HOW_FAR_ CAN_IT_ ACTUALLY_ GO? 05
The silence is ominous. I’ve just told a senior I-Pace engineer what I’m about to do with his car. I was hoping for encouraging noises and handy hints. Instead, dead air. Then, at length, “The WLTP is just a lab test, you know…” and a series of mumbled qualifcations and excuses-in-advance about how real driving can use far more energy. His heavy implication is that to set out on a real trip the same length as the quoted range is a fool’s errand that’ll inevitably leave me stranded.
Which pops my balloon good and proper. London to Land’s End on a charge – how great would that have been? The WLTP* range of the I-Pace is 298 miles. That journey is 291 miles. We’ve known for years your actual results would never be anywhere near the old and discredited NEDC test. The new WLTP is supposed to be more realistic and attainable. Er, but not, says my Jaguar man, that attainable. Well sod the lot of ’em. TopGear is going anyway.
The Jaguar has slept overnight with an electrical umbilical to the wall. I’ve never been more steely in my determination. I adjust the electric seats and mirrors before unplugging. Then hand Rowan, the poor photographer who’s always assigned my endurance trips, a USB power pack so he won’t feed his phone from the car’s sockets. Those things would be a fraction of a fraction of a per cent, but everything counts today.
Out through west London, the accelerator is a glass knife, the brake the pedal of last resort. I play loose with ambers and freewheel too brazenly into roundabouts. Sorry, people. Onto