2019 Jaguar I-Pace vs 2020

What's the difference?

Among the I-Pace’s list of credits, the fake engine note is a mere quibble. This is an amazing achievement for Jaguar, which not that long ago was peddling trumped-up Fords or ancient platforms draped in overtly retro designs. 

It’s a luxury electric car you could not only live with, but bring your family along for the ride, with a range that should handle most weekends away without needing an ultra-rapid charger. 

It’s not often we choose the most expensive model as the sweet spot of the range, but in this case I feel it’s the First Edition. Despite the extra outlay, it’s the only variant that comes with all the luxuries I’d be looking for at this end of the market, and I’d also be ticking the box for the 22-inch wheels to keep the proportions closest to the design team’s intentions.

Also check out Andrew Chesterton's I-Pace review video from its international launch:

If you have deep enough pockets to even be considering the I-Pace all I can say is go for it. I can’t promise it will be easy to begin with, considering the limited charging infrastructure in Australia’s capital cities and the limitations of charging on AC, but this Jag has more than enough range to make subsisting on maintenance charging a viable prospect for most urban buyers.

Importantly, the I-Pace offers a much-needed middle ground between the futurism of Teslas and the pragmatism of Hyundai’s electrified range – not an easy feat given how early the I-Pace was to hit the electrified market.

We’re keen to pit it against the just-launched Mercedes-Benz EQC and soon-to-launch Audi E-Tron to see who is king of the premium electric SUVs.

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What’s above the floor was arguably the biggest challenge though, with designers needing to combine the freedom of not having to house bulky traditional mechanicals with being instantly recognisable as a Jaguar. 

So there’s no need for the traditional long bonnet, with that space put to better use on the inside within an expansive 2990mm wheelbase. The resulting cab-forward, tall-boy look is cleverly disguised by SUV-like side cladding and wheelarch gaps, even though the overall proportions of this ‘SUV’ don’t really conform to the customary tall, two-box shape. It’s also 64mm shorter than an F-Pace SUV.

This is a key distinction from the much bigger and 297mm longer Tesla Model S it will naturally be compared with, which seems to have been designed to look like a conventional five-door luxury hatch like the Audi A7, but ultimately results in a less useful interior for a car of its size. 

There’s more detail on this under Practicality, but in a nutshell, the Jag’s taller SUV-like body leaves more room for humans above the batteries.

The I-Pace’s more coupe than SUV-like roofline helps it achieve a slippery 0.29 aerodynamic drag coefficient, and if you think it shares a similar profile to the likes of the Prius, Volt and Ioniq, it’s for this very good reason. 

The inside is contemporary Jaguar though, but with surfaces and textures more aligned with the recent E-Pace SUV than the F-Pace from the year prior. 

The four trim levels and numerous option packs mean there’s an array of surface options, but colours are generally subtle and materials are soft to the touch. So the designers have resisted going full rocket ship with their first EV. 

Is there anything not interesting about its design? I’m not even really sure what the I-Pace is. An SUV is a reasonable answer, but the rear says hatchback, and inside you’d be forgiven for feeling as though you’re in some sort of luxe sedan.

While the I-Pace seems all flat and polygonal at a distance, details leap out the closer you get. The finely textured grille is neat, and the bonnet is not a bonnet at all, but an integrated spoiler with a storage crevice inside it. Cool.

The same goes for the rear, with the seemingly squared-off spoiler actually scooped out on the inside to make for better airflow. This likely explains the rear window’s odd angle and boxy, upright, rear panel work.

Hop in the driver’s seat and there is a dichotomy of an admirably subtle dash design augmented with a sensory assault of screens. Touch pro duo is arguably a tad overkill, especially since the climate control dials have their own screens again.

Nobody is going to argue this isn’t a futuristic set for your electric escapades, but I’ll admit it took me several days to figure out how to set everything up to my liking. The digital dash, for example, is configured by holding down the lone rotary dial on left side of the steering wheel, at which point this dial ceases to control the media functions and lets you start manipulating dash elements. Confusing.

Material choices are mostly excellent throughout, and I didn’t find some of the less impressive plastic panelwork which has appeared in some recent Jaguar models – it was all nicely finished. Almost everything apart from the metal and plastic had padded soft-touch finishes, which really adds to the luxurious cabin ambiance which you’d hope for in a car this price.

The back seat has ISOFIX child seat mounts in the outward positions, and the long wheelbase suggests swallowing a rearward-facing child seat behind taller front seat occupants will be a snack. We’ll be putting this theory to the test ASAP. 

The lack of transmission tunnel in the floor has facilitated a useful storage cubby under the dash’s centre stack, along with a generous 10-litre centre console bin. There’s the usual two cupholders front and rear, but the bottle holder count is split between large gaps in the front doors, but only room for 600ml bottles in the rear. 

There are three 12-volt power outlets and four USB points spread throughout the cabin. 

Despite the short tail, the boot is a wagon-like 656 litres which expands even further via a 60/40 split fold. There’s storage under the boot floor for things like charge cables and wet items, and a bonus 27-litre front boot, which is probably the best place to store the charging kit.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a compact inflation kit under the boot floor instead of a space saver or full-size spare tyre. 

The I-Pace is large and while the inside is hardly full of practicality tricks, its sheer volume is enough for most daily scenarios.

The front seats offer plenty of leg, arm and headroom for occupants, and storage areas are plentiful, largely due to the absence of a transmission running into cabin space. As such there are neat little storage areas hidden underneath the car’s main controls, large cupholders with a slot for phones in the centre, and a deep storage box between the front two seats with elastic restraining points for loose objects. The door cards are clad in pleasant materials and offer small cupholders.

Seat adjustability is good from the get-go with eight-way power-adjust seats standard, and a manual telescopically-adjustable steering column.

Ergonomics-wise, the dual touchscreens can be a tad fiddly to adjust while you’re driving, but thankfully essential things, such as volume and climate, are adjusted through mechanical dials.

In the back seat there was plenty of room behind my own driving position, and comfortable space for my 182cm tall frame. The comfortable faux-leather seat trim continues, and there were even heated rear seats fitted to our car. Amenity-wise rear passengers get adjustable air vents in the B-pillars, two USB ports, a 12v power outlet, as well as a small storage crevice and nets on the back of the front seats. A neat standard fitment is the clear exit monitor to stop you from opening your door on incoming vehicles.

Boot space comes in at a great 656 litres, and there’s a small storage area under the bonnet for a charging cable, as well as one under the boot floor for the second, optional, ‘public’ charging cable.

The cost of this generous boot area is the I-Pace comes with a tyre repair kit rather than a space-saver or full-size spare.

Sadly, as exciting as the world of electric cars is – it’s exclusively for an audience of deep-pocketed early adopters.

We’ve talked before about the painfully tall pricetags of the cheapest electric cars – Nissan’s Leaf, Renault’s Zoe, and Hyundai’s Kona – but when it comes to premium automakers, the pricetags perhaps hurt a little less knowing so much of the cost is just to build one.

Nevertheless, this base Jaguar I-Pace EV400 S we’ve tested here comes in at $123,814, and that’s before you start to delve into the always extensive (and occasionally necessary) Jaguar options catalog.

Thankfully, the base I-Pace is a surprisingly generous offering right out of the box, so you may think twice about ticking any option boxes at all.

Standard are flashy bits, such as the touch pro duo screen consisting of a 10.0-inch multimedia touchscreen and second configurable screen, a 12-inch digital dashboard (also configurable, but fiddly), LED headlights, flush doorhandles, faux-leather seating, and an eight-way powered driver’s seat.

There’s also plenty of your standard creature comforts which have not been forgotten or option-packed away, such as keyless entry, auto dimming rear vision mirrors, auto wipers, headlights, and high-beam control and dual-zone climate control.

That’s far from where it stopped for our car, which had $20,703 worth of options fitted, including the driver assist pack (blind spot assist, 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, steering assist, freeway-speed AEB – $3970), 10-way adjustable electric front seats, heated rear seats ($3835), Ebony grained leather sport seats with matching interior trim ($2552), Firenze Red metallic paint ($1950), Premium LED headlights with signature DRL ($1794), Auto dimming, power folding, and heated door mirrors with memory function and puddle lights ($780), Black exterior pack ($760), power tailgate ($585), headlight power wash ($494), public charging cable ($425), monogram aluminium trim finisher ($208).

Of that extensive list (which brings the as-tested price of our I-Pace to $144,517) what do we honestly recommend? The Driver Assist pack is a must, power tailgate proved handy on our test, and the public charging cable (even if it’s rudely expensive, you’ll need it) are the go.

The I-Pace is all-wheel drive via a dual-motor set-up, one on each axle. Both have single speed transmissions and have a combined power output of 294kW/696Nm.

That’s more than enough to move the I-Pace’s 2133kg kerb weight. In fact, the I-Pace will sprint from 0-100km/h in a Tesla-baiting 4.8 seconds, according to Jaguar’s numbers.

The I-Pace has a massive 90kWh battery pack, as big as many Teslas, and larger than the Mercedes-Benz EQC.

This grants it an impressive range of 470km – large enough for at least a week of most average urban-commuting.

The range will, of course, depend on the kind of efficiency you get, and the 470km claim is dependent on achieving Jag’s numbers of 21.2kWh/100km.

Over my week of mixed testing consisting of just over 200km travel with 50km of freeway driving in the mix, I couldn’t get below 23.5kWh/100km, curtailing my effective range slightly and placing the Jag among the most ‘thirsty’ EVs on the market.

Still, I had only used just over half the battery’s capacity when I returned the car with only a short mid-week charging session.

On the charging front, the I-Pace uses a European-standard Type2 Mennekes charging port with DC combo extension.

The main limiting factor for public charging is the I-Pace’s onboard 7kW converter. This means your charging speed is limited to 7kW, no matter how fast the public AC charging stations are – they're usually between 11 and 22kW.

Pulling up to a new local 22kW charging station and plugging in, returned a rather depressing estimated charge time of five hours and 37 minutes from 61 per cent. I didn’t think I could make my grocery shop last quite that long. Jaguar claims charging from nil to full will take 13 hours at 7kW or 43 hours from a wall socket.

Teslas really take the cake when it comes to AC charging, with most having 16.5kW onboard converters, more than halving your charge time. Worth keeping in mind if you intend on doing longer trips or subsisting on AC chargers alone.

This problem can be overcome by using the combo DC charging, the trouble is finding them. There’s just a handful about Sydney and they range from 50kW to 350kW. The former will charge the Jag in just under two hours, while the latter will supposedly charge it in 40 minutes. I attempted to use NRMA’s sole 50kW charging station in Olympic Park only to find one Tesla using it and another waiting…

Great, actually. Where the Jag excels is the silky smoothness of its inputs. Where Teslas can be abrupt, and the Nissan Leaf can be a tad sluggish, the I-Pace glides along with confidence and panache.

This goes both ways, even under harsh acceleration, the Jag dials it up just right, and when slowing down with the regenerative brake function, it also gently rolls down, rather than shunting you out of warp speed for daring to use precious battery kW.

There’s the argument to be made that this blasé approach to input controls is perhaps what is costing the Jaguar a few km of range here and there, and that’s fair, but I would argue it’s perhaps worth it for how smooth it is in an urban environment where sudden stops and bouts of acceleration are constant.

Our car didn’t have the fancy optional air suspension fitted, but still possessed Jaguar Land Rover’s signature balanced ride quality which I have become such a fan of.

The steering is on the light side and loses a bit of feel through its speed-dependent electrical assistance but suits the heavy I-Pace well.

When in the corners you can really feel this car’s weight, and how agile the I-Pace is, and that takes a bit of getting used to. All I-Paces are all-wheel drive, and this helps deliver its mountain of torque with confidence and immediacy.

The different drive modes do significantly alter the acceleration and regen braking, but I found the default Comfort mode to be the best balance of responsiveness and regeneration for around town.

If you’re curious to see how the Jag handles itself with mainly freeway driving, check out editor Mal Flynn’s range test here.

The I-Pace carries a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating thanks largely to the inclusion of up-to-date active safety features.

The all-important auto emergency braking (AEB – up to 50km/h) is standard on all cars, but frustratingly you’ll have to tick a rather expensive option box (that aforementioned $3970 driver assist pack) to get the full suite and higher-speed AEB functionality.

This pack rolls in blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, steering assist, and a 360-degree surround camera suite – so, as much as we hate the cost, we still recommend it.

Other standard features are quite impressive, like lane-keep assist, driver-attention alert, park assist, rear cross-traffic alert, and traffic-sign recognition.

The I-Pace also has six airbags, a bonnet airbag for pedestrian collisions, and dual ISOFIX child-seat mounting points on the rear outer seats.

Jaguar offers the I-Pace with significant extra perks over the rest of its range, with an extra two years/100,000km of warranty coverage over the rest of its range, bringing the I-Pace ahead of much of the luxury pack with a total coverage period of five-years/200,000km.

The battery is also covered by factory warranty for eight years, and JLR are throwing in free servicing(!), roadside assist, and unlimited free charging via the ChargeFox network for the life of the warranty.

Service intervals are condition-based and decided by the car’s computer, so we can’t tell you how often you’ll need to take the I-Pace in. Service costs do not appear to be capped after the initial free five-year period either.