Jaguar keeps up the I-Pace
Nile Bijoux finds out how the Jaguar I-Pace is doing more than 12 months after it was first released.
Jaguar’s first-ever electric vehicle has been on the market for more than a year now. With more family-sized luxury EVs coming into New Zealand, how has the Jag held up?
That’s an interesting question. One thing we can’t test during our week-odd with tester vehicles is longevity with regard to how various parts of a car hold up to the test of time.
While many models are impressive during our drive periods for various reasons, we get to drive them with minimal mileage and give them back after putting about 300 more kilometres on the clock.
It’s enough to tell you how comfy it is, how powerful it might be and how cutting-edge its technology is.
In the case of the Jaguar I-Pace, the answer to those three questions is ‘‘very’’. In SE trim, the I-Pace gets 10-way grained leather sports seats, 20-inch ‘‘Style 6007’’ alloys, an upgraded driver assistance package and more connectivity features. This tester had the ‘‘Style 5068’’ wheels normally seen on the HSE version.
The twin-motor powertrain generates 294kW/696Nm, enough to propel the SUV to 100kmh in a claimed 4.8 seconds and the 90kWh battery holds enough juice for 470 WLTP-rated kilometres. It feels great to drive and is happy to be hustled. Those wary of electric cars ‘‘sapping the soul’’ out of driving need not worry here.
It’s a different sensation of speed, sure, and the sudden torque bouncing your head off the headrest might lose its charm after a few hard launches
but, through the bends, I-Pace is composed and fast.
Jaguar’s EV looks fantastic and plenty of people stopped and pointed while I was taking photos.
A few even knew what it was, before zooming away on hired escooters. Jag’s styling is on point at the moment and it’s good to see casual bystanders also taking notice.
Inside is beautifully appointed. There are leather and soft-touch materials everywhere with added woodgrain inserts to remind you that this is a Jaaaaag. The twin digital displays look good, despite the infotainment unit being slow to respond. Two rotary dials control temperature, fan speed and the heated seats (pull and push to access those respective settings). A third digital display sits behind the wheel and shows speed front and centre inside a rotating needle that swings from Charge to Power, depending on what you’re asking from the electric motors. There isn’t much visibility out of the rear window
though, which can be annoying.
This is a very good car, despite some niggles. Little wonder it won a bunch of awards when it launched at the end of 2018. In fact, it is ostensibly the most highly decorated production car (of any powertrain type) in modern history, according to its Wikipedia page, receiving 62 awards in total in its first year, including the 2019 World Car of the Year Award.
But, like us at Stuff Motoring, these awards are based on road test stints and aren’t entirely reflective of real-world ownership. We can’t say that any given model won’t develop rattles or squeaks after six months, or that the digital screens and slick rotary knobs won’t stop working after an energetic child has a go at them. That information comes later, usually through studies done by groups like JD Power.
And, unfortunately for the 86-year-old British carmaker, Jaguar and its Land Rover sibling ranked near the bottom of the most recent survey, and that’s not an entirely new thing. JLR has been running in the red for a few years now and the I-Pace represents an opportunity to turn things around financially.
Obviously these studies look at the company as a whole and Jaguar makes other vehicles aside from I-Pace, some dating back to the mid-2010s. As for the new kid on the block, a quick look online for what early adopters are saying shows good things. Quality seems to keep well and the technologically advanced bits and pieces around the car are holding up well.
For what it’s worth, my five days with the I-Pace revealed no major flaws. The infotainment and HVAC screens didn’t immediately switch on once, instead delaying their startups for a few minutes. I chalked it up to ‘‘weird stuff that could happen to any car’’, given it only happened once.
It pays to remember the thing has only been on sale since mid2018 and the second-hand market is yet to really get its hands on used models. That’s when we’ll get a clearer picture of how it withstands the test of time.
Until then, the I-Pace has to contest with the likes of Audi’s e-tron (now available in 50 as well as 55 trims, plus the Sportback body style), Tesla’s Model X and Mercedes-Benz’s EQC. And it should be said, in that JD Power survey mentioned earlier, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Tesla all ranked lower than you might expect.