Jaguar stepped bravely into the unknown and nailed it. A rapid, desirable, good-looking SUV that happens to be powered by electricity. Overview What is it? It was the boldest of bold moves from Jaguar: an all-electric SUV, the first credible rival to Tesla’s premium EV dominance, a car that beat its German rivals to market and a radical piece of design. The I-Pace signalled the start of something big when it first launched in 2018 – that mainstream manufacturers, not just Silicon Valley start-ups and BMW, were prepared to invest properly in building new-from-the-ground-up electric cars you might actually want to own, and might be able to afford. After incremental updates over the years, headline facts are currently thus: the I-Pace uses two concentric electric motors, one on each axle for permanent four-wheel drive, producing 395bhp and 513lb ft of torque, delivered through a single-speed gearbox. The lithium-ion battery, placed under the floor – de rigueur these days – is sized at 90kWh, good for a claimed 292-mile range on the WLTP cycle. Give it the berries and 0–60mph in 4.5 seconds and a 124mph top speed is rapid by any measure. The I-Pace can also make the most of 11kW home chargers, which you can only get if you have a three-phase electrical supply. With one of these boxes the I-Pace can now charge at a rate of 33 miles per hour, compared to 22 miles per hour from a more common 7kW wallbox. A 100kW public charger can add 78 miles in 15 minutes. It’s a lot to take in, and that’s before you’ve considered whether you’ve actually got anywhere convenient to plug it in, or whether a limited range is compatible with your lifestyle. It’s easy to forget that the I-Pace is still just a car: four tyres, a steering wheel, some seats surrounded by aluminium and glass. If anyone’s going to be persuaded to cough up at least £65,245 for a base spec car, it still needs to go, stop, steer and turn heads with panache. It does look good, doesn’t it? Those 20-inch wheels – standard on the SE and HSE models and often blacked out to merge with the rubber – are probably the Instagram/ride quality sweet spot… there are also 19s available if you want to look silly, or 22s if you must. But it’s the proportions that steal the show: the stubbed nose that brings the front wheels forward with it and the high, squared-off rear end set the template, while the rear spoiler, vented bonnet and flush doorhandles provide the detail. Its beauty doesn’t slap you like a botoxed Alfa, it’s a slower burn than that, but eventually its bravery hooks you in. Driving What is it like on the road? Jaguar I-Pace front three quarters white We begin with a case study. I’m following an Audi RS4 as it goes full Schumacher away from a roundabout. I extend my right foot and leap forward, instantly attaching myself to the Audi’s bumper, which is where I stay, silently and without fuss, until licence preservation kicks in. Blimey, 0–60mph in 4.5secs suggested the I-Pace would be quick, but RS4 quick? This is the standard car, don’t forget, the EV400, no SVR fettling, no race-bred claims and, really, there’s no need for a family SUV to go any faster. It’s our new reality that when it comes to EVs, acceleration is cheap – how quickly you choose to deploy your battery is down to your right ankle. Take Tesla, the slowest car it makes is a $35,000 saloon capable of 0–60mph in 5.6secs – enough to keep a Civic Type R honest. Speed isn’t a problem, refinement at motorway speed is impeccable, but individuality is an issue because, degrees of brain-curdling acceleration aside, all EVs feel worryingly similar to drive. Strip away vibrations from the engine, a gearbox to interact with, intake and exhaust noise, turbo rush or a rampant top end and you’re left with something more homogenous than in the past. So, there’s a new challenge afoot. How do you differentiate your electric car when they’re all in danger of blending into one? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the I-Pace. The slick, flat power delivery is totally addictive, you’re never caught in the wrong gear, never off-boost, always in the meat of it whether waiting at the lights, or hovering at 70. In many ways, it feels too easy. Too easy to zap past a dawdling tractor without pre-selecting the right gear, too easy to pick the precise point in a corner you need the beans without allowing time for the turbo to spool, too easy to drive like a loon. If you thought modern performance cars with their sticky tyres and smooth gearboxes flattered the inept, you haven’t seen anything yet – this is the age of plug and play. Given the I-Pace weighs 2.1-tonnes, corners carry significant potential for understeer and general sloppiness, but not so. A centre of gravity 130mm lower than the F-Pace and the highest torsional stiffness of any Jaguar is a good place to start, plus our test car had the optional self-levelling air suspension (£1,120) with adaptive damping (£815). We can’t vouch for the standard set-up, but the sensation here is enough body roll to let you feel the weight transfer, but no more, allowing you to carve through corners with grip and confidence. The brakes are a blend of regeneration and mechanical friction, so you can forgive a mushy feeling at the top of the pedal travel, before they really start to bite. There is more than one way to drive the I-Pace. In Dynamic, like your pants are on fire, with more weight to the steering and snap to the throttle. Which is fine so long as you know a charger is nearby and you have several hours to spare. Or like a saint in Comfort or Eco mode when you’ve got miles to cover. Or, you can turn off the road altogether. The I-Pace isn’t an off-roader, but it has a low grip mode and AdSR. I’m not sure Adaptive Surface Response, which adjusts motor and brake settings depending on surface and conditions, was ever expected to handle actual off-road. We get to a section where the grass is door-deep and the chalk beneath slippery. The traction control skitters and clicks in the background, the motors whine a little, but momentum is maintained. Clearance and approach/departure angles are good as there’s no chunky ICE lengthening the nose and no vulnerable exhaust underneath. We already know electric-car packaging (heavy batteries low down and in the middle, lighter motors on each axle) is good for on-road dynamics, now it looks like it works off-road, too. There’s even some axle articulation. Some. The I-Pace has done well. Silent progress means ramblers have less to complain about, and the ride is supple, rounding the edges off pot-holed sections. The only slight niggle is that, when crawling over bumps and obstacles – or even just reversing up a driveway – you sometimes have to give the throttle an extra prod, so progress can be a bit jerky (switching Creep mode on might have helped). But, fair play I-Pace, you off-roaded and survived. On the inside Layout, finish and space Perhaps surprising, given the Jetsons exterior, is that the inside of an I-Pace isn’t nearly as future-gazing as a Tesla. You still have several acres of screen (now with JLR’s always online Pivi Pro system), split over three displays, but also physical buttons. Fancy that. A floating centre console jazzes things up, as does an inexplicable slab of old-school veneer in our test car. Particular mention must go to the Recaro seats: the driving position is spot-on and comfort levels higher than the skeletal backrest suggests. Switch it on – the screens do a dance but no noise – something that baffles the delivery driver as he attempts to back it off the trailer. “Know how to turn the engine on?” Sigh. But otherwise it’s as per a Range Rover Velar, or anything else in the upper echelons of Jaguar’s range, to operate. It’s refreshingly similar to ‘normal’ cars, with just the right amount of future. Space-wise, the I-Pace excels. Because the front wheels have effectively moved forward and the rears stayed where they are, Jag claims it has the interior space of a Porsche Cayenne, but the footprint of a Macan. As well as a 27-litre cubby in the Jag’s foreshortened snout there’s roughly the same bootspace (577/1,453 litres seats up/seats down) as a 3 Series Touring. It’s hard to know, I suspect purposefully, where the I-Pace fits into a conventional model hierarchy. It looks slightly like a hatchback, but, inside, the 656-litre boot (frunk included) is twice the size of a Golf’s and outside it’s well over 400mm longer. When you step out, your foot goes down further than you expect (unless you’ve set the suspension to lower automatically), and inside the driving position is surprisingly commanding. It’ll also handle four adults with ease. It’s a well-packaged, spacious car that just happens to be electric. Owning Running costs and reliability This is the real crux of the matter, isn’t it. In a world obsessed with food Deliverooed to your doorstep, cheap taxis at your fingertips and the world’s music library in your earbuds, the electric car is a chewy one. The direct environmental benefits are obvious, you can see them not spewing out of the tailpipe… but, on the other hand, owning, charging and planning your life around one is a chore we could all do without. One step forward, two steps back. Hence the hullabaloo. When the I-Pace first arrived, the charging infrastructure wasn’t ready for you to use an EV on regular long-range journeys. There are still too many 7kW chargers out there and not enough 50kW or 100kW DC ones, and collecting the various apps and cards required to navigate the myriad public charging companies is frankly a nightmare. But it’s improving, and be honest – how often do you drive over 200 miles in a single hit? If you’ve got off-street parking it can be even more convenient than an ICE car - handy, given Jag has announced it’ll be all-electric by 2025. Hypermiling is possible of course, and necessary if you want to get close to that claimed 292-mile range. Here’s the maths: the I-Pace’s spec shows a 90kWh battery, but the car never allows itself all that, for the sake of the cells’ health. So for 292 miles your average consumption has to be less than that total available – 84.7kWh divided by that target distance, equals 0.284kWh per mile or (28.4kWh per 100 miles in trip-computer units). This is not impossible, but requires some fairly extreme measures such as crawling along at no more than 45mph and denying yourself heating, aircon, stereo, head-up display, lane-assist, wipers and headlights. Real-driving range is probably 200 miles. This gap is not the fault of the I-Pace. It’s the fault of the WLTP test, which may be more realistic than the old, but still isn’t realistic enough. Verdict Final thoughts and pick of the range The I-Pace won’t be for everyone, but hats off to Jaguar for making a car that steps boldly into the unknown, and shows those pesky Germans the way Let’s start with the caveats, shall we. The I-Pace isn’t a cheap car, it’s not an EV for the masses in the same way as the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 is. It remains a premium vehicle that’s priced accordingly. However, it is an electric car that you’ll actually want to own, which, if you’ve ever seen a G-Wiz or a first-gen Nissan Leaf, is a novelty. We also can’t deny that there are still issues around range anxiety, despite the fact that a real-world 200-mile range will comfortably cover the needs of the majority of buyers. Even so, some won’t even consider it. But it’s a learning process and we’re all in it together. What won’t put people off is the way the I-Pace drives: acceleration is in the senior leagues, handling is surprisingly tight, and the way all that performance is available in an instant, is loutishly addictive. Sure, it strips away a lot of the interaction we love with gearboxes and engines with individual characters, but it’s rewarding in a new and exciting way. It’s also comfortable, quiet, spacious, well-built… all the things that, if we’re honest, matter day-to-day. The I-Pace won’t be for everyone, but hats off to Jaguar for making a car that steps boldly into the unknown, and still shows those pesky Germans the way. Owning Running costs and reliability This is the real crux of the matter, isn’t it. In a world obsessed with food Deliverooed to your doorstep, cheap taxis at your fingertips and the world’s music library in your earbuds, the electric car is a chewy one. The direct environmental benefits are obvious, you can see them not spewing out of the tailpipe… but, on the other hand, owning, charging and planning your life around one is a chore we could all do without. One step forward, two steps back. Hence the hullabaloo. When the I-Pace first arrived, the charging infrastructure wasn’t ready for you to use an EV on regular long-range journeys. There are still too many 7kW chargers out there and not enough 50kW or 100kW DC ones, and collecting the various apps and cards required to navigate the myriad public charging companies is frankly a nightmare. But it’s improving, and be honest – how often do you drive over 200 miles in a single hit? If you’ve got off-street parking it can be even more convenient than an ICE car - handy, given Jag has announced it’ll be all-electric by 2025. Hypermiling is possible of course, and necessary if you want to get close to that claimed 292-mile range. Here’s the maths: the I-Pace’s spec shows a 90kWh battery, but the car never allows itself all that, for the sake of the cells’ health. So for 292 miles your average consumption has to be less than that total available – 84.7kWh divided by that target distance, equals 0.284kWh per mile or (28.4kWh per 100 miles in trip-computer units). This is not impossible, but requires some fairly extreme measures such as crawling along at no more than 45mph and denying yourself heating, aircon, stereo, head-up display, lane-assist, wipers and headlights. Real-driving range is probably 200 miles. This gap is not the fault of the I-Pace. It’s the fault of the WLTP test, which may be more realistic than the old, but still isn’t realistic enough. src: TopGear

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Jaguar I-Pace EV400

Uploaded to — 3 years ago

Jaguar stepped bravely into the unknown and nailed it. A rapid, desirable, good-looking SUV that happens to be powered by electricity.

Overview
What is it?

It was the boldest of bold moves from Jaguar: an all-electric SUV, the first credible rival to Tesla’s premium EV dominance, a car that beat its German rivals to market and a radical piece of design. The I-Pace signalled the start of something big when it first launched in 2018 – that mainstream manufacturers, not just Silicon Valley start-ups and BMW, were prepared to invest properly in building new-from-the-ground-up electric cars you might actually want to own, and might be able to afford.

After incremental updates over the years, headline facts are currently thus: the I-Pace uses two concentric electric motors, one on each axle for permanent four-wheel drive, producing 395bhp and 513lb ft of torque, delivered through a single-speed gearbox. The lithium-ion battery, placed under the floor – de rigueur these days – is sized at 90kWh, good for a claimed 292-mile range on the WLTP cycle. Give it the berries and 0–60mph in 4.5 seconds and a 124mph top speed is rapid by any measure.

The I-Pace can also make the most of 11kW home chargers, which you can only get if you have a three-phase electrical supply. With one of these boxes the I-Pace can now charge at a rate of 33 miles per hour, compared to 22 miles per hour from a more common 7kW wallbox. A 100kW public charger can add 78 miles in 15 minutes. It’s a lot to take in, and that’s before you’ve considered whether you’ve actually got anywhere convenient to plug it in, or whether a limited range is compatible with your lifestyle.

It’s easy to forget that the I-Pace is still just a car: four tyres, a steering wheel, some seats surrounded by aluminium and glass. If anyone’s going to be persuaded to cough up at least £65,245 for a base spec car, it still needs to go, stop, steer and turn heads with panache.

It does look good, doesn’t it? Those 20-inch wheels – standard on the SE and HSE models and often blacked out to merge with the rubber – are probably the Instagram/ride quality sweet spot… there are also 19s available if you want to look silly, or 22s if you must. But it’s the proportions that steal the show: the stubbed nose that brings the front wheels forward with it and the high, squared-off rear end set the template, while the rear spoiler, vented bonnet and flush doorhandles provide the detail. Its beauty doesn’t slap you like a botoxed Alfa, it’s a slower burn than that, but eventually its bravery hooks you in.

Driving
What is it like on the road?

Jaguar I-Pace front three quarters white
We begin with a case study. I’m following an Audi RS4 as it goes full Schumacher away from a roundabout. I extend my right foot and leap forward, instantly attaching myself to the Audi’s bumper, which is where I stay, silently and without fuss, until licence preservation kicks in. Blimey, 0–60mph in 4.5secs suggested the I-Pace would be quick, but RS4 quick?

This is the standard car, don’t forget, the EV400, no SVR fettling, no race-bred claims and, really, there’s no need for a family SUV to go any faster. It’s our new reality that when it comes to EVs, acceleration is cheap – how quickly you choose to deploy your battery is down to your right ankle. Take Tesla, the slowest car it makes is a $35,000 saloon capable of 0–60mph in 5.6secs – enough to keep a Civic Type R honest.

Speed isn’t a problem, refinement at motorway speed is impeccable, but individuality is an issue because, degrees of brain-curdling acceleration aside, all EVs feel worryingly similar to drive. Strip away vibrations from the engine, a gearbox to interact with, intake and exhaust noise, turbo rush or a rampant top end and you’re left with something more homogenous than in the past. So, there’s a new challenge afoot. How do you differentiate your electric car when they’re all in danger of blending into one?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the I-Pace. The slick, flat power delivery is totally addictive, you’re never caught in the wrong gear, never off-boost, always in the meat of it whether waiting at the lights, or hovering at 70. In many ways, it feels too easy. Too easy to zap past a dawdling tractor without pre-selecting the right gear, too easy to pick the precise point in a corner you need the beans without allowing time for the turbo to spool, too easy to drive like a loon. If you thought modern performance cars with their sticky tyres and smooth gearboxes flattered the inept, you haven’t seen anything yet – this is the age of plug and play.

Given the I-Pace weighs 2.1-tonnes, corners carry significant potential for understeer and general sloppiness, but not so. A centre of gravity 130mm lower than the F-Pace and the highest torsional stiffness of any Jaguar is a good place to start, plus our test car had the optional self-levelling air suspension (£1,120) with adaptive damping (£815). We can’t vouch for the standard set-up, but the sensation here is enough body roll to let you feel the weight transfer, but no more, allowing you to carve through corners with grip and confidence. The brakes are a blend of regeneration and mechanical friction, so you can forgive a mushy feeling at the top of the pedal travel, before they really start to bite.

There is more than one way to drive the I-Pace. In Dynamic, like your pants are on fire, with more weight to the steering and snap to the throttle. Which is fine so long as you know a charger is nearby and you have several hours to spare. Or like a saint in Comfort or Eco mode when you’ve got miles to cover. Or, you can turn off the road altogether. The I-Pace isn’t an off-roader, but it has a low grip mode and AdSR. I’m not sure Adaptive Surface Response, which adjusts motor and brake settings depending on surface and conditions, was ever expected to handle actual off-road. We get to a section where the grass is door-deep and the chalk beneath slippery. The traction control skitters and clicks in the background, the motors whine a little, but momentum is maintained.

Clearance and approach/departure angles are good as there’s no chunky ICE lengthening the nose and no vulnerable exhaust underneath. We already know electric-car packaging (heavy batteries low down and in the middle, lighter motors on each axle) is good for on-road dynamics, now it looks like it works off-road, too. There’s even some axle articulation. Some.

The I-Pace has done well. Silent progress means ramblers have less to complain about, and the ride is supple, rounding the edges off pot-holed sections. The only slight niggle is that, when crawling over bumps and obstacles – or even just reversing up a driveway – you sometimes have to give the throttle an extra prod, so progress can be a bit jerky (switching Creep mode on might have helped). But, fair play I-Pace, you off-roaded and survived.

On the inside
Layout, finish and space


Perhaps surprising, given the Jetsons exterior, is that the inside of an I-Pace isn’t nearly as future-gazing as a Tesla. You still have several acres of screen (now with JLR’s always online Pivi Pro system), split over three displays, but also physical buttons. Fancy that. A floating centre console jazzes things up, as does an inexplicable slab of old-school veneer in our test car. Particular mention must go to the Recaro seats: the driving position is spot-on and comfort levels higher than the skeletal backrest suggests.

Switch it on – the screens do a dance but no noise – something that baffles the delivery driver as he attempts to back it off the trailer. “Know how to turn the engine on?” Sigh. But otherwise it’s as per a Range Rover Velar, or anything else in the upper echelons of Jaguar’s range, to operate. It’s refreshingly similar to ‘normal’ cars, with just the right amount of future.

Space-wise, the I-Pace excels. Because the front wheels have effectively moved forward and the rears stayed where they are, Jag claims it has the interior space of a Porsche Cayenne, but the footprint of a Macan. As well as a 27-litre cubby in the Jag’s foreshortened snout there’s roughly the same bootspace (577/1,453 litres seats up/seats down) as a 3 Series Touring.

It’s hard to know, I suspect purposefully, where the I-Pace fits into a conventional model hierarchy. It looks slightly like a hatchback, but, inside, the 656-litre boot (frunk included) is twice the size of a Golf’s and outside it’s well over 400mm longer. When you step out, your foot goes down further than you expect (unless you’ve set the suspension to lower automatically), and inside the driving position is surprisingly commanding. It’ll also handle four adults with ease. It’s a well-packaged, spacious car that just happens to be electric.

Owning
Running costs and reliability


This is the real crux of the matter, isn’t it. In a world obsessed with food Deliverooed to your doorstep, cheap taxis at your fingertips and the world’s music library in your earbuds, the electric car is a chewy one. The direct environmental benefits are obvious, you can see them not spewing out of the tailpipe… but, on the other hand, owning, charging and planning your life around one is a chore we could all do without. One step forward, two steps back. Hence the hullabaloo.

When the I-Pace first arrived, the charging infrastructure wasn’t ready for you to use an EV on regular long-range journeys. There are still too many 7kW chargers out there and not enough 50kW or 100kW DC ones, and collecting the various apps and cards required to navigate the myriad public charging companies is frankly a nightmare. But it’s improving, and be honest – how often do you drive over 200 miles in a single hit? If you’ve got off-street parking it can be even more convenient than an ICE car - handy, given Jag has announced it’ll be all-electric by 2025.

Hypermiling is possible of course, and necessary if you want to get close to that claimed 292-mile range. Here’s the maths: the I-Pace’s spec shows a 90kWh battery, but the car never allows itself all that, for the sake of the cells’ health. So for 292 miles your average consumption has to be less than that total available – 84.7kWh divided by that target distance, equals 0.284kWh per mile or (28.4kWh per 100 miles in trip-computer units).

This is not impossible, but requires some fairly extreme measures such as crawling along at no more than 45mph and denying yourself heating, aircon, stereo, head-up display, lane-assist, wipers and headlights. Real-driving range is probably 200 miles. This gap is not the fault of the I-Pace. It’s the fault of the WLTP test, which may be more realistic than the old, but still isn’t realistic enough.

Verdict
Final thoughts and pick of the range

The I-Pace won’t be for everyone, but hats off to Jaguar for making a car that steps boldly into the unknown, and shows those pesky Germans the way
Let’s start with the caveats, shall we. The I-Pace isn’t a cheap car, it’s not an EV for the masses in the same way as the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 is. It remains a premium vehicle that’s priced accordingly. However, it is an electric car that you’ll actually want to own, which, if you’ve ever seen a G-Wiz or a first-gen Nissan Leaf, is a novelty.

We also can’t deny that there are still issues around range anxiety, despite the fact that a real-world 200-mile range will comfortably cover the needs of the majority of buyers. Even so, some won’t even consider it. But it’s a learning process and we’re all in it together. What won’t put people off is the way the I-Pace drives: acceleration is in the senior leagues, handling is surprisingly tight, and the way all that performance is available in an instant, is loutishly addictive.

Sure, it strips away a lot of the interaction we love with gearboxes and engines with individual characters, but it’s rewarding in a new and exciting way. It’s also comfortable, quiet, spacious, well-built… all the things that, if we’re honest, matter day-to-day. The I-Pace won’t be for everyone, but hats off to Jaguar for making a car that steps boldly into the unknown, and still shows those pesky Germans the way.

Owning
Running costs and reliability


This is the real crux of the matter, isn’t it. In a world obsessed with food Deliverooed to your doorstep, cheap taxis at your fingertips and the world’s music library in your earbuds, the electric car is a chewy one. The direct environmental benefits are obvious, you can see them not spewing out of the tailpipe… but, on the other hand, owning, charging and planning your life around one is a chore we could all do without. One step forward, two steps back. Hence the hullabaloo.

When the I-Pace first arrived, the charging infrastructure wasn’t ready for you to use an EV on regular long-range journeys. There are still too many 7kW chargers out there and not enough 50kW or 100kW DC ones, and collecting the various apps and cards required to navigate the myriad public charging companies is frankly a nightmare. But it’s improving, and be honest – how often do you drive over 200 miles in a single hit? If you’ve got off-street parking it can be even more convenient than an ICE car - handy, given Jag has announced it’ll be all-electric by 2025.

Hypermiling is possible of course, and necessary if you want to get close to that claimed 292-mile range. Here’s the maths: the I-Pace’s spec shows a 90kWh battery, but the car never allows itself all that, for the sake of the cells’ health. So for 292 miles your average consumption has to be less than that total available – 84.7kWh divided by that target distance, equals 0.284kWh per mile or (28.4kWh per 100 miles in trip-computer units).

This is not impossible, but requires some fairly extreme measures such as crawling along at no more than 45mph and denying yourself heating, aircon, stereo, head-up display, lane-assist, wipers and headlights. Real-driving range is probably 200 miles. This gap is not the fault of the I-Pace. It’s the fault of the WLTP test, which may be more realistic than the old, but still isn’t realistic enough.

src: TopGear