Cadillac’s V-Series of cars have, by their very nature, always been part of an effort to find that best-of-both-worlds middle ground, specifically in terms of blending performance and luxury. They’ve done this over the past 20 years with a line of ever-evolving high-horsepower gasoline V8 engines, stuffed under the hoods of Cadillac’s most premium, well-appointed offerings. Now, as the marque shifts to offering an all-electric product range, V-Series is shifting, too, with the new Opulent Velocity EV concept pointing out the direction Cadillac’s heading.
And pretty literally pointing, considering how deeply vee’d the prow of this long, low, and sharply creased 2+2 halo car is. The Opulent Velocity aims to combine “high performance and hyper-luxury,” is how Bryan Nesbitt, executive director of Cadillac global design, put it to us.
The thesis, here, is that the car will offer two distinct modes: a relaxing, Level-4-autonomous “Opulent Mode” that tucks the steering wheel and instruments away when you’re stuck in traffic on the way to the race track; and a “Velocity” or “V Mode” you physically activate with a rotary knob when you eventually arrive there and are ready to dial in lap times.
Cadillac is building out that first mode around an evolution of what a car can do with the biometric information it can collect about its driver—modern car interiors are already crammed with sensors and cameras, reasons Nesbitt, so the challenge now is to feed the data they collect into algorithms with “hyper-processing power” – his words, not ours – that can use it to intelligently adapt the atmosphere in the cabin.
On the other side is the V Mode, which Cadillac envisions incorporating new tech like a full-width windshield projection, or “hyper-HUD” – okay, this time, our words, not his – complemented by augmented reality (AR), as well as a display on the steering wheel. If that sounds like a recipe for information overload, Cadillac’s way ahead of you. It says the focus for Opulent Velocity is rather to show “the right information at the right time,” and to actually minimize any displays the driver-on-the-track doesn’t need to see at that moment.
How do you balance an interior design between hyper-luxury and high performance? Cadillac’s answer is by “wrapping it around” the driver while at the same time keeping the aesthetic “light and floating,” says Nesbitt. The aim was something of a “cocoon” feel, with a wraparound instrument panel, a wraparound rear bench seat out back, and even doors that feel like they wrap around you by blending in with the edge of the seat when closed.
Don’t get claustrophobic—those seats, while firmly floor-mounted, also sort of sit saddle-like over the floating, cantilevered center console to relieve some of that feeling of constriction. A host of high-tech, exotic materials and textures – like jeweled 3D-printing – also help add airiness, while blending “digital fabrication [techniques] with traditional craftsmanship.”
The Opulent Velocity concept that just debuted today at The Quail in Monterey, California is indeed a running prototype, sitting on a modified version of General Motors’ Ultium EV platform that’s “yet to come.” But don’t expect anything like it to actually make it to production. What you’ll get instead is a lot of the above-mentioned tech and that two-mode philosophy filtering down into the actual electric Cadillac V-Serieses of tomorrow.
What you might get a little of is some of the Opulent Velocity’s design language showing up on future Cadillac models. The car “foreshadows” other new products, but not in terms of its incredible, long-and-low proportions – they kinda seem almost lifted, if you ask us, from the XP-825 Eldorado concept of 1963 – or the de-rigueur-for-concept-cars massive gullwing doors. It’s the surfacing and use of illumination-as-detail that you’re more likely to see in the Cadillac showrooms of tomorrow.
Regarding the latter, look, for example, at these stylists’ latest take on the vertical headlight elements that have become a signature of the marque over the past few years; or the inboard rear lamps that curve underneath the car to reflect on the belly pan. The infinity-mirror effect of the tail panel may be less practically adaptable for production purposes, but the backlit badges and light-up pieces of wheel spoke could be something Cadillac is a little more keen on.
Speaking of, those rims are almost worth an article of their own—apparently they incorporate some trick lightweighting materials and use Formula One-inspired engineering in how they channel cool air over the brakes.
And isn’t that just Opulent Velocity in summary? Racing tech like F1-derived brake cooling blended with über-aesthetic styling bits like illuminated spokes. Cadillac’s future electric V-Series cars, like its past models, seem like they’ll still be walking that best-of-both-worlds line in a way only Cadillac can.
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