Jaguar I-Pace
JLR’s first all-electric mass produced SUV
After the F-Pace and the E-Pace, the I-Pace is the third of the Jaguar SUV range. It’s the first all electric mass produced SUV from Jaguar Land Rover. Having seen the car at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, we travelled to Portugal to drive the EV
The I-Pace origins lie in JLR realising that the two extreme growth areas were going to come from the SUVs and electric cars space and having a vehicle that embodied both these was the way forward. Work, therefore began on one of the world’s first all electric SUV about four years back. Going back to the drawing board had its advantages and JLR was able to design a modular platform for electric cars that provided all that the brand embodied as well as a vehicle that would free its owner of any range anxieties.
Even though the I-Pace looks to be the smallest of the Pace family of Jaguar SUVs, it’s got the longest wheelbase in a length just shorter than the F-Pace. But the space inside resembles that of an SUV in the segment above. Even the large boot space of the F- Pace is smaller than that of the I-Pace. This is because the car has been built from scratch as an electric vehicle, with a 90kWh battery pack placed under the flat floor in between the two axles each of which passes through a synchronous permanent magnet motor developing 200bhp of max power and 348Nm of torque. This means that the car has 400bhp of power on tap and 696Nm of torque. But the beauty of this EV is its range upto 480km on a single charge!
Jaguar could have done anything with this, its first electric vehicle but chose to give it life as an SUV, not only in form but in function as well. It is not just an SUV on paper, it performs both on and off the road as we discovered. We took it wading through and across a river before taking it up into the mountains on dirt tracks and finally doing some spirited driving on gravel roads before hitting the tarmac highway, country and mountain road driving. The I-Pace is as unfettered off the road as it is on the road. With huge amounts of torque available from start, it makes child’s play of steep ascents and river crossings and its fine balance and extremely low centre of gravity gives it athletic poise on the gravel roads as it does on the race track. On tarmac, it’s even more fun to drive because it can
THE I-PACE HAS A 90KWH BATTERY
PACK PLACED UNDER THE FLAT FLOOR BETWEEN THE TWO AXLES. IT HAS 400BHP OF POWER ON TAP AND 696NM OF TORQUE. BUT THE BEAUTY IS ITS RANGE —UPTO 480KM ON A SINGLE CHARGE
throw you back into the seat whenever one steps on the throttle and is planted at high speeds and around corners given its large wheelbase and huge wheels.
There are a number of settings one can customise for comfort and style of driving, even though the car is learning individual driving styles to optimise efficiency and thereby range. First is regenerative braking which when set on high allows one to drive the SUV with a single pedal, on the gas means acceleration and off the gas means rapid deceleration, so much so that the vehicle can come to a standstill. With regenerative braking set to low, one needs to use the brake as one would normally. One can also ask for a calm environment in the car and this cuts out all sound and even the whirring of motors is reduced to a minimum or at the other extreme is where the electric vehicle sounds are enhanced to give one a sporty driving feel.
Not only can this SUV do some off-roading, but surprising for an SUV it’s great on the track as well. We did some fast laps on the Algarve International Circuit (Portimao Circuit) and then some slow laps to get a feel of the car. That it corners and handles so well is due to the perfect weight balance and extremely low centre of gravity unlike what one would expect from an SUV. It doesn’t
have much body roll either and goes on the track just like a sport car and the air suspension can be set to the dynamic mode—where it feels like it’s on rails around the track. Also helping on track traction is the all-wheel drive system and the instant torque available either on the front axle or the rear.
JLR has been doing these really nice interiors that we saw in the Range Rover Velar and they’ve taken these into the new vehicles including the I-Pace. While the layout is the same as that on the Velar with three screens, one for the IP and two for the central touchscreens, the displays are tuned for the electric vehicle and have lots of features that are designed specifically for the EV.
The highlight of the interiors in the I-Pace is