ALL JAG, LITTLE DRAG, NO LAG
Swoopy battery-powered I-Pace takes off like a scalded cat, on dirt or bitumen
Flooring the accelerator of the I-Pace is a starship-engaging-warp-drive kind of experience. The electric Jaguar leaps forward instantly as the pedal is pressed and the neck-straining surge soon has the scenery going by in a blur. Because the car has only one gear there’s no pause in propulsion, all the way to the electronically limited 200km/h top speed.
Jaguar even installs sci-fi sound in the I-Pace, for the full Spock-car effect. Burrow into the menus on the central touchscreen to find the one delivering “Calm”, “Dynamic” or inbetween soundscapes.
Tap “Dynamic” and the I-Pace’s audio plays a designed-by-Jaguar electric vehicle noise inside the car. Beginning as an electronic throb, it rises in pitch and intensity with speed. Selecting Calm disables the feature, leaving nothing but the normal electric vehicle mix of tyre noise, wind whoosh and motor whine.
Anyone who’s never been in a Tesla, which is almost everyone, will be amazed by the Jaguar’s stellar performance and amused by its finalfrontier soundtrack. But the I-Pace is superior to anything Tesla has so far produced.
Prettier outside, more practical inside, the Jaguar also looks better built. It has Teslaequalling driving range between recharges.
Prices are sharp compared to its most obvious competitor, Tesla’s Model X SUV. Finally, the I-Pace is really fun to drive.
It took Jaguar only four years to go from blank sheet of paper to first I-Pace deliveries in Europe. In that time the company designed, engineered and tested something completely different from anything else to ever wear the leaping-cat badge.
The Brit brand got the drop on German arch rivals readying their own battery-powered Tesla-beaters. Mercedes-Benz’s EQ C is due next year, BMW’s iX3 even later. Both are SUVs.
The I-Pace is a five-seater with a nearly allaluminium body that’s been styled to slip through the air, the rear seats are roomy and comfy and the cargo capacity is 656L. Jaguar says the I-Pace fits the US-market definition of an SUV but it’s lower and sleeker than most.
It has a big lithium-ion battery pack beneath its floor supplying juice to two powerful electric motors, one turning the rear wheels, the other the fronts, so it’s all-wheel drive.
To prove its versatility, Jaguar’s international media intro in the south of Portugal involved driving steep dirt tracks en route to the challenging Portimau race circuit. The I-Pace was good off-road and even better on track.
The Jaguar easily went up and down slippery gravel slopes and forded a small stream. The I-Pace’s classy chassis, designed along the same lines as sports car stablemates, meant it cornered fast and smooth on the racetrack. Its weight — about 2.2 tonnes — can be sensed from the driver’s seat but so can its low centre of gravity.
The I-Pace also shines in more mundane driving. It has the power and traction to win any traffic light Grand Prix but is soothingly quiet and rides comfortably, at least on the adaptive air suspension that will be standard or optional on all three model grades in Australia.
I-Pace drivers have a lot of control over how it feels to drive. With the regenerative braking set to Low and with Creep enabled, the I-Pace is a lot like a conventional automatic to drive.
It edges forward unless the brake pedal is pressed and slows gradually when the accelerator is released.
Switch the regenerative braking to High and disable Creep and it’s possible to drive the IPace mostly using only one pedal. The car’s electricity-generating braking easily brings it to a complete standstill and you only need to use the brake pedal for sharp stops. It’s the best setup for stop-start traffic.
The I-Pace will be sold in S, SE and HSE grades, from $119,000 to $140,800, when Australian deliveries begin in October. A lavishly equipped $159,700 First Edition will be available for the first 12 months of production.
An affordable 7kW wallbox will put a 100 per cent charge into the I-Pace’s 90kWh lithiumion battery (covered by a separate 160,000km/
eight-year warranty) in 13 hours. According to the new global energy efficiency test known as WLTP, the I-Pace can cover 480km on a full charge. Driven hard and fast this will drop but, as experience at the overseas launch indicates, even when pushed it will still do 300km on a charge.
The SUV may be ready for long-distance driving but the same can’t be said for Australia’s recharging network. Jaguar has engineered the EV for 100kW DC fast charging, which can give the I-Pace’s battery an 80 per cent fill in just 40 minutes. Powerful DC chargers are rare in Australia.
Australian I-Pace buyers will get a free three-year subscription to the growing Chargefox Network of rechargers.
Australia isn’t yet an EV-friendly environment but the I-Pace is a batterypowered car with charm enough to win over electro-sceptic buyers.