World Car of the Year 2019 (WCOTY), European Car of the Year 2019 (COTY) and the car with the best design of 2019, such awards are proud of the Jaguar I-PACE currently tested by us. Recently, his name has quite rightly been mentioned only in superlatives, and even I was able to form my own opinion about him at the moment.
However, after a week spent with this electric beast, I have to agree with the majority and state that it is a very good car. Until now, electromobility has had certain limitations, mainly due to the short range of cars and the weak infrastructure of charging stations.
However, Jaguar has come up with a new, fully electric car that has a very interesting range in the numbers game. Thanks to this, the already mentioned second ailment, concerning the recharging infrastructure, is combated to a certain extent. Simply put, you don't need to charge this car as often as you used to.
The I-PACE model thus launched the brand's electrifying future, and certainly in style.
A beast at first sight
The way in which the chief designer of the brand, Ian Callum, was able to combine the requirements of the construction and layout of the individual components of the electric car with the handwriting of the current design direction of the brand's vehicles is simply brilliant and successful.
I-PACE is a large car, yet its shapes are very dynamic and sporty, and as a result quite simple and elegant. Thanks to the location of the batteries in the floor between the axles, the car has a large wheelbase, and at the same time, due to the location of the individual electric motors between the individual wheels, minimal overhangs in front of the front and rear wheels. The I-PACE, this "SUV" thus receives very original and hard-to-classify shapes.
The details around the front fenders, the front mask, the automatically extendable handles, the trunk lid spoiler or the treatment of the shapes of the front and rear lamps are worth noting.
I personally see in him the crouched beast that is about to attack. Jaguar I-PACE, despite its primary volume, managed to be tuned for dynamism and representative shapes.
There is certainly no shortage of space and high-quality interior design
The interior is really spacious thanks to the large wheelbase. Equipped with quality materials and great workmanship. There is plenty of space in the front and rear positions, even in places above the heads of the crew traveling in the back.
The dashboard itself has a classic layout, looks elegant and clean in shape. The part between the deck itself and the central tunnel is interestingly solved. Here is such a "connecting bridge" which is also equipped with a separate (third) display, smart and multifunctional circular controls for setting the temperature, fan intensity or heating or ventilating the seats. Next, the driving mode selector, the stabilization control, the car's ground clearance control, and finally the driving direction control and the parking brake. The mentioned "third" display then mainly takes care of the air conditioning or quick access to the radio and telephone.
The central part of the dashboard has the already well-known ten-inch touch screen of the on-board infotainment, which mainly controls the phone, radio, navigation or web browser.
To complete the extensive topic of individual displays, the instrument cluster in front of the driver is equipped with a so-called interactive fully digital display with a diagonal of 12.3 inches. This display then receives and displays a large amount of operational information, navigation, phone and media.
The multi-function steering wheel itself, which has a fairly large circumference and width of the rim itself, also becomes pleasant. This is a very typical design for Jaguar cars.
The luggage compartment then offers a considerable 638 litres, and the loading edge becomes a very pleasant dispensing counter when the car is fully raised.
The interior of the Jaguar I-PACE supports the overall good character of the car, it offers a large interior space, which is supported by quality materials and excellent workmanship.
400 hp and 696 Nm of torque
The Jaguar I-PACE has a pair of electric motors, each of which produces 200 horsepower and drives one axle. It is therefore a four-wheeler with a very powerful torque of 696 Nm, which is also available practically immediately.
The pull of this car is really hard to describe, it has to be experienced. It is powerful, instantly doseable and simply addictive. The classic rules of the game go aside here. Do you need performance? Here it is, instantly! And then a smile spreads across your face from ear to ear.
Another element that supports the sensuality of the performance of this rocket is, of course, the all-wheel drive, which facilitates the transfer of the considerable torque of the car to the road itself. Furthermore, this drive naturally supports its dynamic driving characteristics.
In terms of chassis, the car is primarily tuned for comfort, in connection with its "elektomobile" silent operation, it provides you with really great driving comfort on board.
On the other hand, it can also make you angry and make you forget about its weight, which is a considerable 2.2 tons. A pair of electric motors and a floor filled with (ideally, also charged) batteries keep the car's center of gravity very low and thus support its dynamic driving characteristics. The Jaguar I-PACE can therefore not only be extremely fast, but also stable in its chassis.
But the I-PACE is presented as a representative of the SUV category, and since it doesn't look like it, what is it really like? Its air, adjustable chassis can change the ground clearance by up to twenty centimeters at your command. The chassis of the vehicle is quite tough, but it can handle a lot off-road. The tires themselves and its long wheelbase become its limit in the field.
But in the end, it's definitely an interesting sight as this sporty-looking Jaguar creeps slowly across the terrain with the only sound being the cracking of rocks under its tires.
Charging
The I-PACE, or rather its floor, is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 90 kWh, encapsulated Li-ion cells with a high energy density are used for energy storage.
The car can be charged with a power of up to 100kW, at this power it takes approx. 40 minutes to charge to 80%. However, there are quite a few such charging stations in the Czech Republic. Stations with a power of 50 kW are more common, and here it takes around three hours to charge to 100%. Of course, the car can also be charged from a standard outlet, but we are talking about less than 40 hours here.
Simply put, those who are thinking about purchasing an electric car are definitely thinking ahead about the actual operation and charging of this car. Many of them have the opportunity to charge their car at work, for example, and a home charging station is the ideal solution.
As electric cars advance, their range naturally increases. After 100% charging, the I-PACE offers a range of around 350 km, and this is definitely an interesting figure, which forces you to recharge it, for example, once a week during daily "city" driving. The urban environment is really welcoming, where you can "break through" a column with a few gas pedals, and you are also able to accumulate some energy through recuperation itself.
It is much worse with a longer journey, here it is already necessary to plan and calculate easily. But it's definitely about habit, confidence and working with the car itself. During the weekly test, my consumption was around 24 kWh per 100 kilometers driven, which corresponds to the real range of the already mentioned 350 km. And you can already work really well with it. The only thing I would appreciate is better work with the recuperation itself. It has only two levels and is controlled on the central display. Paddles under the steering wheel and a finer intensity of gradation of recuperation could be beneficial.
Conclusion
My personal experience with purely electric cars is not great yet, but the Jaguar I-PACE has set the bar damn high for me when it comes to evaluating other electric cars.
Jaguar I-PACE is offered in three trim levels I-PACE S, I-PACE SE and I-PACE HSE. In the price list, the basic equipment S starts at 2,113,870 CZK including VAT, the top equipment HSE at 2,486,429 CZK including VAT.
This is a car that gave us a glimpse into the near future of electromobility itself. And in his presentation, then this time, it doesn't look bad at all.
The Jaguar I-PACE is a great car with many faces, it can be comfortable, it can be purely sporty and it is not afraid even of lighter terrain. In addition to all this, it will offer a really decent and representative external appearance and a spacious, well-crafted interior.
