Cadillac Escalade Platinum first with full LED lamps

Cadillac together with Hella has announced today that it will be launching the world's first volume full-LED headlamp on its 2008 Cadillac Escalade Platinum edition. Unlike rival luxury brand Lexus, which offers single projector LED lamps on its LS600h flagship, Cadillac’s design uses the efficient diodes for the entire headlight assembly – indicators, low beam and high beam.

The benefits of LED headlamps are that they emit a greatly more precise light pattern, while emulating the characteristics of natural daylight much more closely than traditional auto lighting. They also use much less power and last more than 20 times longer than traditional halogen bulbs.

In addition to LED technology, the Escalade SUV also benefits from Magnetic Ride Control. The set-up is the world’s fastest reacting suspension system, managing to ‘read’ road conditions in a single millisecond and adjust the suspension stiffness to suit.

Power comes from a 403hp (301kW) 6.2L V8 with 565Nm (417lb-ft) of torque mated to a six-speed auto. It is an all-aluminum engine that uses variable valve timing (VVT) to optimize camshaft timing to improve low-rpm torque and high-rpm horsepower.