TG's big Jaguar I-Pace test part 3: do the kids dig it?

It’s not so quiet now. I’m not sure how many boys are orbiting the I-Pace because they won’t stand still long enough to be counted. One is plugging a charge lead into another’s ear, while another lounges in the minuscule front load bay. “Hey,” comes a cry from inside, “you can play noughts and crosses on the ceiling.”

Within five minutes the locusts have swarmed, discovered every nook and cranny, been to the very depths of the infotainment menu system, and even discovered how to manually adjust the fan speed, which I’d singularly failed to do. You want a car destruction tested? This beats the Nürburgring, hands down.

This is the generation for whom electric cars will soon be the norm. These boys know cars, yet not one of them mentions the fact that Jaguars used to have loud V8s or that one was called the E-Type. A Jag crossover, I ask them, is that OK? Bemusement. It’s the most natural thing in the world when there are no preconceptions. At this age, they just accept the future. It’s tech that gets them buzzing, just like it did when we were young.

They love the touchscreen panels, the height-adjustable suspension: “It can change between an off-roader and a normal car,” one comments. Able to seat three across the boot aperture, they think it’s big enough to cope with sports kit and musical instruments, but worry that the dog won’t be able to see out. I ask them how much they think it might cost. “About 75 thousand” is the reply. One of them knows too much.

Read part one of TG's big Jaguar I-Pace test here

And read part two, here