Jaguar F-Pace

FIRST REPORT We take delivery of Jag's refreshed premium SUV in PHEV guise

- Stuart Milne

SPORTS Utility Vehicles generally deliver A far less there are exceptions to the rule, and the Jaguar F-Pace has offered much of what the firm knows about sports saloons and coupés, distilled into a far more practical package.

Times change, though, so for the 2022 facelift the fundamentals remain, but the F-Pace has been boosted in areas where it was being left behind: tech and electrification.

That's why I find myself talking to Ahmed Rahman, sales executive at Beadles Jaguar in Southend, Essex, as he shows me around our new F-Pace: a plug-in P400e in R-Dynamic SE spec and Portofino Blue.

Ahmed gives me a tour of the immaculate showroom; you could pretty much eat your food from the floor, and it's every inch the premium experience. He says: "Jaguar and Land Rover is all about personalisation, the personal touch." It's something that becomes clear as he leads me into one of two handover rooms.

In the middle of the room sits a black sheet-clad F-Pace; in the corner there are balloons, some tasty cakes, juice and a bottle of bubbly. "It's what we like to do for all our customers," Ahmed says.

For many, collecting their Jaguar is all about the big reveal. Ahmed says his phone is chock full of videos of eager customers pulling back the black sheet over their new cars. And having done precisely that, it feels every bit as dramatic as you might hope.