The Escalade-V Was Built to Hide. This One Shows

Three Escalades on a school-run parking lot in Dallas. One of them is a 2025–2027 Cadillac Escalade-V ESV with 682 hp. It costs $44,000 more than the two beside it, and only its owner knows.

That is by design. Robert Hunwick, who styled the first Escalade-V, told Autoblog in 2022 that the goal was a sleeper. Four years and a facelift later the V still shares its body sides, arches and gloss-black trim with a Platinum Sport. Alexej Janowski built the other answer: a gloss-black upper body over a deep red lower body, and every ESTHETE component in visible dry carbon.

The facelifted V differs from the rest of the range by its vertical headlights and 24-inch wheels. Cars.com wrote in 2025 that the cosmetic differences are not large; AutoGuide called the V badge on the doors the most visible clue; Road & Track put the gap at $44,000. Owners on Reddit and Cadillac forums say it more simply: they recognise the V by the sound when it starts.

Hunwick told The Drive the early design visions had been far bolder. Car and Driver named the contradiction: the Escalade's whole success rests on making a statement, and the V, visually, declines to make one. AMG and M Performance owners expect the difference to show. On the Escalade-V, Cadillac left that decision to the owner.

"There are owners for whom the sleeper is exactly right, and Cadillac built it well for them," says Alexej Janowski. "Then there are the ones who bought the top of the range so that it would be seen. Wanting 682 hp to look like 682 hp is the logic of the purchase. Cadillac had no answer for that owner. We do."

The body is split at the beltline: gloss black above, deep red below. The roof, the pillars and the hood surround read as one dark mass over a red base, and the long ESV body suddenly has a horizon. Every ESTHETE component stays in visible 100% dry carbon, so the kit reads as a third material rather than disappearing into paint. Three materials, one decision.

The vented carbon hood is the one element on the car that talks about the engine. A carbon grille surround and a front splitter with integrated light strips rebuild the face. Wheel-arch extensions and side sills gather the ESV and make it read wider and lower while the wheels stay factory size, so warranty and specification are untouched. At the rear: a tailgate trim, a diffuser with four integrated brake lights and quad exhaust tips, an upper spoiler finishing the roofline. Every component uses factory mounting points; nothing is drilled or cut. Developed in Germany.

The hood and the arches were shaped in clay before they were modelled in 3D. "A 3D file is precise and fast, and it will happily give you a proportion that is wrong," says Janowski. "Clay cannot lie. You walk around the model, you see the arch from the height of a child and from the height of a man, and you feel where the line should go. We will keep modelling in clay as long as I run this studio. The software comes after." More on how the studio works: Alexej Janowski on Instagram.

The Escalade-V ESV is bought as a family car: big, comfortable, built for carrying people. "A family car has every right to stir emotion, for the whole family, the dog included," says Janowski. "An investment in design is an investment in the pleasure you get from the car every day. The engine is already there. We make it visible."

Send a photo of your Escalade-V and the direction you have in mind, black over red or a colour of your own. A personal configuration with renders, timeline and pricing comes back within 24 hours.

Cadillac built the quiet V. Its owners asked for the other one.

This Escalade-V is one project. The catalog of body kits runs wider — across manufacturers, platforms and performance tiers, all built to the same fitment standards and material quality. If the Escalade brought you here, there is likely something else worth looking at.

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