Cadillac recently opened up about the changes it’s made to the 2022 car and crossover lineup for next year, but has been mum on what’s planned for the 2022 Escalade. GM Authority says it has the goods, rounding up a number of trim alterations being made to the big SUV. The fifth-gen ‘Slade comes in five trims, from bottom to top: Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport, Luxury Platinum, and Sport Platinum. Starting with the updates coming across the lineup, two exterior colors retire, Dark Mocha Metallic and Shadow Metallic. They’re replaced by three colors, Galactic Gray Metallic, Mahogany Metallic, and Wilder Metallic. The Escalade only offers one free color, Black Raven; all of the Metallics cost $625, and we expect these new ones will, too.
Safety is the word for next year’s model, with more features going in more vehicles. The entire lineup will get GM’s Buckle to Drive feature that’s part of the Teen Driver safety suite. Trying to make sure teens get the buckle in the clasp before taking off, if Buckle to Drive is activated, it won’t let the vehicle be shifted into drive until the seatbelt is fastened. It starts with a beep and a message in the driver information center once the vehicle is started, and times out after 20 seconds.
The last near-term whole-lineup changes are Near Field Communication going away, the tech having been superseded by modern smartphone capability. Finally, Super Cruise will eventually join the Escalade options sheet.
After that, the middle Premium Luxury and Sport trims are the big beneficiaries. In 2021, those two offered adaptive cruise control, automatic seatbelt tightening, enhanced automatic emergency braking, and reverse automatic braking as options. These features will come standard in 2022. Piling in more features necessitated a change to the optional $3,650 Driver Assist Tech Package that’s currently offered, because the package includes three of the features that will come standard. Hence, the option’s been renamed the Touring Package, and it will include air ride adaptive suspension, front and rear soft-close doors, and illuminated tread plates. Pricing is a mystery right now.
The base Luxury trim gets a little attention, making lane keep assist and lane departure warning standard next year. That kit can’t be had for any price on the 2021 Escalade.
And in 2023, GM Authority says we should get the hotter and more supercharged Escalade-V. There seem to be two threads about superchargers, we’re not sure if they’re the same thing or two things. Motor Trend reported earlier this year that GM would begin offering superchargers for its big SUVs that would take horsepower from the current 420 to between 600 and 620, but MT wasn’t clear if this would be a factory option or dealer-installed. GMA, on the other hand, has spy shots of what it says is an Escalade-V in both standard and ESV forms, and says it will be getting the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 in the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. That engine makes 668 hp in the Cadillac, 650 in the Camaro, so dialing it back a bit to Motor Trend’s figure is easily doable.
In March, Cadillac chief engineer Tony Roma said during an interview on Autoline, “I couldn’t imagine doing an Escalade-V Blackwing. Maybe we’d do an SUV, maybe we’d do an Escalade-V, who knows.” That lends (slight, supposed) credence to a fast Escalade from the factory. Based on the two sets of spy shots GMA has, the truck looks like it could come with a revised front fascia, Air Ride Adaptive Control, Magnetic Air Ride Control, a new wheel design, and the quad pipe finishers installed on the extra-fast CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing.