Jaguar I-Pace - long-term review

When Jaguar took the wraps off the I-Pace at the 2018 Geneva show, it could be argued it surprised the industry more than the Jaguar loyalists. How had this relatively small UK manufacturer managed to deliver an all-electric production car to rival the dominance of Tesla before the leviathans of Mercedes and Volkswagen?

Since its launch the I-Pace has silently slipped around the world gathering universal praise and winning countless awards. Last year, we crowned it the Top Gear EV of the Year and it won Car of the Year, Green Car of the Year and Car Design of the Year in the World Car Awards.

But, after a year in the spotlight, it’s time for us to discover what life is really like with an I-Pace: can this piece of left-field thinking, born from a desire to challenge people’s perception of Jaguar, and push the design and engineering teams at Whitley to deliver a halo product for the future vision of the brand, really deliver on a damp traffic jam on the M25?

To make a case for itself we’ve gone for the middle-of-the-road SE spec (£69,995 OTR, reduced to £66,495 with the government Plug in Car Grant of £3,500) and then liberally covered it with options, including adaptive dynamics (£800), air suspension (£1,100), fixed panoramic sunroof (£960) and the eye-wateringly expensive 14-way heated and cooled adjustable seats (£3,040). In all, it’s landed for a Tesla Model S-rivalling £78,940.

Options aside, the I-Pace’s two e-motors deliver 395bhp, fed to all four wheels, and its 90kWh battery provides a claimed WLTP range of 258 miles. Like all EVs, the performance figures are impressive – it will dash to 62mph in 4.8secs. So, will the I-Pace be able to deliver a new iteration of grace, space and pace and bring the brand a much-needed new generation of customers? It’s going to be a fascinating six months. Stay tuned.