JAGUAR I-PACE

CAN AN ALL-ELECTRIC JAGUAR BE JAG ENOUGH?

- SIMRAN RASTOGI

Change can be a scary thing, even more so when you consider the future of IC-engined cars from established manufacturers with rich legacies to uphold. Take Jaguar’s announcement that its cars will all be powered by electric motors and batteries — all of them — by 2025. That’s means going forward, there’s not going to be any grumbly V8s, sonorous V6s, or anything that really defined the Jaguar experience as we knew it. But with the I-Pace, the British brand’s first-ever pure electric model, Jaguar is taking a bold step into the future. For us here in India, it’s our best preview of Jags to come. And the question still remains — can an all-electric Jaguar give you the same feeling of driving something special, with sportiness built right in, that Jags typically do?

Styling

Going by the styling, you’d certainly think so. The I-Pace has that unmistakably Jaguar face and curves, even if its proportions suggest a jacked-up crossover rather than an all-out SUV. With no packaging constraints for an ICpowertrain, the wheels are pushed right out to the four corners, and overhangs are hatchback-like short. Quite uniquely, the I-Pace manages to pack a 2,990mm long wheelbase (marginally longer than even the Jaguar F-Pace, and only just shorter than the Audi e-tron) into a body that’s much, much shorter, even when compared to the Mercedes-Benz EQC, its chief rival in India, alongside the to-be-launched Audi e-tron. The I-Pace is wide, though. Very, very wide. It measures 2,139mm in width with the mirrors extended, and 2,011mm with the mirrors folded — the width of the full-size, 7-seater Land Rover Defender.