Jay Leno Drives The Still-Not-Ready Cadillac Celestiq EV

It's been five years and the Celestiq still isn't on sale. But it looks ready for primetime.

Jay Leno Celestiq

Photo by: Jay Leno's Garage via YouTube

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Apr 24, 2025 at 1:30pm ET

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The Celestiq is Cadillac's flagship model, a huge $340,000 electric fastback that rivals Rolls-Royce.
Jay Leno is one of the first people outside Cadillac to drive the Celestiq and he really likes it.
Even though it was supposed to debut in 2024, Cadillac hasn't even opened pre-orders for the Celestiq.

The $340,000 Cadillac Celestiq flagship EV was supposed to arrive by the end of 2024, but that deadline has passed. You can sign up for a waitlist for the best chance to reserve an early example, but it’s still not clear when it will actually debut, even though it's supposedly already entered production. In the meantime, Cadillac gave Jay Leno the chance to drive a pre-production Celestiq, which left the comedian and car collector very impressed.

Leno has to be one of the first people outside Cadillac to drive a Celestiq, and he also got a lot of insight on the car from the chief engineer behind the project, Tony Roma. The Cadillac exec spoke to Leno at length in the latest Jay Leno's Garage video.

He runs Leno through some preliminary specs, including the power output from its two motors, which is slightly higher than previous estimates at 650 horsepower. It also has all the trick suspension components you’d expect from a luxury EV of this caliber, including air suspension, adaptive dampers and active roll stabilization. The latter keeps the car flat through corners to a point where it seems like it’s defying physics.

We also get to hear the Celestiq’s acceleration sound, which is only present in sport mode. To our ears, it sounds identical to flooring a Cadillac Lyriq, at least in this video.

It’s always interesting to hear people involved in the development of such cars speaking so openly about the process. Roma appears very transparent in his recount of how Cadillac created the Celestiq as its flagship vehicle, tied to General Motors’ decision to make Cadillac its flagship electric brand. Apparently, the Lyriq was the first EV that Cadillac began developing. Afterward, the company decided it needed an extraordinary car for its flagship model. That's how the Celestiq was born.

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Tony Roma mentions at one point that there are no traditional options to speak of when it comes to the Celestiq. All the bells and whistles—including the four-quadrant electrochromic glass adjustable for each passenger—are standard. Beyond that, buyers will spend extra money if they want customizations. It's a page straight out of Rolls-Royce’s book, which is fitting given it’s one of the Celestiq’s few direct rivals.

It’s still not quite ready for production, but the Celestiq that Leno drove looked like a finished vehicle. It went down the road very well, blending great comfort with nice body control and surprising sportiness for a 6,500-pound vehicle. The fact that it’s still fun to drive even despite its heft makes us very eager to eventually get behind the wheel of one of these to review.