General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) unveiled the Celestiq, a $300,000+ flagship electric vehicle, on Monday.It is the brand’s most daring new model since the 1930 Cadillac Sixteen.
The 2024 Celestiq lacks a monstrous gasoline engine under its long hood, unlike the 16-cylinder roadster that was introduced only a few months after the 1929 crash. Instead, it has twin 600-horsepower electric motors and a 111-kilowatt-hour battery pack that is shared with GM’s Hummer EV.
It also has one of the oddest designs of any car GM has ever produced. The TheCelestiaq is a long, four-door fastback that is not quite a sedan. According to the company’s design director, Mike Simcoe, “there will be nothing like it on the road.”
The Celestiq, which will be made by hand and go into production at the end of next year, has two things in common with the Sixteen: customers can choose every little detail about the car, and only a very small number of units will be made.
Over 4,000 Sixteens were produced by GM in Detroit during the Depression. The company says that a new, dedicated building at its technological headquarters in Warren, Michigan, can make two Celestiqs every day, or about 500–600 vehicles a year.
In 1930, the Sixteen was available with a variety of body types, including roadster, coupe, sedan, and limousine. The greatest of these was 6.1 metres (20 feet) long. The Celestia is somewhat, but not much, smaller at 5.5 meters (18 feet).
The 1930 Cadillac Sixteen Town Brougham was listed at just over $9,000, or nearly $163,500 in today’s currency, according to the late historian Beverly Kimes.
That is roughly half the cost of a basic Celestiq, which will start “in the low 300s,” according to Cadillac Vice President Rory Harvey. Harvey refused to speculate on how much higher the price might be with all the bells and whistles included.