The Cadillac Escalade EXT bowed out after the 2013 model year due to the discontinuation of the luxury pickup’s corporate cousin, the Chevy Avalanche. Since then, Cadillac has made it quite clear that it doesn’t have any plans to resurrect the Escalade EXT, so Cadillac Society undertook the challenge of rendering what a modern, fifth-gen model might look like. But why stop with a “regular” Escalade EXT when we could bring it back into hypothetical existence as a high-performance Cadillac Escalade-V EXT?
The first-generation Escalade EXT featured a composite bed and mid-gate, enabling a very healthy amount of room for cargo storage at the expense of the third-row seating in the EXT’s platform mate, the Escalade ESV. The Escalade EXT could comfortably seat five passengers, and we imagine that our make-believe Escalade-V EXT would have the same passenger capacity.
Our rendering retains the same aggressively attractive front end as the current 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V. Of course, where things really differ is at the rear, where we’ve chopped the roof of the high-performance luxury SUV to make way for a short truck bed, complete with a sail panel. As with the first-gen Escalade EXT, the mid-gate on our Escalade-V EXT can be opened to extend cargo bed length for larger loads.
We decided to stick with the stock powertrain for our hypothetical Cadillac Escalade-V ESV, which means that the quirky luxury pickup is motivated by the supercharged 6.2L V8 engine (production code LT4). That eight-cylinder is capable of a whopping 682 horsepower and 653 pound-feet of torque. The Escalade-V also features an all-wheel-drive powertrain to help rubber meet road, with power routed via its 10-speed automatic transmission.
Our hypothetical Cadillac Escalade-V EXT is outfitted with more than enough power and space to handle light pickup duties, while looking good doing it. It will also sound beastly. Sadly, we’re not aware of any plans for Cadillac to make this vehicle a reality, but it’s certainly fun to ponder.
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