Cadillac Opulent Velocity looks into the future of V-Series
Today’s V-Series Cadillacs are all about gas performance from V8s to a variety of turbocharged options. But that isn’t the future, even for fast Caddys. The future for V-Series is electric, and that’s confirmed by the Opulent Velocity concept, which is making its debut during the Monterey Car Week. This big coupe is meant to give an idea of what future electric Vs will look like, but not so much how they’ll operate.
While Opulent Velocity is meant to be an electric car, that’s as far as Cadillac went in imagining the car’s mechanicals. It’s entirely a styling exercise. So with that noted, let’s talk about the styling.
Being all-electric, the Opulent Velocity’s shape isn’t constrained by engines and driveshafts, and that’s resulted in an unusual shape. It’s low and long, and the base of the A-pillar comes close to the front axle line, but the nose sticks far out, still giving it some slightly traditional looks. The roofline extends far back into the teardrop tail that trails far off the rear axle. The roofline and tail combined have a visual connection to the Celestiq halo sedan.
The front and rear fascias move away from current Cadillac EVs more. The main shield is solid and body color, housing an illuminated Cadillac crest badge. But surrounding the shield are flowing, clear, illuminated panels that incorporate more vertical headlights. At the back, the tail fin-inspired lights are gone in favor of a wide light panel. It also appears to have multiple LED tracks to give it 3D depth. The rear glass has fluted details and emphasizes the boat-tail taper of the roofline, as well as the double-bubble over the interior.
Open up the two enormous butterfly doors and you find a somewhat sparse-looking interior. There are two angular seats for front occupants that are hung off the center console. The rear doesn’t look like it has seats at first, but they’re there, they’re just blended into the door panels.
The dashboard is also rather bare, and it features a steering yoke. The yoke can retract when the vehicle is in fully autonomous mode. And part of why the dash can be so simple is that so much of the information is displayed on the windshield. The idea is that comforting environments can be displayed on the windows when parked or in autonomous modes, or can display information and even driving lines and ghost vehicles for manual driving on the street and track.
Of course, being a styling exercise, Opulent Velocity probably isn’t coming to production. But future performance models will probably take styling inspiration from the concept, and maybe even a unique V car that doesn’t have a standard counterpart.
