Cadillac Optiq EV Cargo Test: How Big Is the Trunk?

• The Cadillac Optiq electric SUV has 26 cubic feet of cargo space.
• That's typical for an electric SUV of its size but similar to a gas-powered subcompact. 
• Our real-world test shows how much the Optiq can really hold.

This may not be a big cargo area, but there's nothing funky going on. Good depth and width, and check out the liftgate angle. Notice how it's pretty boxy up to roughly the height of the back seat? That should be good news for Tetrising luggage. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, by contrast, is angled quite sharply to the bumper and therefore has a less functional cargo area than its numbers suggest.

Hey dumb-dumb, you've already shown us this picture! Ah, but look closer. The Optiq has a dual-level cargo floor. The first photo was the upper position and this one is the lower position. Pull the floor up and out off the top track, then slide down onto the lower track. 

Now, you will note the little ramp at the front where it meets the back seat. This isn't unusual for dual-level cargo floors and, in practice, isn't that big of a deal. My wife's old car, a 2023 Kia Niro EV, had the same thing. In two-plus years of owning it, we never put the floor in the upper position. Not once. The upper position is really just there to provide a fully flat load floor when you fold the back seats down. As this cargo test is entirely about how much fits behind the back seat, there is no reason to test with the upper floor position.

Like the other GM Ultium platform SUVs I've tested, the Optiq has an underfloor storage area. This is the smallest one. I could fit my cylindrical Edmunds Golf Classic Duffel Bag (20 x 10.5 x 10.5) in the Lyriq and Equinox EVs, and while the Blazer EV couldn't fit that, the bin was still wider and deeper than the Optiq's. The bin isn't useless, though. It can at least hold the emergency charge cord, which is good news since the place where I usually store it (the frunk) does not exist in the Optiq.

The Optiq has a roll-out cargo cover. As such, I will be testing with and without the cover cartridge in the car.

Here's some nice boilerplate information about the bags I use and their dimensions. There are two bags you'd definitely have to check at the airport: Big Gray (26 inches long x 16.5 inches wide x 12 inches deep) and Big Blue (26 x 16.5 x 10). There are three roll-aboards that usually fit as carry-ons: Medium Tall (24 x 14 x 9), Medium Wide (23 x 15 x 9) and the smaller Green Bag (21 x 14 x 9.5). Finally, there's everyone's favorite Fancy Bag (21 x 12 x 11), a medium-size duffle.

All of my bags fit, barely, with the cargo cover slapped onto the back of it all. Note, the point here is not how much fits under the cargo cover, but how much fits with it still in the car. This is simulating needing max capacity after forgetting to take the dang cargo cover out. 

Satisfying cargo test safety parameters, the bags would not fly forward and there was not only sufficient visibility remaining, but the Optiq has a digital rearview mirror standard.

OK, now let's take out the cargo cover.

Removing the cargo cover let me move things around and free up enough space for the Edmunds Golf Classic Bag and a second duffel bag (blue) that has the same dimensions as the Fancy Bag. That's all she wrote. 

This result largely echoes the cargo volume numbers of GM's various electric SUVs, which isn't surprising since we're talking about the same manufacturer providing the same specs and no weird trunk space. The Optiq seems to be the worst, but only a teensy bit so compared to the Equinox and Blazer EVs. They're so close, though, that if I had done all the tests at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if they were effectively equal. The Lyriq, on the other hand, was considerably larger. Good! It should be — it's a bigger, more expensive vehicle. 

In the luxury realm, this result smokes the Audi Q4 E-tron (all standard bags, no extra duffels), but then gets smoked by the Mercedes-Benz EQB. (Perhaps the only reason to get an EQB is that the cargo area is ginormous.) This result is also pretty much identical to the Kia EV6 and superior to the Hyundai Ioniq 5. 

It also beats the Kia Niro EV (by the equivalent of the Edmunds duffel bag), which is notable since my wife effectively traded hers in for ... a Cadillac Optiq. She was positively overjoyed when I told her she successfully upgraded in terms of cargo test results. OK, "overjoyed" might be an exaggeration. "Whelmed" is probably more accurate. 

One closing shot. To open the Optiq's liftgate, you press the crystal-looking Cadillac badge on the back. While it looks like it should light up as many other exterior pieces do, it does not seem to. (I just double-checked with ours in the garage.) Oh well, it's still a cool detail in a car full of them.