For years now, Cadillac has attempted to trick Americans into believing that a heavy-duty Chevrolet chassis is a regular looking limousine that just happens to be able to bear sustained gunfire.
And while I appreciate the practicality of that, design-wise the vehicle hasn’t really moved forward all that much since the ’80s, when an all-black Cadillac Fleetwood was the presidential state car.
That’s why today we’re asking if there’s a better way. Reports indicating that President Biden is working to electrify The Beast suggest that changing the car significantly is a much harder process than it might seem from the outside. Unbound by the strictures of reality, though, we are welcome to use the power of our imaginations.
Read: President Joe Biden Is Looking To Electrify The Beast
The president’s wish to electrify his limousine points to another fact: the automotive world is becoming increasingly electric. That means that, for an administration looking to certify itself as green, a hybrid or even an EV would undoubtedly have great optics.
If we ease the requirements on the chassis (and pretend that just a little bit of bullet-proofing is all we need), and say that the vehicle must be made in America, then we have quite a few options for EVs.
GM has a nifty new platform that Biden has already expressed his approval for, and so does Ford. A limo built on the Hummer’s or the F-150 Lightning’s platform could be an interesting concept. Rivian, too, has a large-scale EV platform that could be used to build a bullet-proof EV on top of.
If we just accept that we want a sedan, meanwhile, the Lucid Air and the Tesla Model S would both make luxurious accommodations for the president. Maybe you aren’t into EVs, though, and this is, after all, your fantasy.
Maybe you’d just accept that limos are passé and sedans are on their way out, and accept that a Cadillac Escalade with four seats is really the way to go when it comes to luxury and interior volume.
Or maybe, instead of trying to resist the bullets, you’d rather outrun them in something with a little pep. In which case, a Corvette or a Mustang Shelby GT500 could be useful and would also get you to your state functions a lot faster than some limo.
But what do you think? What would you make your state vehicle if you became president?
