Cadillac was as soon as famed the world over for giant, ultra-luxurious automobiles in no specific hurry. In the event you can image Elvis Presley in a pink 1959 Sequence 62 Convertible, you get the vibe. Large, low, luxurious drop-top cruisers had been America’s dream automobiles, and Common Motors constructed them.
Why not deliver that period again?
That’s the spirit of Cadillac’s newest effort. Sadly, it’s only a showpiece. The Cadillac Sollei is an idea automobile – a design research meant to encourage future automobiles however unlikely to ever be one. But it surely proves a degree concerning the electrical automobile period, and there’s an out of doors likelihood it might be on the market sometime. Extra on that in a second.
Attractive Drop-top With Boat-tail Traces
Cadillac calls the Sollei “the last word design expression of a coach-built luxurious electrical convertible.” It’s a 2-door, 4-seat drop-top with a protracted boat-tail rear and contours meant to emphasise its bulk. A mid-body line stretches all the way in which across the massive automobile, connecting its linear headlights to its linear taillights.
It’s painted in a buttery hue Cadillac calls “Manilla Cream” that looks as if one thing you’d see behind glass on a rotating pie shelf in a diner. However 2024 breaks into this Fifties design with a 55-inch pillar-to-pillar touchscreen for a dashboard and a “command console” display screen for rear seat passengers.
Inside, probably the most ridiculous characteristic is a glassed-in beverage chiller holding a set of crystal glasses and a decanter. No, wait, it’s the 3D printed fowl calls within the customized brushed-metal-and-leather case, “and a leather-based device roll for pens and pencils, made to customized match the automobile inside, permitting fans to seize their bird-watching experiences.”
The inside comes upholstered in “Nappa leather-based that includes a pink iridescent pigment that creates a refined color-changing dawn impact.”
Efficiency? Cadillac doesn’t say. However the Sollei bears a transparent household resemblance to the Cadillac Celestiq – a $300,000-plus, built-to-order ultra-luxe sedan you can purchase from Cadillac. That one rides on the identical Ultium platform as different GM EVs.
Rides On a Modular Platform
Electrical automobiles are constructed on so-called “skateboard platforms” – practically flat models that maintain batteries, electrical motors, steering, and suspension elements. They’re primarily modular. As soon as engineers have designed a working skateboard, they’ll scale it all the way down to construct small autos and as much as construct giant ones. They will add or subtract efficiency with programming.
A very good skateboard platform can flip right into a full lineup of autos. Ultium powers every part from the Chevrolet Equinox EV (beginning within the low $40,000 vary) to the Celestiq with its Rolls-Royce pretensions.
The extra autos a producer sells primarily based on its skateboard platform, the much less the factor prices to construct. As soon as GM sells a full lineup constructed on Ultium modules, including a brand new mannequin will grow to be cheap and easy due to shared elements.
This May Be Carried out With Stunning Ease
Which brings us to that “extra” we promised you above. The Sollei is clearly a one-off for publicity functions. However look carefully and also you’ll see extra widespread components than simply the platform it rides on. The fake grille? The hood? These are Celestiq components. GM already builds these.
Even the doorways are stretched Celestiq doorways. That immense 55-inch display screen is discovered within the 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ. Cadillac could name this a bespoke customized undertaking. But it surely’s constructed principally with off-the-shelf components.
We don’t anticipate to see a Sollei on the street. There are solely so many birdwatchers with tens of millions to spare.
However the idea automobile can be an train in constructing one thing extraordinary with items Cadillac already has. In a future the place the corporate builds a principally EV lineup (one thing GM says it is going to have round 2035), one thing like this doesn’t must be a design train.
It will simply want a market. Let’s deliver again American desires of big cruising convertibles meant for leisurely drives.
