For the select few who pass General Motors’ vetting process and qualify to buy the ultra-luxury Celestiq electric vehicle, the automaker will give them access to a design facility, to be called Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, where they can work directly with designers to personalize their car.
Cadillac will hand-build the Celestiq and is expected to make fewer than 500 a year. It will arrive to customers in late spring 2024. In a few months, Cadillac will open pre-orders for the car, Joe Singer, Cadillac spokesman, told the Free Press. It a “ultra low-volume” production vehicle for “a high-net worth customer,” Singer said. He added that “Anyone can pre-order, but not everyone will get the vehicle.”
If you want one, along with an invite to Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, check your bank account. The car starts at $300,000.
Rock star client among the first
Celestiq customers from around the globe will have access to Cadillac House at Vanderbilt, which includes a one-on-one concierge to guide clients through the personalization process and provide access to a Cadillac designer and other exclusive services.
One of the first Celestiq clients is rock star Lenny Kravitz, who talked about his grandfather’s love Cadillac and said, “I’ve always dreamed of designing my own car,” in this video Cadillac released in October.
“We’re still engaging with Lenny at this point,” Singer said. “I don’t have any updates that I can share about his vehicle. We are continuing that partnership with him.”
A building of unique design and heritage
The Cadillac House is named after designer Suzanne Vanderbilt, who joined GM Design in 1955. She worked in the Cadillac studio and was one of a handful of women car designers at the time. Her early work included the design of a 1958 Eldorado Seville Coupe called Baroness and the Cadillac Saxony convertible. She retired in 1977.
Cadillac House at Vanderbilt is a single-story, 30,000 square-foot modernist-style building at GM Global Technical Center in Warren designed by architect Eero Saarinen. It is near the main entrance and served as Central Restaurant with a wide glass wall, offering panoramic views of the campus. The design won an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1955.
GM will complete a redesign of the space by late summer. Clients will be able to visit Cadillac House in person or virtually for, “a unique opportunity to collaborate with our design team, enabling clients to directly translate their vision of their Celestiq into a one-of-one piece of moving sculpture,” said Bryan Nesbitt, executive director of Global Cadillac Design, in a statement.
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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.