Cadillac has unveiled the striking Sollei, which could just be one of the best concept cars I’ve seen in years for one simple reason: one look explains everything about it. Well, almost everything. The name is a portmanteau of sol grafted onto the first three letters of leisure. Just like the fact that the Volkswagen Tiguan’s name is a merging of tiger and iguana, I’d love to say that I’m making this up but I’m not.

With that out of the way, allow me to explain the car that requires no explanation, although you probably know what I’m going to say already, dear reader. The Sollei is a four-seat cabriolet of grand proportions, with bold yet not brash styling to be found all over. The grille is imposing yet delicately detailed with pinstriping all pointing towards the centrally mounted badge.

Stacked lights are found at the outer edges, almost disguised to look as though they are part of the bumper trim. Gently flared arches house turbine-style alloy wheels that use negative space to create the illusion of six spokes. A mid-level character line connects the front and rear wheel arches while a high-level crease links the front and rear lights.

I love symmetry in design, so the pinstripe inserts in the rear bumper, prominent tail lights and high-level light bar matching the detail at the front please me greatly. The convertible concept looks just right with its roof down, to the point where I never want to see the metallic-finish fabric hood being raised from its stowage area. Caterham Sevens never look right when fitted with a roof, do they? The Sollei is hand-painted in a finish called Manila Cream, a colour first used on Cadillac production cars in 1957. This almost matches the main colour of the interior, although my eyes were drawn to something else first: wood. 

I am beyond bored of aluminium, carbon fibre-effect and piano gloss trim elements in cars, so the Sollei pleases on another level with the use of unstained wood veneers that stretch from the dash to the rear bulkhead, with each side’s trim meeting its end at the fridge which sits between the two rear seats. Chevron detailing can be found on the door panels and the centre console trim, mirroring the patterns found in the grille.

More veneers feature on the rear of each individual seat where they form a sunburst pattern, while the leather on the bases and backrests also feature a design in this vein. The piece of least interest to me is the 55” full-width infotainment system which is presented on what is more of a dash-shelf than a dashboard to my eyes. It is joined by an angled display on the centre console, and while nothing is said of their functionality or purpose save for picking between 126 ambient lighting settings, the display theme is also colour matched to the upholstery.

In true concept car fashion, the Sollei is full of intricate details that are designed to subtly play to the sun-inspired theme, and even the light from the sun itself. There is a pink iridescent pigment in the nappa leather upholstery which colour-shifts and mimics a sunrise, while an aurora tint on primary metal surfaces provides another colour-shift effect that evokes the Northern Lights - a breathtaking natural phenomenon caused by particles ejected from the sun interacting with the earth’s atmosphere. My favourite two details are found in close proximity; the Cadillac Goddess emblem on the centrally mounted control wheel, and the three side profiles of Cadillac convertibles that are etched into the trim of the centre console storage area.

Overall, the styling and detailing outside and in is emphatic, imposing, elegant and intriguing in equal measure, and I think the Sollei looks absolutely fabulous. The car is a one-off which was made to show the bespoke customisation capabilities of the brand, which has been repositioning itself ever further upmarket in recent years. I think it does a rather good job of being a shop window for what customers of the flagship Celestiq can have optioned into their circa $340,000 (£263,000) fastback EV. 

The Celestiq is not a name that we in the UK will be familiar with and I bet that visions of the CTS-V, Escalade and the V-Series.R Le Mans racer will come to mind before anything else. Indeed, it’s even stranger to consider that the brand which left our market with its tail between its legs has placed a luxurious four-door electric car in the part of the market that Bentley, Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls Royce call their home turf, and will have that segment to themselves for a few years to come. 

The Celestiq is clearly the base model for the Sollei and looking at the two cars together, it’s rather impressive to see how different the cars that share a lot of their front and rear end designs can look. Although the Sollei is ultimately a reworking of a model that is about to go into production, the first cat that came to mind when I saw it was the gorgeous Ciel concept of 2011 - a four-door convertible powered by a V16 engine.

Sharing components with the Celestiq, the Sollei most likely uses the same dual motor electric powertrain with 600 bhp on tap, but Cadillac haven’t given any confirmation as to what propels the car. For all I know, it could be powered by a single cylinder lawnmower engine and have a top speed of 7 mph, but somehow that doesn’t matter one bit to me. This concept is all about looking good, and I can easily picture the Sollei cruising along the seafront at low speeds and looking just right in doing so, although you didn’t need me to explain that to you, did you?