Volkswagen Touareg VS Jaguar E-Pace
Volkswagen Touareg
Likes
- Technically very impressive
- Luxurious interior
- Absolutely packed with stuff
Dislikes
- Disappointing ride quality
- PHEV elements frustrating to use IRL
- Limited appeal compared to other R models
Jaguar E-Pace
Likes
- Exterior design
- Steering feel
- Affordability (for a Jag)
Dislikes
- Cheap interior touches
- Jiggly ride
- No CarPlay
Summary
Volkswagen Touareg
It’s big, it’s fast, it’s luxurious, Volkswagen’s Touareg has always been a stand-out large SUV.
This one, the full-fat R is the latest take on the halo Volkswagen model. It has big shoes to fill.
See, top-spec Touaregs in the past are hardly rivals to the Toyota LandCruisers and Hyundai Palisades of this world. They’re a different breed, with the first-generation Touareg powered by a variety of engines up to a 5.0-litre turbo-diesel V10, and the second-gen version packing petrol and diesel V8s in its upper levels.
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They were the ultimate sleeper family SUV, ridiculous engines with rich VW Group lineage in a seemingly mainstream family-friendly package.
But this third-generation version can’t quite replicate the over-engined craziness of its predecessors. It has to think outside the box as emissions regulations crack down the world over.
This Touareg R is a plug-in hybrid. A performance-focused one at that. Can it hope to replicate the unhinged nature of its forebears and find an appropriate place atop the hierarchy of Volkswagen’s R models? Let’s find out.
| Safety rating | — |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | — |
| Fuel Type | Hybrid |
| Fuel Efficiency | —L/100km |
| Seating | — |
Jaguar E-Pace
The E-Pace is a new Jaguar, or is it? Jaguars used to be something your boss drove, cars with a whiff of snob about them, as well as subtle scents of cigar, whisky, mahogany and Old Spice.
They were also loud, powerful and proud machines, and as British as referring to Australians as “colonials”.
The E-Pace, on the other hand, is a small SUV that smells, sounds and seems like a lot of other cars in what Jaguar refers to as, “the hottest segment in the car world; premium soft-roaders". If that sentence alone, coming out of a Jaguar spokeshead’s mouth, doesn’t sum up the way the company has changed, I don’t know what does.
Making your brand more affordable while still making it look desirable is a hell of a profitable trick, if you can get away with it.
Jaguar claims the E-Pace is “the coolest SUV” reasonable money can buy, and with prices starting under $48,000, this really is a Jag for the workers, rather than the bosses.
What does set it apart, however, aside from that tempting price point, is its looks. Jaguar’s genius designer, Ian Callum, has done it again, creating a simply sexy vehicle that’s so instantly desirable that Australians have piled in with pre-orders, so many of them that the company is already certain the E-Pace will be its biggest-selling model.
Those customers who’ve slapped down deposits without even sitting in one, let alone driving it, might be in for a few surprises.
The E-Pace might not be the full Jaguar, but is it a cute enough cub to cut it? We drove as many variants as we could at the Australian launch to find out.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Diesel |
| Fuel Efficiency | 5.6L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Volkswagen Touareg7.4/10
A car as impressive as it is frustrating, the Touareg R is a vehicle for a very specific buyer. Someone whose daily commute consists of limited distances, someone who can always charge at home overnight and someone who appreciates the subtlety of the performance and luxury the Touareg brings.
For everyone else - there are better options. Performance-focused PHEVs can be tricky to charge and extract the full benefit from, and at this price you have access to some serious performance-oriented combustion SUVs or the choice of going fully electric.
While this R-badged VW might be the most mind-bending of the lot then, it also has the most 'specific' appeal.
Jaguar E-Pace7.9/10
There is absolutely no question the Jaguar E-Pace will be a huge success for the company, and will increase the number of Jags you see on the road exponentially. Much as the German brands have done, since way back when Mercedes launched its A-Class, the British brand has now made itself attainable to the masses.
There’s plenty to love about the way the E-Pace looks, particularly from the outside, and about how it drives. There are, however, some niggles that suggest you might want to test drive one before slapping down your hard earned, and the cheap-feeling plastics in the interior, even in up-spec models, will disappoint some people. Overall, though, Jaguar has built an absolute banker.
Check out Peter Anderson's E-Pace video from its international launch earlier this year.
Could the E-Pace be your first Jaguar? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Design
Volkswagen Touareg
The Touareg, as always, screams big Volkswagen. It’s more subtle than the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 with which it shares its underpinnings, yet looks as slick as either up close.
It’s defined in its face by a massive black grille, integrated light fittings, and as usual with Volkswagen, some pretty subtle highlights and tail-lights in attractive LED patterns.
The wheels sell the vibe of an R. They’re enormous and gloss black, matching the theme and style of its smaller siblings, black highlight trims replace chrome or body colour bits to set it apart from the rest of the range.
It doesn’t look quite as modern as something like Kia’s Sorento or EV9, and it doesn’t look as elegant as the Volvo XC90 or as defined as the Land Rover Defender, all in the same price bracket.
This helps the Touareg maintain a certain mainstream appeal, and a sporty edge, without being too egregious.
Still, some might want some more overt visual flourish to indicate they’re driving a vehicle which is capable of sprinting to 100km/h from a standstill in 5.1 seconds.
Perhaps I’m in a different camp, one which appreciates the ‘sleeper’ nature of a giant family SUV capable of incredible driving feats when pushed.
Inside is always a pleasant surprise in a Touareg. While it might be the most affordable of the giant SUVs on this platform, it maintains the air of luxury and plush nature of its more expensive counterparts from Audi and Porsche.
You’re met by nicely trimmed leather seats and a chunky VW R steering wheel, massive screens and lavish amounts of padded leather surfaces everywhere. It feels every bit the luxury SUV the price indicates, in case you were worried you’d be getting something which feels more like a T-Roc than an Audi. For what it’s worth I quite like all the Volkswagen switchgear.
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
Frankly, design might just be the E-Pace’s most important feature. It manages to make a small SUV look genuinely desirable by being sexily shapely and perfectly proportioned. This is a seriously difficult trick to pull off, but it’s one that Jaguar has done before, with the hugely successful F-Pace, so this is a case of giving people slightly less of the same.
There really isn’t an angle from which the E-Pace doesn’t look good, but the more money you throw at your car, the better it looks, as the wheels grow from the standard 17-inch ones to very tough looking optional 21-inch units.
At the bottom end of the spec chart, on that sub-$50,000 version that almost no one will actually buy, you don’t even get exhaust tips, and indeed at first glance it looks like the car doesn’t have pipes at all (a weedy little pipe is tucked away underneath), and this does look a bit ordinary.
More chrome and shiny bits are thrown at the car as you move up the price points, and the R-Dynamic spec is obviously the sexiest version of all.
What’s interesting is how different the design feels once you get inside. Imagine being given the famous blue box from jewellers Tiffany and finding a plastic cereal-box ring inside and you’re somewhere near the E-Pace experience.
There is some really quite nasty cheap plastic around the gear lever, in the doors, and right around the window switches in an area you’ll touch every day. The shabby grey plastic surround of the shifter is made of the kind of nasty stuff Hyundai no longer uses.
Not only can you see that it will mark up and wear quite badly, but if you tap on it it makes the kind of noise you’d expect from a kids’ lunch box.
Fortunately, the steering wheel still feels premium, the touchscreen is large and top quality and there’s plenty about the E-Pace that reflects Jaguar design, but it’s hard to get past the feeling that the corners that have been cut to save money are showing so clearly you could cut yourself on them.
Practicality
Volkswagen Touareg
It’s a big SUV with big interior dimensions. It feels spacious and wide on the inside with a large centre console area for spreading out and a highly adjustable driver’s seat.
The seats are plush and comfortable, and visibility is pretty solid out of the cabin. Again, you're greeted by excellent touchpoints, from the steering wheel to the door cards and there’s even lashings of padded leather trim down the sides of the centre console for your knee to rest on.
Volkswagen’s screens are usually some of the best in the business and that continues here. They’re bright, sharp and served up with attractive and mostly functional and easy-to-navigate software.
The hardware behind them is also enough to keep them lightning fast when reacting to inputs, with satisfyingly smooth animations, too.
The one thing I like a bit less is how a few of the menus can be confounding. It took me a while to figure out I needed to set the default battery level higher than its current charge to get the engine to stay on, and I’d also love a button to simply switch between EV and hybrid mode.
In fact, the lack of buttons is one of the major issues in this car. Sure, the enormous centre screen is an impressive feature, syncing up with the dash design nicely, but you’re also forced to negotiate with touch elements for key climate functions. No matter how fast or slick the software is, there’s no compensating for a toggle or dial you can easily reach while you’re focused on the road.
For what it’s worth, the wireless Apple CarPlay worked seamlessly with the car in my time with it (and looked good too) while the wireless charger is rubberised and in a good location so your phone will be able to at least maintain its state of charge on the go.
Storage is plentiful up front, with large pockets with integrated bottle holders in each door, a large dual cupholder set-up in the centre console with variable edges and a large armrest console box.
In the back seat I have enough room for myself behind my own driving position at 182cm tall. It’s plenty wide and tall, but I don’t feel as though I had an enormous amount of legroom considering the size of the vehicle.
Still, the width will give you space for three adults across in relative comfort. Yes, there’s a large raise in the floor in the centre position to accommodate the all-wheel drive hardware underneath, but the width of the floor should allow a centre passenger to put their feet on either side.
Big door openings and the wide cabin make for easy child seat fitting, and there's even built-in window shades alongside two rear climate zones with physical controls, large bottle holders in the doors and a drop-down armrest, with some flimsy nets on the backs of the front seats to round things out.
Boot space is allegedly enormous at a quoted 810 litres, but the shape of it is less than ideal. Sure it’s nice and wide and oblong shaped at the base, but the rake of the boot quickly eats into the amount of height available, making it tricky to fit larger objects.
The space accommodated our CarsGuide three-piece luggage set with ease, but it didn’t leave much room to spare. It doesn’t feel like it’s double the 400 litre space typical of a one size-down SUV.
There’s also a needlessly complex two-piece shelf, which lifts with the tailgate, but the boot wouldn’t completely close with the luggage set present unless you removed it. To the Touareg’s credit, the second row seats hinge forward significantly to expand space by a fair bit.
Under the floor there’s only a repair kit, as the huge PHEV battery takes up the rest of the space. A decidedly less than ideal flat tyre option.
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
While the interior might feel cheap in places, it’s certainly spacious, with excellent headroom front and rear, and a sense of light and airiness that’s much helped by optioning the panoramic glass roof (for a hefty $2160).
Jaguar claims its rear seats are so large customers will shop the E-Pace against bigger vehicles, like BMW’s X3, rather than just direct competitors like the X2. This might be a stretch, but I certainly found it comfortable enough to sit behind my own seating position (I’m 175cm/5'9") without my knees touching the seat back. Shoulder room is also good and four adults could certainly ride in this car in comfort.
Sadly, the seats aren’t quite as comfortable as you might hope, being slightly flat and unsupportive, particularly in the cheaper models.
There’s a cheap-feeling oddments tray that covers two differently sized cupholders between the seats, which can be lifted off and stowed in a good-sized storage big under your left elbow. Another oddment storage tray, made of a quite ugly plastic, sits underneath the head unit and there are large storage pockets in the doors, front and rear, as well as storage for large bottles. Boot space is also reasonably capacious at 484 litres.
Price and features
Volkswagen Touareg
Is the Touareg R good value? Seems like a silly question doesn’t it?
One school of thought says, of course it isn’t. Nobody needs a giant $129,990 (before on-road costs) SUV which is this fast. What the halo Touareg variant has always offered is excess with a modest exterior wrapper.
On the other hand, the Touareg R is great value when you consider you’re getting much the same hardware as a Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid ($188,600) with a Volkswagen badge.
In its size and price-bracket, the Touareg R directly rivals the Land Rover Defender 110 PHEV ($126,184), Lexus RX HEV ($127,434), Range Rover Velar PHEV ($131,536) and Volvo XC90 Ultra T8 PHEV ($128,390).
I see two problems with this. Firstly, all of those price rivals are premium brands, and secondly, at the circa-$130K price-tag there’s also the awkward reality you could be choosing one of a few very appealing fully-electric options, from the Kia EV9 GT-Line ($121,000), to the Polestar 3 ($131,054), Mercedes-Benz EQE ($134,900) and BMW iX ($136,900).
So, it’s great value from one perspective, but not so much from a few others. Then again, this is the biggest, baddest Volkswagen you can currently buy, so whether you’re in the market for an R-badged car or a PHEV of this size, you’re likely familiar with a six-figure price-tag.
Do you at least score good equipment for the money? Aside from all the complex drivetrain hardware, this VW is an impressive place to be, with extensive plush leather interior trim in the seats and doors, power adjust for the front two positions with heating and ventilation, a 12.0-inch digital dash with Volkswagen’s slick-as-ever digital cockpit software, a head-up display, a massive 15.0-inch multimedia touchscreen (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), matching wireless phone charger and quad-zone climate control.
Outside, there’s the brand’s signature matrix LED headlights, massive gloss black 22-inch alloy wheels, enormous ventilated disc brakes and a sports exhaust with air suspension hiding below.
It’s a lot of kit for a mainstream SUV, and performance, which we’ll talk about later, is impressive (with a few caveats).
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
There’s no doubting the perceived value of offering a vehicle with a Jaguar badge that starts under $50,000, an idea that would have seemed unimaginable not so long ago.
And if we all bought cars by the kilogram, the E-Pace would certainly be a bargain, because it’s a heavy beast of a thing, far outweighing any of its competitors at not far off two tonnes.
And there’s certainly an astonishing amount of choice in the range, with no less than 38 variants, thanks to what Jaguar calls its 'Ultimate Customer Choice', which allows you to build any kind of E-Pace you fancy.
Spec levels range through S, SE, HSE and R-Dynamic, and you can have each of those with your choice of five different engines, three diesels and two petrols - the D150, D180 D240, P250 and P300.
All E-Paces sold in Australia are fitted with all-wheel drive, despite European models offering a front-drive only option.
In Australia, the company says it will be competing aggressively in the $50,000-$70,000 price range and pin points its $62,430, D180 SE model as where its volume, and its conquest sales, will come from.
Early adopters, though, might be tempted by the First Edition, which will only be available for the first model year and comes with all sorts of temping goodies at a price of $80,952 for the D180 or $84,370 for the P250 version.
The First Edition gets spiffy 'Caldera Red' paint, 20-inch 'Satin Grey Diamond Turned' finish alloy wheels, a 'Black Pack' exterior and the fixed panoramic roof, which really does improved the interior ambiance.
Inside you get special mats, branded tread plates, 'Ebony Windsor' leather and a head-up display (which really should be standard across the range, for safety’s sake, but is largely optional).
Other gimmicks include configurable ambient interior lighting, extra power sockets, the sexy 'Jaguar Activity Key' and the gesture tailgate. Overall, this does look like strikingly good value, if you’re willing to spend that much on a small SUV (it's more than 300mm shorter than an F-Pace, at 4411mm long).
In terms of standard features across all models, the list is reasonable, with classy-looking 17-inch wheels, LED lights, space saver steel spare wheel, air vents for the back seats (an absolute must for those with kids), eight-way adjustable seats, which are cloth at the bottom end, 'All Surface Progress Control' - which sounds Land Rover-like but doesn’t mean you can climb boulders - push-button start, a 10-inch 'Touch Pro' screen, which is lovely but does not offer Apple CarPlay, even as an option, and plenty of safety kit, including lane-keep assist, 'Driver Condition Monitor', Front and Rear Parking Aid and Emergency Brake Assist.
The base E-Pace, with no bling spec at all, starts at $47,750 for the showroom-bait D150 diesel, and rises to $50,150 for the D180 (you get an extra 22kW, up to just 132kW) or the same price for the P250 petrol (with 174kW).
Step up to S spec - which includes 18-inch wheels, approach lights on your door mirrors, leather seats, and 'Navigation Pro' and 'Park Assist', plus a Wi-Fi hot spot - and prices range from $55,200 for the D150 through $57,600 for the D180, $64,020 for the D240 (yet another version of the diesel) and then $57,600 for the P250 and finally the same $64,020 pricing sweet spot will get you an S spec P300, the full-fat petrol model with 221kW.
The SE - stepping up to 19-inch wheels, a powered tailgate, 14-way adjustable seats rather than just 10-way and a Meridian sound system and Adaptive Cruise Control - ranges from $60,020 to $70,265 across the same models, while the (almost) top-line HSE (with lashings of leather and colourful stitching, plus 20-inch wheels and a 12.3-inch Driver Display) starts at $65,590 for the D150 (and honestly, who’s going to go for the top spec with the least-wondrous engine, honestly?) up to $77,493 for the P300.
The final choice, for extra icing on your icing, comes with the R-Dynamic pack, which you can add to your base model, or your S, SE or HSE, for around $4500 a throw, offering a range of $52,550 to $83,733.
In proper European gouge style, there are plenty of options as well, including heated and cooled seats that can cost up to $1870, and leather packages that can cost north of $8000, red brake callipers for $660 and a whopping $430 for a DAB radio, or the panoramic roof for $2160. Even keyless entry can set you back $950.
Not offering CarPlay is a mysterious and annoying omission in a brand-new model, but overall there is value to be found in the range, or you can spend yourself silly if you still want to pay $100K plus for your Jaag, but you want a small SUV.
Under the bonnet
Volkswagen Touareg
The Touareg offers a performance-focused plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drivetrain. Usually this means a little turbo four-cylinder engine and an electric motor, but instead this big SUV offers a 100kW electric motor and a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-petrol engine which combine for a whomping “total system power” of 340kW/700Nm.
This allows a 0-100km/h sprint time of just 5.1 seconds. Power is sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission and Torsen central differential. Up to 70 per cent of power can be sent to the front wheels, with up to 80 per cent of power going to the rear.
It is capable of driving at up to 135km/h under electric power alone, with the V6 kicking in beyond that speed.
It’s a rare set-up for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a plug in which maintains a large six-cylinder engine, and it runs even electric power through the transmission to all four wheels.
Some PHEV rivals, for example, use front combustion-drive only with no mechanical connection between the engine and the rear axle, which is driven purely electrically.
When it comes to towing specs, the Touareg offers solid official figures of 750kg for an unbraked trailer and 3500kg braked, although the maximum towball download is 220kg.
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
Truly, it is amazing what feats the modern 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine is capable of, and the more expensive choices out of the E-Pace’s five offerings really do perform wonders, particularly considering the weight they have to haul.
There’s slightly less excitement at the bottom end, though, as you’d expect, with the 2.0-litre Ingenium D150 diesel making 110kW at 3500rpm and 380Nm at 1750rpm, and taking a leisurely 10-seconds plus to accelerate from 0-100km/h.
The D180 gets 132kW at 4000rpm, and 420Nm at 1750rpm, and runs 0-100km/h in a still sluggish 9.3 seconds.
The D240 makes 177kW at 4000 rpm and 500Nm at 1500rpm, and is far more fun, with a 0-100km/h time of 7.4 seconds, and plenty of grunt down low.
The two 2.0-litre Ingenium petrol turbo units offer 183kW at 5500rpm and 365Nm for the basic P250, or 221kW at 5500rpm and 400Nm, available between 1500 and 4500rpm, for the top-spec P300, the fastest thing in the range at just 6.4 seconds 0-100km/h.
All E-Paces are fitted with a slick-shifting nine-speed automatic, which makes changing gears manually annoying. Only the R-Dynamic offers shift paddles.
Efficiency
Volkswagen Touareg
Like other plug-in hybrids, the official combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle fuel efficiency number for the Touareg R is an eyebrow-raisingly low figure which you know won’t be achievable in the real world, but is probably technically feasible in lab-style conditions.
In this case, it’s 3.3L/100km. When I picked up the car it had a low charge level, and the next day I was able to top it up to just 50 per cent because I don’t have a power point in my garage, and the achingly slow 3.6kW maximum AC charging speed is severely limiting if you need to rely on the public network, as the 17.9kWh battery is relatively large.
This should bring you to the obvious conclusion the Touareg R is not a good hybrid if you can’t charge at home, as you’ll never extract the full benefit of the electric set-up. Perhaps adding evidence to this is its official energy consumption which comes in at a painful 21.1kWh/100km.
As for hydrocarbons, in my week of driving (in which I tried to pick up charge wherever I could) I saw over 14L/100km. Makes sense for a heavy petrol V6 SUV. I’d say you’re likely to see a figure like this on a longer journey or if you drive it with enthusiasm as the R badge encourages. To add additional pain, it requires 98RON premium unleaded fuel.
With a realistic maximum pure-electric range of closer to 40km compared to the official WLTP-rated 51km (more on this in the driving section of the review), the R is also best for people whose daily commute is relatively short.
I can’t imagine, for example, the best benefit of this car will be extracted from someone who lives in the urban sprawl and commutes to the city every day with distances in excess of 50km for a return journey.
Additionally, the hybrid mode is very EV-heavy, draining the battery relatively quickly unless you manually put it in preservation mode.
For nerds who could be bothered, this mode is potentially a nifty feature allowing retention of some EV range at the end of a long freeway journey. But it takes a certain buyer to even be bothered with this.
Can you see why plug-less hybrids are the Australian new car buyer’s electrification configuration of choice?
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
Obviously, running such small engines is a move aimed at fuel economy, so you’d expect the figures to be good, but imagine if the E-Pace was some 400kg lighter, like an Audi Q3 is, how much better the figures could have been.
Still, a claimed 5.6 litres per 100km for the two base diesels, and 7.7 for the perkier and petrol powered P250 is pretty good going. The top diesel D240 can give you 6.2L/100km and you’d still be pretty happy with an 8.0L/100km return from the P300, if you ever managed such a figure, which we seriously doubt.
We averaged closer to double figures in all the variants we drove (albeit enthusiastically).
The CO2 outputs range from 147g/km for the bottom two diesels, stepping up to 162g/km for the D240 and 174 and 181g/km respectively for the two petrols.
Driving
Volkswagen Touareg
Here’s where things get a bit frustrating, and your experience will vary dramatically depending on how you use this car.
One thing we can get out of the way immediately is the Touareg is deeply technically impressive when you attack a few corners. Its immediate electric thrust is capable of propelling this large object forward with eye-widening speed, and the air suspension, wide grippy tyres, Torsen centre differential and tidy steering tune conspire to make it mind-bending to carve corners in.
It’s flat, stable, and far more accurate and agile than expected. The only hint as to the sheer physics of wrangling the Touareg around bends is the tyres screaming out in agony as the suspension and all-wheel drive system work their magic to keep it all under control.
Once the electric torque pushes you out from the corner, the deep satisfying thrum of the 3.0-litre petrol V6 quickly takes over as you lurch forward on the almost fluid-feeling suspension. It’s laugh-out-loud satisfying and certainly enough to capture passengers' attention.
In this sense, the R fulfils its mission of transforming the big Touareg into a handling and acceleration hero, but despite all the cleverness it doesn’t feel as sharp or lean as the Golf R, T-Roc R or Tiguan R.
There’s still a massive battery, as well as huge complexity and weight to deal with, no matter how technically fast it is. There’s always the unsettling feeling of this amount of weight moving around, and the occasional slight delay from the transmission as it figures out what’s going on between the electric motor and big engine.
Then there are the compromises. Normally, I’m a huge fan of how plush and luxurious the Touareg feels. It’s usually such a step above its station in the VW Group, occasionally even feeling preferable to its platform relations, but the R has some issues.
For a start, the enormous 22-inch wheels and low-profile tyres ruin the day-to-day ride quality, crashing over bumps and road imperfections, despite the fact there’s also air suspension supposedly providing a buffer between you and the tarmac.
Even in the more comfort-oriented drive settings you can hear and feel every bit the moment the wheels contact a pothole or bump. Clearly, it’s tuned more toward handling than maintaining the same luxury feel as the rest of the range.
The transmission is also occasionally hesitant, either from a standing start or when switching between electric thrust and the engine. This is much better when the battery is charged up from the reserve level, as there isn’t enough charge when driving around as a hybrid to push a big, heavy (and always) all-wheel drive very far.
But hybrid driving is also frustrating, for reasons mainly related to the software. With the battery charged, the 51km of claimed driving range feels a tad ambitious. I was able to charge it to about 50 per cent (the battery is huge, at 17.9kWh, and I could only pull about 3.5kW from a local AC charging unit) and scored about 20km of driving range.
It drains quickly, even in the hybrid driving mode, as it relies on the electric motor a lot for initial take-off.
This means unless you set the battery preserve mode manually in the hybrid settings screen, it will likely run the battery dry before you’re even able to get it somewhere where it can take full advantage of the extra electric thrust.
As an electric vehicle it’s also only alright. The short time I was able to spend in full EV mode proved the battery will drain faster than advertised, and the regen is so-so for assisting in braking.
Other more performance-focused PHEVs suffer the same issue. For example, I felt largely the same way about the much-maligned four-cylinder PHEV Mercedes-AMG C63.
While hybrids like this may be impressive when conditions are ideal, they’re ultimately frustrating to use in reality. It’s a shame, because I wanted to like it more but it doesn’t quite capture the same magic of its R-badged forebears and siblings.
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
The good news is there’s plenty of genuine Jaguar in the way the car feels to drive, up to a point.
Through long sweeping bends of the medium to high-speed variety, it is great, fluid fun, with minimal body roll, and properly involving, muscular steering.
You can actually feel you’re in a car that’s related to the hugely enjoyable and tough-feeling F-Type. Turn-in is crisp and involving and the front-end set-up feels as sporty as Jaguar people enthusiastically suggest it will be.
And then you arrive, quite quickly, at a 35km/h-marked corner, throw it in and remember that you’re not sitting with your bum anywhere near the ground, and you are piloting a top-heavy machine that weighs nearly two tonnes.
At this point you will get a mild scare, but even then the Jaguar doesn't really misbehave, it simply puts you back in your box and reminds you that a sports car, this is not.
The E-Pace really is a surprisingly heavy vehicle, though, and while that weight can feel like solidity and premium quality while you’re cruising along, it does dull the driving experience on a twisty road.
With diesel-engined cars weighing “from” 1936kg and petrol-engined versions just slightly less, the E-Pace not only weighs in significantly heavier than competitors like Audi’s Q3 or BMW’s X2, it’s actually heavier than its big brother, the F-Pace, despite being a lot smaller (4731 mm vs 4411mm overall length).
The reason is that, while the F-Pace is made of expensive aluminium, the smaller Jag is built on a more steel-heavy platform, a revised version of the architecture Range Rover’s Evoque sits on.
Jaguar says the E-Pace platform is all-new from the firewall forward, so it can have more Jag-like handling, but the decision to share an older design rather than giving it new, lightweight underpinnings of its own is yet another case of saving on cost to get the price tag down.
As sporty as the performance of the up-spec engines is, it’s interesting to wonder just how much better this car might be if it was shaved of 200kg or even 400kg, of weight.
The fact is the E-Pace is not really about being sporty, it’s about stretching the Jag brand as far as possible. If it feels and looks like a Jaguar, and a lot more people can afford one, then genuine sportiness really won’t matter.
For all that, Jag has genuinely managed to engineer in enough Jaguar DNA, particularly in the steering department, to please customers.
On the downside, the ride is unfortunately jiggly and jarring on our rough and broken Aussie roads, particularly if you spec the larger and more attractive 19-, 20- or 21-inch wheels rather than the more sensible standard 17s. And there is quite a bit of tyre roar on coarse-chip surfaces.
The top-spec diesel is meaty and pleasant to use and manages to sound enthusiastic under strain, only becoming slightly clattery at low throttle openings in traffic.
The only time you really notice it’s an oil-burner, however, is when the start-stop system kicks the engine back into life with a cough and a splutter.
Slip down the diesel engine range, however, and the weight-versus-performance equation becomes more noticeable. The base diesel is a bit of a slug, with a 0-100km/h time on the wrong side of 10 seconds, and seems to pause and take a deep breath each time you apply the throttle, or at the base of a hill. Those using the E-Pace for the school run probably won’t mind.
The top-spec petrol engine is, not surprisingly, the pick of the bunch; willing to rev and genuinely quite remarkable when you consider that it is merely a four-cylinder 2.0-litre unit that’s being asked to haul around more than two tonnes of machine and human.
It’s fair to say that, being the hardest working four-cylinders in show business, they sound like they’re straining at high revs rather than having a good time.
It should also be noted that there is absolutely none of the traditional Jaguar growling or howling to be found in the E-Pace.
Safety
Volkswagen Touareg
All of the safety kit is standard and present on the Touareg R, including autobahn-speed auto emergency braking, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, front and rear cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, road sign recognition, driver fatigue detection, a surround view camera and adaptive cruise control.
The best part is these systems not only work, but they’re well calibrated so they generally don’t interfere with the core driving experience.
Additionally, the Touareg has a suite of eight airbags and maintains a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating achieved in 2018.
Jaguar E-Pace8/10
It seems fair to give extra points to a car that cares about pedestrians, particularly after the autonomous Uber accident, so hats off to the E-Pace for its class-leading pedestrian airbag system, which pops out of the trailing edge of the bonnet to protect slow-moving humans.
Jaguar also combines its blind-spot monitor and its lane-keep assist to come up with something called 'Blind Spot Assist', which will help to prevent you from sideswiping motorcyclists, using flashing lights and corrective steering. Handy. Sadly it's not standard, but it can be had as part of a $1020 'Drive Pack'.
The E-Pace is yet to be crash tested by local authorities, but offers an “optimised body structure” to help it “exceed all safety standards worldwide”.
Six airbags are standard, and there are two ISOFIX points.
In active-safety terms, the E-Pace has Emergency Braking tech, with pedestrian detection, which will first prime the brakes after identifying danger, and then activate them if you don’t.
Ownership
Volkswagen Touareg
The standard five year, unlimited kilometre warranty features with one year of complimentary roadside assistance provided (renewed for another year with each service at an authorised dealer).
Servicing is required once every 12 months or 15,000km and the most affordable way to do it is with pre-packaged service plans bundled in with purchase. These come in at $3400 for five years (a saving of $668 over the a-la-carte program) or $2050 for the three year plan (a saving of $222).
Even in its most affordable form this makes servicing average $680 a year which is a far cry from most affordable brands, but it could be worse considering the complexity of the powertrain.
Jaguar E-Pace7/10
Jaguar's new E-Pace comes with a three-year/100,000km warranty, which is okay, but not quite the full Kia seven-year deal. It does however, include paint and a six-year anti-corrosion warranty.
A servicing plan is available at a cost of $1500 for five years. Service intervals are 12 months/26,000km for diesel engines or 24 months/34,000km for petrol models.