The lawns of Monterey, California, are littered with luxurious vehicles that cater to the tastes of the ultra-rich this week and Cadillac is right there among them with a new show car, asking if it can have a seat at the big kids’ table. The Opulent Velocity is an attempt to show the world that the brand’s V-Series performance division can compete with the best of them, according to Brandon Vivian, the brand’s executive chief engineer.
“The work we’ve done since 2016 in elevating the brand means we can talk about things like the Celestiq, the Sollei, and the Opulent Velocity,” Vivian said at a virtual presentation, ahead of the concept’s official launch today. “We’re looking to continue to elevate what Cadillac means. This is about creating that halo that bleeds down through all of the products.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t a close-to-production show car, as you may have surmised from the "butterfly" doors, the floating seating, and the light-up wheels. That doesn’t mean that those aspects of its design are pure flights of fancy, though.
Cadillac thought long and hard about the Opulent Velocity, meaning that it's a sign of things to come for the brand. That may come as a surprise considering how big of a departure it is from the last couple of decades of the brand’s design language. Take, for example, the “infinity taillights,” which stretch across the entirety of the Opulent Velocity’s rear end, and seem to extend into deep into the car.
Although the headlights maintain Cadillac’s trademark vertical light signature, the familiar pinstriping that is currently located in the grilles of the Celestiq and Lyriq, has moved to the sides of the front fascia, meaning that the “grille” is blank now, though its shape continues to be inspired by the Cadillac crest.
The front fascia wasn’t just updated for change’s sake. With the Opulent Velocity, the automaker spent a lot of time looking for an aerodynamic shape that would help EVs go farther, and get there faster. Cadillac has yet to reveal what drag coefficient it’s working towards, and hasn’t explained how it managed to keep the roof so low despite the battery pack under the car, but Vivian did say that the concept is based on a version of the Ultium electric vehicle platform "that has yet to be released.”
Inside, we find a futuristic cabin with seats and a centre console that appear to float in mid air, highlighting the concept's use of lightweight materials. When the doors shut, the door cards meet the seats seamlessly, making the interior feel like a single, unbroken piece of furniture that is designed to hug the driver and keep them in place through even high-speed corners. The canopy-style glass roof is also meant to cocoon drivers and also serves to further Cadillac’s twin goals of luxury and performance.
Not simply designed to provide an unobstructed view of the road, the entirety of the windshield acts as a heads-up display. In opulent mode, that provides drivers with information about the road ahead and works in tandem with Super Cruise. On the racetrack, the heads-up display can generate a “ghost” car for a driver to follow, helping them improve their lap times. Regardless of what speed the drivers is going, Cadillac hopes to use biosensing technology to read a driver's mood and to use light and sound therapy to improve their mood.
The Opulent Velocity “conceptualizes a holistic consideration of all elements and senses, showcasing a perfect marriage of hypercar personality with luxury execution and revered opulence,” said Magalie Debellis, the manager of Cadillac Advanced Design. “It’s a signal to the world that Cadillac intends to lead in electrified luxury performance.”
Although the Opulent Velocity will not go into production, it is intended to foreshadow the design features and tech advancements that will soon show up on Cadillac's production vehicles. And just because the brand doesn’t plan to put the concept into production right now, that doesn’t mean it never will. Vivian said that he believes Cadillac can be a “tier 1” luxury brand, and that the Opulent Velocity is designed, in part, to see if buyers agree.
