The importance of autosport promotion for manufacturers, is incredibly important nowadays.
Just look at Formula E and the participating brands. BMW, which also has the i3 and i8,
Audi is competing, and they'll release their e-tron very soon,
Mercedes wants to join in as well, and they're planning to launch an electric EQ-line.
Porsche will appear at the start in 2019, the same year as the launch of their Mission E,
the first fully electric Porsche. Jaguar has been competing for a while now,
because they knew they were going to launch the I-Pace in 2018, the first fully electric Jaguar.
It's not only important for Jaguar, but for their market share in the Netherlands as well.
The I-Pace is going to be the most popular Jaguar ever.
And this is it; the Jaguar I-Pace. The first fully electric Jaguar ever.
It's brightly colored, it has a 90 kWh battery pack, and producing 400 horsepower.
Just to show you how important this car is, go to www.autoweek.nl and look at Jaguars sales figures.
Look at the peak, because that was around 2000/2001 with about 1.500 cars sold each year.
Since three years ago, Jaguar is surpassing 1.000 cars a year again.
If you then consider there already are 1.800 orders for this car, and it's still counting.
All of them are supposed to be ready in 2018, because of the additional taxes which I'll address later.
That means this instantly becomes the best sold Jaguar car ever, in the Netherlands that is,
that Jaguar is going to have an incredible year, the best in ages, and what kind of effect an electrical car has.
When it comes to the design of electrical cars, a lot of designers tend to grab on to the conventional design.
But there's no combustion engine in the front anymore, or the rear if you've got a mid-engined car.
That means there's more freedom, and you can see the I-Pace is a little evolved.
It's looks stockier, it's shorter with different kinds of hang, and that's because the designer had more freedom.
The big wheels stand out as well. They kind of remind me of the wheels on BMW i-cars,
look at those black accents. BMW has narrowed their tires however,
which reduces the friction, but that isn't the case with Jaguar.
It's fitted with regular 255-tires.
Because you've got batteries which are low in the car, you've got lots of space left.
Just look at the boot. In hybrids, the batteries take up a lot of space,
but that isn't the case in here. It can fit 265 litres,
and if you fold down the seats, you go over 1.400 litres.
You can see the space from the rear seat as well. There's a glass roof, but my head is quite alright.
There's lots of room for my legs, my feet fit beneath the seat,
and the way I'm sitting here, reminds me of the way I'd sit in the BMW 6 GT.
You're half high up, which is a very positive feature.
Also, I like the finishing. The doors look good, you've got connectors for your childrens iPads,
or the CEO if he's sitting there. You've got nice separate climate control as well.
The lack of a combustion engine comes with another advantage, because you've got additional space to work with.
So what does that mean? Let me find the switch...
It means we've got a small, but usable space for that little bit extra.
You can see what the design has done with the space. Because there's no engine in the front,
they could move the windshield forward and thus the cockpit, which creates a lot of space.
When it comes to size, it's inbetween the XE and XF,
but when it comes to space inside, it's on XJ-level.
A fun detail which shows you that designers can be a little old-fashioned, is the grille.
The designer admitted it wasn't necessary for cooling or anything, but we like to look at it, and it fits the face of Jaguar.
That's why it has a grille.
If we take a look at the interior, Jaguar has taken another step forward from what their standard once was.
They could use it as well. They've used nice materials, and they do things a tad differently.
Two touchscreens, a big one there and there, but you've still got buttons around it.
I like the amount of shortcuts, and the way they've designed the climate control.
You've got the ventilation, temperature and the seat-heat controls in one button, which it's very accessible.
Then, the drivetrain. I already mentioned the power output of 400 horsepower,
and that's being produced by two electric motors. One at the front and one at the back.
That means it's got four-wheel drive, and that was a conscious choice.
That gives you the power to play with the balance, without you having to sacrifice weight on the rear axle or anything.
It's pretty easy to play with the dosage of power, because it's not like the front and rear motors produce the same amount of power,
all of the time that is. When there's nothing going on,
most of the power is sent to the back, because that means a nicer drive.
If you want to process all of the power, or if you're sliding around and your rear wheels start spinning,
power will be sent to the front as well. Jaguar even goes as far that the ESP is aimed...
at solving spinning wheels with the engines, if you're only spinning a little or something.
The engines are firstly responsible, before the brakes are being applied by the ESP.
That way, a car remains more pleasant for longer, and you won't get the feeling the system is compromising the drive.
When you're driving it, you can feel it's dynamic, just like a Jaguar is supposed to be.
Again, the build of an electric car is apparent as well. It's incredibly heavy, over 2.200 kg,
but it's not as annoying as in an E-Pace, which is less heavy but with more weight on the front.
The batteries in here are fitted in the bottom plate, which is the best position for weight in a car actually.
That means there isn't too much weight in the nose, so when you're encountering quick corners,
dynamic cars like an X6 M would push through, but this doesn't.
It's very bitey, and that makes a car pleasant to drive. At higher speeds,
it's less twitchy than an F-Type, which provides more feeling and feedback,
and it's lower, but there's more quietness in the I-Pace.
The battery pack consists out of connected lithium ion-cells, and they produce 90 kWh like I already mentioned.
The magic word in this equation is range, and the WLTP-cycle says it can do 480 km on a single charge.
The reality is less far of the WLTP-amount than it was from the NEDC, so I think you can do about 400 km, 350 km should be easy.
For the Netherlands, that's more than enough.
It's funny to see that Jaguar is using this car...
to raise their brand to a new level when it comes to connectivity.
They think that fits the premise of electric motoring, because like brands like Tesla and BMW i-range do that as well.
The software will be updated over the air, and you'll get an app to see how much charge it has.
You can remotely control it, all of that to make you feel it's a very modern car.
And they could use it. The only which stands out negatively,
is the lack of autopilot functions. It's fitted with lane keeping assist,
but that's about it. I asked them about why it's not ready yet,
they say they want to, but it's too much testing and they want to produce a good product.
In short, they just aren't on Tesla's level, but Volvo and Mercedes are ahead of them as well.
The advantage of this car is that it's the first in its segment. There is no other luxurious electric SUV yet.
You've got the Model X, but that's much bigger,
so it's not really a rival to this car, even though it seems like that because of the additional taxes.
It's still a big and lumpy monster, with great technology that is.
This I-Pace however, is just a segment below that. There's going to be an Audi e-tron which is based on a Q-platform,
and it's going to be similar, but it isn't here yet.
And that's the big deal. At this moment, Jaguar has a monopoly,
which shows. In the Netherlands, the orders are going through the roof.
Jaguar is desperately trying to get more production facilities, because if you're able to get the I-Pace on license plates in 2018,
the additional taxes for business drivers are 4% over the whole price. If you get it in 2019,
only the first €50.000 are taxed with 4%, but every euro above that will be taxed with 22%.
So what does it cost? It's available from €80.000,
and there's a Launch Edition available, which is similar to the car I'm driving right now.
That will set you back more than €100.000, but it's still cleared of BPM-charges.
My conclusion? I think this car is extremely good.
It's really well done, and I'm incredibly enthusiastic.
It's not only the first electric car by Jaguar which is very good, but it also raises Jaguar to a whole new level.
The chassis feels so much better than in an F-Type, so they must've gained so much external knowledge...
to make this car this good, so maybe we can see some of this new spirit in other,
non-electric Jaguars as well. With that, Jaguar raises itself to a whole new level,
and this is the first product of that new Jaguar.