2025 Cadillac Optiq Review: This electric SUV is the most relevant Cadillac yet confirmed for Australia. It will be the cheapest and may also be the best

August 24, 2025August 24, 2025 Stephen Corby 3948 Views cadillac, Optiq

With Cadillac offering big price cuts and financing offers on its first Australian offering, the Lyriq EV – which some of us might have pointed out was too damn expensive when it was launched – it looks like the pricing of its entry-level offering, the smaller and undeniably more attractive Cadillac Optiq, is going to be hugely important.

Unfortunately, when EV Central flew to Detroit to drive the new mid-size Optiq on roads filled with slack-jawed yokels and Guns, Trump and God grandmas, the price was still a secret. And it remains so now.

2025 Cadillac Optiq price and equipment

When the Optiq does finally go on sale locally, you can bet Cadillac will be doing its level best to offer it at somewhere under $91,387, because that’s the LCT (Luxury Car Tax) exemption cut off point for EVs, and also about as much as you’d want to pay for one.

This, quite clearly, is the most important car in Cadillac’s three-vehicle range, and the one that has at least some hope of creating volume sales, below the Lyriq, the madly sporty Lyriq V and the large SUV, three-row Vistiq that’s available with only a six-seat layout in Australia, as opposed to seven in the US.

There’s no word on price for Australia yet, but in America you can get into an Optiq from as little as US$54,390, or $84K in our money.

While the Optiq will be the smallest Cadillac, it’s certainly not tiny, measuring 4820mm long, 2126mm wide and sitting on a 2954mm wheelbase. It’s 28mm longer than a Tesla Model Y, for example.

But the real competition it yearns to be compared with are the new BMW iX3 and GLC EV also landing in Australia in 2026. With both German giants throwing massive resource at these vehicles it’s going to be a tough fight for the Optiq.

But at least its size delivers it a solid starting point. It means there’s ample leg room in the rear, with a comfortable bench seat and a flat floor, plus two USB-C outlets and one power outlet. The boot offers a sizable 744 litres of storage, or 1603 litres with the rear seats folded down.

What impressed us most was the level of fit, finish and style up-front, with lots of pleasant materials (despite much of it being recycled materials) and a lovely blue colour scheme in the version tested, which, I should mention, also looks a lot more attractive on the outside then either Lyriq or Vistiq. It might just be the Goldilocks of the range.

As seems compulsory on all modern EVs, there’s a giant touch screen, measuring 33 inches, and it offers cool graphics and the ability to configure things just how you like them.

In terms of tech, US buyers have the option of choosing Super Cruise, which is a seriously capable autonomous driving system that Australians might get to experience a few decades from now.

The Optiq uses an 85kWh Nickel Manganese Cobalt battery that offers range of 486km on the US EPA cycle.

The MY25 versions we drove were dual-motor all-wheel drive cars offering a not overly exciting 224kW and 480Nm. But the word is the MY26 variants, which would logically be the ones we’d get here next year (Cadillac Australia won’t tell us) have had power bumped up to a tastier 328kW and 675Nm.

Down the line, Cadillac should bring the Optiq-V, with a wild 387kW and 880Nm. Because every family SUV needs to be able to rip your arms off.

2025 Cadillac Optiq: What we think

So, what’s the Optiq like to drive and will it be worth the wait when it finally lobs down under in early 2026?

Well we can only base our opinion on the version we drove in the US, which was on the tame side in terms of performance, and that might not be a bad thing.

Compared to the startlingly over-powered Vistiq, the Optiq actually felt like the sort of car you might be interested in if you felt like you should buy an EV, and you wanted a luxury one, but you’re put off, or indeed frightened, by the crazed performance of most electric vehicles.

It’s hard to believe any dual motored EV could feel sane and normal, but in the cases of the Optiq we’re talking about a machine that takes around six seconds to get to 100km/h.

Throw in the fact that it makes familiar sounding, ICE-like noises from its fake-sound generator, and you could actually kid yourself that you’re driving a combustion car.

The Optiq is also comfortable, smooth and pleasant, with a nice ride-handling balance and an air of mid-table luxury – think Lexus rather than Audi, Benz or BMW.

It’s neither exciting, nor threatening, it’s just nice. Capable. Like the kind of Americans you meet in the nicer bits of the south, and less like the ones you meet in Texas.

2025 Cadillac Optiq: Verdict

If Cadillac is ever going to make an impression on Australian buyers, in a market packed with other options and a populace to whom the word “Cadillac” thus far means very little, the Optiq just might be the right-sized, right-priced option that does it.

SCORE: 3.5/5

2025 Cadillac Optiq specifications

Price: $TBA, but sub $100k
Basics: EV , 5 seats, 5 doors, mid-size SUV, AWD
Range: 486km
Battery capacity: 85kWh NMC
Battery warranty: TBA
Energy consumption: 18.3 to 21.4kWh/100km
Motors: 1 front and 1 rear, 224kW/480Nm.
AC charging: 7kW and 22kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 150kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 5.9 seconds

Stephen Corby

Stephen is a former editor of both Wheels and Top Gear Australia magazines and has been writing about cars since Henry Ford was a boy. Initially an EV sceptic, he has performed a 180-degree handbrake turn and is now a keen advocate for electrification and may even buy a Porsche Taycan one day, if he wins the lottery. Twice.