Cadillac Sollei: Luxury electric convertible with bar and bird whistles

The Cadillac brand, owned by General Motors Corporation, continues its return to the highest echelon of luxury: a custom four-seat Sollei convertible made on the basis of flagship liftback Celestiq.

It's been a while since Cadillac has had a convertible, and there hasn't been one as luxurious as the Sollei since the early 1970s. Now GM is trying to return Cadillac to the canons of its former luxury, but at a new technological level. At the beginning of this year, manual production of the flagship electric liftback Cadillac Celestiq began at a price of $340,000 per copy — it is positioned as a direct competitor to the top models of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Both British brands have special divisions for producing custom cars for particularly wealthy and discerning clients, so GM is considering launching something similar in connection with the Cadillac brand. The Sollei convertible was presented today as a concept, but it is quite possible that a commercial version will be announced in the near future.

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Cadillac Sollei is a direct analogue of the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, namely an extremely luxurious pleasure convertible with a masterpiece finish and a fabulous price tag (Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is rumored to cost about 20 million pounds sterling). The name Sollei is an acronym that can be translated into Russian as “enjoying the sun.”

GM's press release doesn't say a word about the technical stuffing of the Cadillac Sollei, but we are unlikely to be mistaken if we assume that it is the same as the original Celestiq liftback, which is built on the modular Ultium platform and is equipped with a dual-engine power plant (one motor each per axle), its maximum output is 608 hp. and 867 Nm. The liftback accelerates to 60 mph (96.56 km/h) in 3.8 seconds, and a full charge of the 111 kWh battery is enough for 300 miles (483 km) of EPA range. We believe the convertible has approximately the same characteristics.

Sollei borrowed the front panel of the cabin with a panoramic 55-inch display and other controls from Celestiq, but the seats, door cards and all the trim are exclusive. The front end of the convertible is similar to that of the Celestiq, but the stern above the waterline is completely redrawn and sports an elegant narrow horizontal stripe of the upper tier of lights. The giant side doors have no outside handles for the sake of cleanliness. The main Manila Cream exterior color is borrowed from the 1957 and 1958 Cadillac palette.

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The Sollei interior uses a lot of wood veneer with open pores that are pleasant to the touch, and natural nappa leather with artistic perforations and internal lighting is adjacent to the innovative MycoWorks biomaterial based on specially grown mushrooms. On board there is a refrigerator with an electrified door and crystal service.

The Sollei equipment also includes a set 3D printed whistles to attract different birds for sighting purposes and an atlas with hand-drawn illustrations to help identify the bird being observed. The translucent soft roof-transformer of a metallic color, unfortunately, is not shown in the company photographs — perhaps it will be shown to us on the commercial version of the model.