Cadillac CELESTIQ to feature more 3D printed parts than any GM vehicle

General Motors (GM) has committed to investing more than $81 million into the company’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan – to prepare the campus for the building of the Cadillac CELESTIQ. The investment will be used to purchase and install the necessary equipment to hand-build GM’s CELESTIQ vehicle and renovate the campus. The renovation work has already begun.

The CELESTIQ will be the first production vehicle to be built at GM’s Global Technical Center, the center of the company’s engineering and design efforts since its inauguration in May 1956.

“As Cadillac’s future flagship sedan, CELESTIQ signifies a new, resurgent era for the brand,” said Mark Reuss, president of General Motors. “Each one will be hand-built by an amazing team of craftspeople on our historic Technical Center campus, and today’s investment announcement emphasizes our commitment to delivering a world-class Cadillac with nothing but the best in craftsmanship, design, engineering, and technology.”

The Cadillac CELESTIQ will be built on GM’s Ultium Platform – the heart of the company’s EV strategy. The Ultium Platform encompasses a common electric vehicle architecture and propulsion components like battery cells, modules, packs, Ultium Drive units, EV motors, and integrated power electronics.

Through the Ultium Platform, GM will realize a strategic value chain shift across its network of vehicle assembly plants as the company commonizes and streamlines machinery, tooling, and assembly processes. This flexibility enables lower capital investments and greater efficiencies as additional assembly plant transformations occur.

CELESTIQ embodies Cadillac’s commitment to reimagining what’s possible and sets a new standard for the artful integration of technology.

CELESTIQ’s roof is expected to be one of the first to feature a four-quadrant, suspended-particle-device smart glass. With this smart glass, each occupant of the vehicle can set their own level of roof transparency, and the driver and front-seat passenger will have access to a pillar-to-pillar freeform display with active privacy to help mitigate driver distraction.

CELESTIQ is driving innovation across GM’s supplier community with more than 100 3D printed components – expected to be the highest volume of any GM production vehicle. This will include both structural and cosmetic parts, and both polymer and metal pieces. Additionally, the CELESTIQ production facility will leverage additive manufacturing for tooling, fixtures, and gauges in the assembly process.

GM’s Additive Industrialization Center, which opened on the GM Global Technical Center campus in 2020, has enabled Cadillac to establish itself at the forefront of functional and aesthetic 3D printed components in the automotive industry. The Cadillac CT4-V and CT5-V were GM’s first vehicles to benefit from additive manufacturing with parts including the shifter emblem, transmission components, and HVAC ducts.

“This investment is a great example of our commitment to GM’s EV transformation as we apply our manufacturing expertise to a one-of-a-kind, ultra-luxury vehicle for the Cadillac brand,” said Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability. “The advanced manufacturing technology and tools we are utilizing on CELESTIQ will help our team deliver the highest quality vehicles to our customers.”

The Cadillac CELESTIQ is expected to debut in late July.