Cadillac Phases Out Torque Badges After 6 Years Of Nobody Understanding What They Mean

Cadillac hasn't exactly had a real solid grip on its vehicle naming conventions across the last couple of decades, and now the American luxury automaker is changing things up once again. Back in 2019 the crested brand decided to put numeric badges on the back of its cars to signify how much torque it had, in newton-meters, rounded up to the nearest 50. Yes, it was as dumb an idea then as it sounds today, but Caddy stuck with it for a few years until it realized the error of its ways. For the 2027 model year, these torque badges will disappear, as GM Authority reports. In a statement to the outlet, a Cadillac spokesperson said "this change is being made to help streamline the appearance on the rear of our vehicles."

The current badging can tell everyone in the know — basically GM employees and dorks like me — what drivetrain you ordered at a glance. For example, the above CT5 sedan features the 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 gasoline engine with 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. I know this because 258 lb-ft converts to about 349.8 Newton-meters, which rounds up to 350. Likewise the T badge after the number means it's a turbocharged gas engine. By this naming convention, the Escalade IQ wears a 1000E4 badge, where E4 signifies four-wheel drive by way of electric motors. Though uncommon, the diesel Escalade features a D after its torque rating. 

The only part of this that Cadillac is killing are the torque numbers. The T, D, and E4 badges will remain on the cars. I think this is a foolish move on Cadillac's part, as it will only serve to make the badges even more confusing. If I were to buy a new Cadillac, I'd probably remove those badges on the very first day. 

From the beginning of the company really, through 2001 everything was chill at Cadillac. The company stuck with high-value easy-to-differentiate names like Deville, Eldorado, and Catera. Following the introduction of the so-called Art and Science era, Cadillac introduced a more cosmopolitan three-letter abbreviation naming convention which saw the Deville Touring Sedan become DTS and Catera Touring Sedan replaced with CTS. If everything is Touring, then nothing is Touring. This was when things started getting a little absurd. 

After nearly twenty years on the three-letter vehicle naming convention, Cadillac started adding numbers when it replaced the ATS with the CT4 and the CTS with the CT5 for basically no reason at all. Around the same time that numbers were added to the table, Cadillac decided to add a bunch more with the torque badges. I guess 'big number sounds good' was the primary reason why. How else could you eventually get the Escalade IQ 1000 E4? 1000 is basically the biggest number of all, and Cadillac had it. 

Now the company has a wide array of electric models in its fleet, and it has been giving them names that end in "iq," which I have definitely gotten onboard with. Scream and cry and throw fits about it all you want, but Optiq, Lyriq, Vistiq, and Celestiq are good names. I'm less sold on Escalade IQ, but I guess I can't win them all. Hopefully this move aligns with Cadillac moving back to a named fleet, dropping the alphanumerics from the CT5, XT5, and XT6. The CT4 is scheduled for cancellation later this year anyway. We can dream, can't we?