WHAT’S IT LIKE IN THE METAL?
Before seeing the E-pace for the first time, I was fully expecting a baby F-pace, particularly given the close relationship between the XE and XF saloons – the cars the E and F letters are borrowed from for the SUVS.
It’s actually anything but. The E-pace is a car with a character and style all of its own: fun-looking and distinctive, but clearly still a Jaguar. Nor can you spot that there’s a Land Rover hiding underneath it.
The I-pace aside, the E-pace challenges the notion of what a Jaguar can be more than any other car the firm has made. But it is testament to the success of the recent designs that such a radical departure for the car maker can look so at home in the range so quickly, and be so distinctive with it.
Indeed, the F-paces dotted around Jaguar’s Whitley site, which had looked fresh and modern before I went into the design studio, started to look quite old and dated after I left.