Jaguar I-Pace 2020 review: S

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.

Our test car came with Firenze Red metallic paint, which costs $1950.

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.

The large 10.0-inch multimedia touchscreen comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

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 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.

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

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.

In the back seat there was plenty of room behind my own driving position.

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.

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.

There’s a small storage area under the bonnet for a charging cable.

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.

The I-Pace uses a European-standard Type2 Mennekes charging port.

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…

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.