Just like Meghan Markle revolutionised the Royal Family, this car has revolutionised Jaguar. As Jaguar and Land Rover reimagines the future of modern luxury by design offering pure electric power in all models by 2030, The world’s super-villains can now prowl around with eerie silence and apparently, zero-emissions.
The most important Jaguar since the E-Type – that’s how company bosses describe the new Jaguar I-Pace SUV. For what seemed like an age it was difficult to avoid the commotion surrounding the electric Jaguar; billions of pounds were poured into its development and over 1.5 million miles were driven in prototypes across the globe to ensure Jaguar got it right first time. More pure-electric Jaguars are set to come, and on this evidence they’ll be worth the wait. If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the noise Jaguar has been making about the I-Pace, here’s a quick recap. The I-Pace is the first car to be based on the firm’s new ‘skateboard’ architecture, one that is for fully electric cars only and will go on to underpin a whole family of future Jag EVs.
EXTERIOR:
The 2021 I-Pace is first and foremost a great-looking vehicle. It speaks a subtle SUV language, with a slightly raised driving position, yet it's not too bulky. It has Jaguar cues - the grille, the lamps, the way that details are handled - yet it takes the brand in a very new and ultimately positive direction.
It doesn’t show many signs that it’s all-electric from the outside or inside. The profile is rakish, with a cab-forward design that helps maximize space, and it fits right in with Jaguar’s other crossovers like the F-Pace. It manages to look graceful and taut at the same time, and its combination of widened wheel wells and a body that tapers a bit in the middle helps exaggerate that presence. But the way it all fits together gives it more of an instantly identifiable performance-vehicle profile. Oh, and those Velar-derived door handles, which shuttle out to greet you when you unlock the car, are very cool too.
INTERIOR:
Step inside, and for what's not a huge car, there's plenty of space both front and back. There's a floating lower centre console that's complete with a fantastic pair of jewel-like climate control knobs. You use these for cabin temperature, fan speed and seat heating (and cooling, if you have it specified).
Hallelujah for some physical dial controls, eh? We prefer that over all functions being buried deep within a touchscreen menu. Having everything touchscreen might sound more futuristic, but it's not always the best approach when eye-on-the-road driving should come first. Besides, Jag's updated tech in the 2021 i-Pace is rather accomplished. Around all this tech, there's useful and well-thought design and storage for real-life use. Six USB ports, five 12V sockets, a slot at the base of the console for your phone, a 10-litre centre bin, and slots underneath the rear seat for stashing and hiding things like tablets and laptops.
Gear selection is controlled by push buttons on the centre console, the indicators and wipers are conventional, while the updated screens of the Pivi Pro infotainment system - a 12.3-inch high-definition virtual instrument cluster, along with 10-inch and 5-inch upper and lower touchscreens - make for an easy-to-use and familiar system.
THE DRIVE:
The 2021 Jaguar I-Pace performs as well as—or better than—any of Jaguar’s gas-powered models, and its combination of sharp acceleration and near-perfect ride-and-handling balance make it appealing to a wide range of expectations. All-wheel drive is standard and power is equally distributed to all four corners. Twin electric motors make 400 hp and 696 Nm of torque. They’re juiced by a 90-kwh battery that is mounted under the floor—accounting for more than a third of this model’s near-4,800-pound curb weight.
Jaguar claims the I-Pace can reach just over 400 km range on a full charge. Level 2 (240-volt) charging has also improved from the previous 13 hours—potentially to less than 9 now. And via DC fast charging, on 150-kw CCS hardware, the I-Pace will restore up to 100 kms of range in just 15 minutes. The range of the car is good enough to make it a long-range proposition, it's great to drive, and it looks strikingly good. What does that mean in reality if you go out and buy one? Well, we lived with the i-Pace for a couple of days, where it started at 100% charge with 2840 kms on the odometer, and finished up at 3160 kms with 22 per cent charge remaining. That, with a quick bit of maths, is 320 kms achieved with a spare 100 kms or so in the 'tank' - so around 80 kms fewer than the on-board computer's expected 400 kms.
Realistically speaking, you can drive the I-Pace in whichever manner you please. Half of our drive time was smashing it around motorways and not thinking economically - and still easily hit beyond the 300 km mark no problem.
How fast is the Jaguar I-Pace?
For all its heft, the I-Pace blasts to 100 kmh in a near-silent 4.5 seconds, and the low, central location for the battery pack gives it the weight distribution of a sports car.
Which leads to an important distinction versus plenty of other crossovers and electric vehicles. With a dual-wishbone front suspension and an integral-link rear suspension, plus air springs all around, the I-Pace can soak up imperfections adequately enough—even with the available 20-inch wheels, while offering quite engaging handling.
You can choose between high and low brake regeneration, with the high mode allowing one-pedal driving (you won’t need to use the brake pedal a whole lot), and the low-regen mode feeling more like a conventional car, albeit with somewhat clumsy brake engagement. There’s an option to engage “creep,” like an automatic-transmission gas vehicle, too.
Off-road ability? Shockingly, that’s here, too—somewhat. The I-Pace can ford 19.7 inches of water, and deal with some light off-roading on the way to trails or launches.
SPACE and PRACTICALITY:
This very passenger-focused packaging is also focused toward making enough usable space for four adults—five will fit—rather than making room for a third row. It’s smooth-riding and appointed like a true luxury vehicle, with finely detailed trims and materials that don’t get short shrift, and for that we give the Jaguar a perfect 10 here.
The I-Pace feels more spacious than other compact crossovers of its size. Front seats are supportive and well-bolstered, although the base synthetic-leather seats aren’t as cozy as those in upper trims. We especially like the WIndsor leather used in the top-trim HSE model, with the optional performance seats—better seats than you’ll find in other SUVs this size, electric or not. The I-Pace claims 25.3 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, which fold-down nearly flat, or 51.0 cubic feet behind the front seats. There’s storage beneath the center-console controls, and laptop storage underneath the rear seats.
SAFETY:
The I-Pace does come standard with a solid list of active-safety features that includes automatic emergency braking, active lane control, and traffic-sign recognition, plus adaptive cruise control. Top HSE models add steering assist to the adaptive cruise control, plus blind-spot monitors, a head-up display, and a 360-degree camera system and self-parking - that kind of thing. The i-Pace has queue assist, allowing the car to steer itself as well as accelerate/brake in a traffic jam, although you won’t find any equivalent of Tesla’s much-touted Full Self-Driving package here.
But Jaguar has added a few, critical and well-judged EV-specific elements into the in-car interface. A power/charge swing-o-meter in the instrument cluster replaces the rev counter of petrol cars, so you can see when recovering energy. And a 'My EV' menu in the centre display features a lovely hologram of an i-Pace to show its charge status and range.
VERDICT:
I’ll be honest, this is my first time driving an electric vehicle let alone review one so I’m sharing with you my honest to goodness verdict; The Jaguar I-Pace SUV is one of the very best cars I’ve ever driven! The I-Pace merges the powertrain technology of the future with everything expected in a prestige luxury model. It's a joy to drive, presents an arresting and appealing design, all while employing logical, helpful technology - including Apple CarPlay/Android Auto that's integrated in a really wonderful way. It does all this without resorting to show-off doors or jaw-dropping huge screens.
The I-Pace is clearly not a product of Silicon Valley's move-fast-and-break-things approach to innovation, either. The I-Pace's feels like an aspirational car for regular people. And that, among other things, is what makes it a true Jaguar. It's not techy for tech's sake. Or elitist. Yes, at a starting price of Php 7,490,000, it’s not exactly cheap, but then it feels deeply and cleverly engineered - with space aplenty inside. It might not be the car to bring electric mobility to the masses - but of the similar-price rivals from Audi, Porsche and Tesla, it's a winning formula. If you ask me, that figure is worth your hard earned cash.
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