Luxury and electrification are a natural pairing. If you crave silent, vibration-free rides with seamless power delivery and utmost comfort, battery power leaves internal combustion behind by a margin visible from space. No luxury brand in the U.S. has leaned into that future more aggressively than Cadillac.
The pinnacle of the brand’s five-EV lineup is the ultra-limited, $300,000-plus Celestiq. Somewhere in the middle lie the $127,000 Escalade IQ and $60,000 Lyriq, Caddy’s most popular electric option. At the bottom end of that spectrum is the Optiq. It may be Cadillac’s smallest and cheapest EV yet, but this lovable little crossover punches well above its weight.
(This story is part of the Breakthrough Awards, our series on 2025’s best EVs. Only one will be our Breakthrough EV of the Year. Read the other stories here.)
2026 Cadillac Optiq Specifications
As-Tested Price $55,095 with destination
Battery 85 kilowatt-hours
EV Range EPA 317 miles (RWD), 303 miles (AWD)
Efficiency 3.3 miles per kilowatt-hour, observed
Charge Type NACS, CCS with adapter (150 kilowatts max)
Cargo Volume 26 cu.ft, 57 cu.ft with rear seats folded
Output 315/440 horsepower (RWD/AWD)
Maximum torque 332/498 lb-ft (RWD/AWD)
Why The 2026 Cadillac Optiq Is A Breakthrough Finalist
Starting at $52,395 after destination fees for a rear-wheel-drive trim, the Optiq undercuts the Lyriq by nearly $10,000 and brings serious value to the premium-EV space. It even costs about as much as similarly positioned gas-powered cars such as the Lexus RX, Mercedes-Benz GLC and BMW X3. That sort of price parity is hard to find in the electric market.
Of course, Cadillac will happily sell you more expensive versions too. Step up to all-wheel drive and that will cost you about $3,500 more. The spiced-up, 519-horsepower V-Series nudges the price tag close to $70,000. Nevertheless, the Optiq offers great bang for your buck.
Photo by: Patrick George
Despite its compact proportions and a meaningfully lower price than the Lyriq, the Optiq comes across as genuinely upscale inside and out. No, it won’t give you Escalade-level opulence, but that’s not the point of this crossover anyway. For its target audience, which General Motors said are young buyers in the 29-39 age bracket stepping into their first luxury EV, the Optiq feels like a better overall package than rivals like the Lexus RZ, Audi Q4 e-tron and Genesis GV60. Those EVs are competent, but they lack the Optiq’s charm, road presence and standard features.
Take the Lexus RZ, for example. It initially came with the same range and charging drawbacks as the Toyota bZ4X. They both massively improved for model year 2026, but the Optiq still has a larger battery and more range, especially on the AWD trims. The GV60 gets a more sophisticated 800-volt architecture that allows way faster charging, but it’s also more than 10 inches shorter and less roomy inside than the Optiq. The Audi Q4 e-tron is essentially a Volkswagen ID.4 wearing a nicer suit. But it falls short on range and overall equipment compared to the Caddie.
2026 Cadillac Optiq Sport RWD/AWD
All Optiq trims are well-equipped and stand out from the crowd. The $52,995 Sport is only $500 more expensive than the base Luxury trim, but swaps the exterior chrome accents for sporty blacked out ones, which look much nicer. All-wheel drive costs another $3,500, but both configurations get over 300 miles of range and generous equipment that won’t leave you wanting for more.
The Optiq, then, pulls ahead in how it looks and how it makes you feel. The illuminated grille, full-width light bar and vertical headlamps put on a proper show at night. Inside, the fit and finish are excellent unless you get truly forensic and start nitpicking. You get a BMW-esque knurled rotary dial on the center console and stitched fabric trim across the doors and dashboard that feels nice to the touch. Even the door pockets are padded, so bottles don’t rattle over bumps.
In a market obsessed with minimalism, Cadillac went full maximalist. I’m not a huge fan of this blingy aesthetic, but there’s no denying it helps the Optiq stand out in a sea of generic crossovers.
Photo by: Patrick George
Where the Optiq really earns its place as a Breakthrough Awards finalist is the sheer amount of equipment you get before adding a single option. Every trim comes with the 33-inch diagonal LED display, GM’s Super Cruise hands-free driver-assistance system, a 19-speaker AKG sound system with immersive Dolby Atmos capability, native Google apps and even vehicle-to-home charging—though that requires GM’s dedicated home charger and special installation.
The Google system is both a strength and a weakness, depending on who you ask. Built-in Google Maps works well and is rapidly improving for EV roadtrips, with features such as real-time charger availability. But GM’s new EVs lack Apple CarPlay, which some owners will miss dearly.
Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs
As for range and charging, the Optiq holds its own. Both RWD and AWD variants deliver more than 300 miles of EPA range thanks to an 85-kilowatt-hour battery. Model year 2026 cars also come with the North American Charging Standard (NACS) port from the factory, giving you seamless access to over 23,500 Superchargers right out of the gate.
But while the Optiq does many things well and is one of our favorite electric rides of 2025, it doesn’t quite move the needle for the broader EV landscape the way some of the other contenders do. That’s why it’s a finalist, not the champion.
More Breakthrough Awards Stories
2026 Cadillac Optiq: What We Didn’t Like
Some of the Optiq’s weaknesses become clear once you get inside, twist the gear selector into drive and hit the road. Some judges felt that it has too many commonalities with the substantially cheaper $35,000 Chevy Equinox EV and other GM crossovers that just feel lethargic to drive and share the same exact software.
“The Optiq just feels like I’m driving an Equinox EV,” said staff writer Kevin Williams.
Photo by: Patrick George
I agree with Kevin here. The inherent shortcomings of GM’s dedicated EV platform (previously called Ultium) don’t go unnoticed on the Optiq. It chugs along happily on straight roads and keeps you comfortable over smaller undulations. But ask it to change directions, tackle large potholes or mid-corner bumps, and it doesn’t exhibit the same composure as other contenders on this list, such as the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model Y.
Peak charging tops out at 150 kilowatts, which is far from class-leading. Cadillac doesn’t share official charging-time estimates, but in our Supercharger test it went from 14-80% in about 35 minutes. It’s fine, but it can’t match the sub-30-minute 10-80% charging times increasingly common even among cheaper EVs. Still, during my week-long test, there were practically no range or charging anxieties.
Photo by: Patrick George
I also ran into a few other gremlins with the Optiq. The outside rearview mirrors are oddly tiny and don’t give you nearly the field of view you’d expect on a modern luxury crossover. The view out of the sharply raked rear window isn’t great either. The standard digital rearview mirror solves that problem with a crisp display that always stays clean thanks to the washer.
The bigger issue is blind spots. Despite its compact size, the Optiq has some large ones. It’ll warn you with steering vibrations and alerts in the outside mirrors, but there’s no camera-based blind-spot view, something even cheaper rivals like the Model Y and Ioniq 5 come equipped with.
Verdict
The Optiq-Lyriq duo has been uniquely successful for GM. In the first three quarters of this year, GM sold nearly 10,000 Optiqs and over 16,000 Lyriqs in the U.S. The automaker is also stealing heaps of buyers from other brands, with many switching from Tesla, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus.
Photo by: Patrick George
It’s easy to see why that’s happening. The Optiq is striking to look at, and its interior makes you feel special. It’s also generously equipped for its price, comfortable to ride in and priced to attract new buyers. It has some minor flaws, but those are not why the Optiq did not win our top award for 2025.
To truly deserve the Breakthrough crown, an EV needs something more. It needs to push boundaries, rewrite the rules inherited from gas cars and help break down barriers to EV adoption. The Optiq lands firmly as one of the easiest compact luxury EVs to recommend today, but the future asks for much more than what it currently brings to the table.
Plus, our winner arguably offers just as good a value at a price that’s far more accessible to far more people. Senior Editor Tim Levin succinctly summed up the Optiq’s appeal. “It’s a good car, but not a breakthrough,” he said.
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