Video : Jaguar I-Pace price and specifications announced

The first electric vehicle (EV) from Jaguar has broken cover. The I-Pace is the newest member of its Pace family, and according to Jaguar, it delivers, ‘sustainable sports car performance, all-wheel-drive agility and five-seat SUV practicality.’

The styling closely echoes what has already been seen in concept form as well as in camouflage in testing ahead of its official unveiling. It slots in the range above the E-Pace and below the F-Pace, although, as an all-new electric crossover, it’s likely to signal the start of a new EV franchise across the Jaguar range.

And it’s needed – Jaguar sales continue to be dominated by those of Land Rover, and this new car – with no direct LR alternative – is set to attract new customers to the company. The styling shares much in the way of design language with the Jaguar XE and XF, so it retains a low and sporty look, despite having a roomy interior.

Video: Jaguar I-Pace features and benefits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVahSvWpnyo

What is the Jaguar I-Pace like to charge?

Thanks to the strategic positioning of its motors and battery packs, the I-Pace looks lean and low – which it needs to if it’s going to steal customers from Tesla, its closest rival. The I-Pace makes use of JLR’s aluminium platform expertise, and houses two electric motors for a promised range of 298 miles on a single charge.

Using a 50kW DC charge point, it takes 85 minutes to take the I-Pace’s 90kWh battery pack from flat to 80% capacity.
Currently the UK is in the early stages of seeing 100kW DC rapid chargers being rolled out: using one of these a 0-80% charge will take 40 minutes.

Most electric car owners recharge their vehicles overnight using a dedicated wall box: for a 0-80% recharge using a 7kW AC supply requires 10 hours, which should suit most owners. Jaguar doesn’t yet quote a time for charging the I-Pace using a conventional three-pin domestic plug.

Anything else we need to know?

Jaguar says that The I-Pace will be capable of rapid charging, with zero to 80% in 85 minutes. Inside, it continues the concept’s appealing minimalist layout, while on the road, with around 396bhp to play with, it’s attractively quick off the blocks, with a claimed 0-60mph time of 4.5 seconds.

And to prove its sporting credentials, Jaguar is throwing the I-Pace into a new racing series to support the Formula E electric single-seater championship. Jaguar has announced prices for the I-Pace, with a starting price of £63,495 – before the expected very long list of options is delved into.

Jaguar I-Pace vs Tesla: drag race

 

Keith Adams

17 Comments

  1. Interestingly, the range is about what you would have got if you’d bought a Jaguar in the 60s, but unlike electric cars the range could be restored in about 10 or less minutes at a petrol station. Then the engineers reduced the fuel consumption of engines, so the range with existing sizes of fuel tanks went up considerably. And, of course, it still only takes minutes to restore the range of the vehicle. Electric cars will remain a niche product until “fuelling” times are considerably reduced. Then there is the unspoken issue of battery life; these things don’t last forever and with a replacement battery cost running into hundred even thousands of pounds will mean the cars will be scrapped way before they’re worn out. This will then cause huge depreciation as 2nd and subsequent owners factor in this into their buying decisions.

    • True. But then with an internal combustion engine there are many consumables, and even at that no engine would last forever either. Over the lifetime of an ICE it probably costs hundreds if not thousands to keep serviced and running properly.

      The ICE is still, at it’s core, the same basic idea, albeit refined honed improved and made incredibly reliable, since the early 20th century, it is a relic that has only held on for so long due to politics and the power of oil companies.
      In comparison an electric car has a single electric motor powering a drivechain, the concept is a lot more straightforward.
      It is almost like comparing an industrial revolution era steam powered factory machine to a modern automated electric powered production line.

      I quite liked the idea Renault had at one point, where it treated the battery like people use gas cylinders – you don’t really own it but use the contents, once it had run out you go to a station where it is quickly swapped for another.

      Battery tech is still in its infancy, ever improving over time.

      My concern is that it is just moving the fossil fuel use / pollutant gas output further downstream (eg. your local coal/gas/oil power station) instead of at source (petrol/diesel engine), until science can discover a truly 100% uptime clean renewable energy source for generating electricity.

      • In 1900 38% of cars were electric and had a top speed of 65mph with a range of 100 miles. Battery technology has improved slightly since but certainly not comparable to ICE improvements. The latest TESLA cars have a motor on each wheel, not one motor driving 4 wheels and if anything should go wrong I wouldn’t expect the repair bills to be small.

        I wish people would realise that electric cars are not that great for the environment when you consider the pollution generated to manufacture the battery. Also, the rare metals batteries use come from some of the poorest countries in the world and like oil there is a finite source.

    • “This will then cause huge depreciation as 2nd and subsequent owners factor in this into their buying decisions.”

      Much like the equivalent ICE XJ then!
      Have we had the “Not a real Jag – fluted bonnet, burr walnut, William Lyons etc” yet? Imagine how they laughed at Gaydon at the forum comments about XE / XF/ XJ not being “proper Jaguars” while all the time they were working on this.

  2. Very interesting; I’m guessing that in 10 years’ time, maybe less, Jag would like to stop making cars like the XF and XE, and this and the E-Pace will be mainstream instead
    I think the barrier that needs to be got over is the styling. it looks good – but not like a normal Jag. It has to become ‘normal’.
    I presume it’s the dog’s bollocks to drive, and nice to sit in, and electric motors have already made it.

    • Certainly quite a lot of sub-premium marques have axed their big saloons with SUVs becoming mainstream. In some ways we’ve come full circle to the early days of motoring, back to tall, big wheeled, square shaped cars – Rolls Royce even alludes to this when justifying the Cullinan.

      • @ Will M, at one time in Britain, Ford, Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi, all offered large cars in the 2-3 litre range. Admittedly the Japanese offerings were acquired tastes, often imitating American cars and being poorer to drive than their European rivals( if generally very reliable and fantastic value for money), but the Vauxhall Carlton and Ford Granada were popular cars that were decent to drive and fairly reliable and cheap to maintain.

        • Was a long time ago now, though. The Granada was killed off in 1998 and the Omega was killed off in 2003. These cars did OK in an era before CO2-based road tax (imagine a simpler time when you could tax a Ferrari for the same annual price as a Fiesta!) and aggressive company car tax rules.

          Back on topic, I think the E-pace looks great, and the 298 mile range would be fine for my family’s usage patterns. Watching this one with interest.

        • And Rover? I seem to remember the 800 out selling the Granada and Ford then gave up after the ugly Scorpio incident. Time for a new big electric coupe Rover perhaps.

  3. Perhaps in 10 years time, electric cars will have the same range as a small diesel car( 600 miles on one charge) and will be as quick to fill up. Technology is advancing all the time, in the same way an eighties Jaguar was lucky to average 20 mpg, while a diesel XE can do 60 mpg on a long journey. Also add in the lower servicing costs( no oil changes, fuel and air filters to replace on EVs), the near silent drive both inside and outside, and a huge reduction in pollution once EVs and hybrids become commonplace, and you can see the attraction of these cars.

  4. The best bit of Jaguar styling for a while, managing to look new and advanced, while also still Jaguarish. Important for the “brand” too, such an advanced vehicle will hopefully cast a halo effect over the rest of the range

  5. I am surprised and disappointed at so much negativity about the I Pace on this forum, particularly given that the car has been so well received by the press and those fortunate to drive it. The biggest negative to it from me, is that it is assembled in Austria and not Castle Bromwich or even better Browns Lane but that door shut long ago on a Jaguar being assembled in Coventry (fyi – Ryton is not in Coventry).

    I see a lot of negatives about electric cars, most of which are not rooted in reality.

    1: They won’t be reliable and or will be expensive to fix

    An ICE car has between 3000 to 5000 moving parts in its powertrain, and ICE car has between 150 and 200 moving parts this inherent simplicity will be a major driver for better reliability and maintenance costs.

    2: I need to change the battery after a couple of years, just like my mobile phone.

    Whilst there is limitations to battery chemistry that drives these issues that lead to short battery life in things like mobile phones, these have been successfully addressed by Tesla and I understand Jaguar. Independent monitoring of the Tesla fleet is showing battery life of 500K+ km and or 23 years plus before the battery capacity drops below 80% of its designed capacity. Highest mileage Tesla in Europe is a Taxi that has done 400,000 km and still retains 93% of its design capacity Link. This performance is being achieved by Tesla owners because the batteries only typically discharge a small amount of their capacity between changes, the battery temperature is precisely maintained during charging and discharge cycles and the batteries are charged in a sophisticated way, balancing the cells and reducing the charging rates based on available time (ie using the full 7 hours of off peak) and battery capacity.

    3: The range is too short.

    For some people yes, but the average car in the UK does less than 35km a day so for most people this is not going to be an issue, the industry view is that once you get over 320km of real world range, range ceases to be an issue for 80% of customers. Some people have written about the need to be able to do 600 miles and then refill in a few mins, but first few people do and nobody should drive 600 miles, refill and drive on, a 30 min (and with next generation 15 min) charge per 200 miles driven is no real hardship.

    My wife is fortunate to be running a P100 S here in Sweden, which has a real world 500km range depending on temperature and range is never an issue, because the car recharges overnight topping itself up to a predetermined 95% (to preserve batteries you only normally charge to 95%, most stress for the battery occurs in the last 5% which you need to select the “Vacation charge” mode to access – charging your phone, tablet battery between a 25% to 95% is a good way to extend its life) on a trickle charge after its 120 to 150km mile daily work, so the car fills itself up every night so saving inconvenience on a miserable Swedish night of having to fill up on an ice cold forecourt. We took the car to Northern Italy in the summer, only the second time we needed to access the fast charge network (the first was a test to see if really could go 500km on a charge and recharge in 30 min). The experience was very positive, smooth silent car cabin with taking fast charges of 20 to 30 min every 200 to 300 km was not the annoyance we had expected, because it gave time for a drink, meal or snooze. It’s also not so often because with a full 100% (vacation charge) overnight the car took the first 450 km in a single stage 900km a day 2 day journey, a recharge for lunch followed by a mid-afternoon recharge got us the remaining 450 km to the hotel where we used the destination charger to fill it up (gently) to 100% to do the same on the second day.

    4: They are too expensive

    The I Pace is a Jaguar so it’s exclusive and deservedly expensive, but as volumes increase the price for EVs are coming down, the modern ICE car is an amazing achievement of mass production with those 3000 plus precision engineered components in its powertrain it’s amazing the price a small hatchback can be delivered to the market, and this is achieved in part because of highly automated manufacturing processes that high volumes allow. But with EV volumes are rapidly increasing, and their simplicity with only 150 moving parts in a typical 2 wheel drive platform and many less challenges in dealing with powertrain noise and vibration the industry is predicting that in 2023 to 2025 manufacturers will pass the cutover where an EV will be cheaper to manufacturer than an equivalent ICE car. Although in the market we can expect to see some lag in pricing, just as we did for diesels. One of the reasons for this is that many small cars are sold at a loss, with significant part of the profit being made on maintenance (why they like to sell you a maintenance package), the other is that they will want to leverage their existing ICE production facilities as volumes start dropping off. What we are already seeing is that nobody now in the industry is talking about commissioning ICE new engine designs and manufacturing facilities, the current (and truly superb) generation of 2 litre and below Euro 6 power units I think are the last generation and will see their life out over the next 2 decades being tweaked and mated to hybrid systems for the increasingly few people who can’t manage with sub 500km range.

    My conclusion is that the IPace is as important a part of Jaguar heritage as the E Type, because it is not only a truly beautiful car as a Jaguar should be, but any EV that can go further and or faster lacks its beauty and comes with a more hefty price tag, this is going to be the Jag to be seen in.

  6. Can’t blame Jaguar for making the car in Austria. Until Brexit is resolve investing in the UK is not a smart decision for a UK car maker.

  7. Ohhhh what a dream it is!!!! Has anyone watched the numerous reports about African or S/American KIDS working in mines to get the precious metals to built these batteries…
    Such a relief for our planet!!! or, is it?
    Has anyone found a way to re-cycle the dead batteries?
    In France, the diesel haunt is starting to turn around, there’s no cheaper alternative for the gvt float… Go and explain to the “gilets jaunes” taxes are going up cos cars are costing more to buy, maintain and eventually, we, the gvt, don’t know what to do with these cars once they’re dead!!! as they are full of harmful metals or derivatives…. these E-cars are worse than diesel even before they get built, such a shame.

  8. Let alone, the uproar was/started about eco-tax on diesel!!!!
    Our gvt is paying 6300€ to encourage children slavery through E-car buying!!! the world is walking on its head or I’m not human…

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