Last week for question of the day I was pontificating on the state of automotive colors; greyscale still dominates, especially on mainstream cars in the U.S., but it feels like the tides may be starting to turn. General Motors has been experimenting with interesting color schemes lately, especially at Cadillac — the compact Optiq EV is available in some bright colors, and with a blue interior that has trim made of newspaper. Of course, there's also the Celestiq, which can be spec'd however you want
(as long as you've got over $350,000), and Cadillac recently announced that the CT5-V Blackwing is getting a new bespoke hand-painted color program.
While the Escalade has never really been known for coming in interesting colors, Cadillac is righting that wrong with the Escalade IQ and Escalade IQL. In addition to being offered in some beautiful but subtle colors like a dark cherry red and a pearlescent champagne gold, you can get the electric 'Lades in not one but two different oranges, including a bright one. Hell yeah.
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A Bold Option
The first and more extreme of the two orange paints, shown in the lead image of this story, is only available on the Sport trims for the Escalade IQ, not the longer IQL. Called Monarch Orange, the searing shade was first seen on the Optiq, and it sure looks the same as the Solar Orange offered on the Hummer EV. I think it looks absolutely awesome on the Escalade IQ — more big vehicles like this need to come in bright colors, especially when they have exorbitant designs like the Caddy.
It only costs $625, which is pretty cheap these days, and you can pair it with a black roof for another $1,100. On the base Sport trim the only interior options are Backen Black or Sheer Grey, but on the Premium Sport you can choose between Camelia tan or Harbor Blue, both of which can be paired with the orange paint.
And A More Subtle One
Then, on Luxury and Premium Luxury trims of both the IQ and IQL, Cadillac offers Adobe Frost, a $5,925 satin-finish option that is "late and extremely limited availability," according to the configurator. Some of you might say that this color isn't really orange, being more of a burnt copper or pumpkin-y brown. But I say it definitely counts as orange — we have to take our wins where we can get them these days. It looks quite beautiful, I think. The interior options are the same as on the Sport trims.
If neither of these oranges are for you, the electric Escalades are offered in a few other real colors. For $625 you can get Sandstone, a nice light beige, or Deep Space Metallic, a dark, subtle teal. Black Cherry Tintcoat is $1,225, and it looks incredible in person. There's also the satin Magnus Metal Frost, a grey that's priced the same and just as limited as Adobe Frost. Sadly Cadillac discontinued the satin Midnight Steel Frost blue that was offered on the 2025 model year. Of course, if you're boring, you can still get an Escalade IQ in a normal black, white or grey.
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