Be Prepared To Shell Out An Extremely Handsome Figure - Jaguar I-Pace

Jaguar’s first electric car, the I-Pace, is a serious car for people serious about performance, practicality and green cred.

- Daryl Lee

Perhaps one of the first questions you should be asking about the new, all-electric Jaguar I-Pace (not to be confused with the E-Pace compact SUV, which is conventionally powered) is if you’re willing to pay what Jaguar is asking for.

Prices start from S$346,999 and if you feel like orange paint, 22-inch wheels (20-inch ones otherwise) with cosmetic carbon fibre inserts, adaptive air suspension, a head-up display, thin-backed bucket seats, specific wood trim and treadplates, you could hand over S$20,000 more for a First Edition model. And you’ll also have to pay a staggering S$5,802 a year in road tax (tied to the output of its electric motors), which would be the equivalent of owning a conventionally powered petrol car with a 5.2-litre engine. For context, you could get yourself a top-of-the-line F-Pace for S$294,999. If you are willing to stomach that, and I emphasise the use of ‘willing’, because that and ‘able’ are two completely separate things, then, and only then, can I start talking about how good the I-Pace is.

Oh yes, you’ll also have to get around the way the I-Pace looks. Not that it’s ugly, far from it, apart from the curious squared-offtail (a necessity to improve aerodynamics), but its form will no doubt be a cause of consternation among more conservative members of the audience. It’s taller and larger than a conventional hatchback, it has a compact glasshouse with steeply raked front and rear windshields, but yet the I-Pace sits far lower than any SUV on the market.