Cadillac Celestiq: bespoke design at Cadillac House, New York

At Cadillac House on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Celestiq, Cadillac’s all-electric ultra-luxury sedan, takes shape through face-to-face consultation rather than a digital configurator. A personal design concierge and the house’s own designers guide you through a material library of leather, wood, metal, textile and glass, with colour samples arranged by tone and finish, from deep charcoal and burnt orange to soft caramel and pale grey. This is customization inverted: you do not choose from a preset list, but shape the car itself, across studio light boxes and sample walls, holding materials in hand to understand how copper catches light against charcoal, how a particular leather grain changes, how finishes work together across dashboard, seats and trim.

The process transforms specification into experience. You sit with designers, you see how materials work in real light, you understand the story your interior will tell before a single component is ordered. Colours and materials are offered as complete interior narratives, each combination considered as a whole. A deep charcoal paired with warm caramel leather tells a different story than the same charcoal with pale grey textile and brushed copper trim. At Cadillac House, the designer guides these conversations, understanding how the choices work together across the full interior and how they will feel lived with over years. The process typically spans several months from initial consultation to delivery, with clients returning multiple times as their car moves through fabrication.

The Celestiq itself is a handcrafted, all-electric sedan with a 200-kilowatt-hour battery, capable of approximately 300 miles of range on a single charge. Its design draws from Cadillac’s heritage of American luxury: a low-slung silhouette, a dramatic glass roof extending nearly the full length of the cabin, and a sculptural interior space that prioritises the driver’s relationship with the road. The body is hand-assembled, with tolerances measured in fractions of a millimetre, and the interior incorporates materials from suppliers across Europe and North America, each selected for durability and tactile quality.

Cadillac House functions as both gallery and design studio, a space where prospective owners and their families can spend hours exploring the brand’s design language without sales pressure. The space includes a full-scale interior mockup of the Celestiq cabin, allowing clients to sit in different seating configurations, experience the skylight in changing light conditions, and physically evaluate how materials and colour combinations work together before committing to their order.

The Celestiq carries none of the off-the-shelf quality of mass luxury. Every car is built to order, and each one belongs entirely to its owner before construction begins. The car offers what few manufacturers still attempt: the chance to think through a vehicle not as a purchase but as a commission, where every surface, every seam, every material choice becomes part of a larger vision. At Cadillac House, that vision takes shape through conversation, samples, light and the knowledge of designers who have spent their careers understanding how materials, colour and craft work together to create something that feels entirely personal.

The Celestiq itself is a handcrafted, all-electric ultra-luxury sedan with a 200-kilowatt-hour battery, capable of approximately 300 miles of range on a single charge. Its design draws from Cadillac’s heritage of American luxury, with a low-slung silhouette, a dramatic glass roof that extends nearly the full length of the cabin, and a sculptural interior space that prioritises the driver’s relationship with the road. The car’s body is hand-assembled, with tolerances measured in fractions of a millimetre, and the interior incorporates materials from suppliers across Europe and North America, each selected for durability, tactile quality and visual depth over the life of ownership.

Cadillac House itself, situated on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, functions as both a gallery and a design studio, a space where prospective owners and their families can spend hours exploring the brand’s design language without sales pressure or time constraints. The space includes a full-scale interior mockup of the Celestiq cabin, allowing clients to sit in different seating configurations, experience the skylight in changing light conditions, and physically evaluate how materials and colour combinations work together before committing to their order. The process typically spans several months from initial consultation to delivery, with clients returning multiple times as their car moves through fabrication.

The starting price for the Celestiq begins at approximately $300,000, positioning it among the most expensive American-made automobiles. Customization costs vary depending on material selections, with some interior combinations commanding substantial premiums. Orders are currently being taken for 2025 and 2026 delivery, with clients able to place a reservation through Cadillac House or participating Cadillac dealers. The car represents a deliberate counterpoint to the mass-personalization strategies of other luxury marques, emphasising instead the idea that true customization requires time, expertise, proximity and human judgment.

Imagery courtesy of Cadillac (@cadillac).