted from left-hand drive, and won’t be offered right-hand drive from the factory, significantly adding to the complexity and price should it ever be offered in Australia.

This a distinct difference to the electric Lyriq, set to launch in Australia before the end of 2024, which is based on GM’s new electric Ultium platform. The brand said it was designed as a global platform capable of being configured for right-hand drive from the beginning.

The next vehicle that will be added to Cadillac’s Australian line-up before the end of 2025 will be the also-Ultium-based Optiq. It shares a similar coupe-SUV style to the Lyriq, but occupies a size-bracket below. The Australian division wouldn’t confirm this vehicle for our market, but heavily hinted that it was an obvious next step.

The 2025 Escalade is a monster three-row SUV with up to eight-seats, with a 55-inch “pillar to pillar” multimedia screen, a 313kW and 623Nm 6.2-litre V8 engine with adaptive suspension and magnetic ride control. It also offers up to 36 speakers and GM’s hands-free capable 'Super Cruise' suite.

The GMC Yukon set to be offered by GMSV uses the same large SUV underpinnings as the Escalade, but presents as a more rugged and utilitarian version. It is also only offered with large capacity V8 engines in either 5.3- or 6.3-litre capacities.

Interestingly Cadillac has also unveiled a fully electric version of the Escalade dubbed the Escalade IQ, which also uses Ultium batteries, but is on a larger version of the platform shared with the GMC Hummer and Chevrolet Silverado EV, neither of which seem to have right-hand drive plans any time soon. Regardless, it will be enormously expensive, even for Cadillac standards, starting from the equivalent of AU$195,000.

Expect to learn more about Cadillac’s Australian roll-out imminently, including current unknowns like pricing for the Lyriq, although given the rivals it is targeting it would be fair to expect prices in excess of AU$130,000. The brand has also promised some form of premium ownership program to rival the likes of Lexus, Genesis, or Audi.