Jaguar growls nicely even as an electric car

Text: T. Denke
Image: Jaguar, Magnus Larsson, T. Denke

Sales of pure electric cars are increasing markedly. For example the industry organisation Bilsweden reported that as much as every fourth new car registered in June 2021 was an electric car. On the top list you of course find the perhaps most obvious manufacturers Tesla and Volkswagen. One car brand that on the other hand is not as often found on the top lists is the venerable manufacturer Jaguar. This despite the fact that the brand has a solid history and has produced cars that charm most people. But nowadays Jaguar is not only a brand with a rich history. They also place themselves at the forefront when it comes to electric cars. Eqotime’s Thomas Denke has, filled with range anxiety, done a long drive in the Jaguar Ipace.

My personal experience of Jaguar is limited to the classic saloon models of traditional British sloane ranger cut. More modern Jaguars have flown past me. Not because I have in any way disliked the modern model programme but more because I, without really having looked much closer at the models, have routinely placed them in the often slightly anonymous mass of similar premium cars. Nor am I myself enough of a car nerd to browse the market and carry out masses of test drives before buying.

In step with increasing age and an increasing number of children, the car as a concept has moreover been reduced to a utility object. If you also add that I am a little bit boring, then the last few years of car ownership have for me meant practical and diesel-clattering family cars. Admittedly of good quality, but perhaps not fully loaded with esprit, sportiness and flair.

New thinking with an electric car

Understand me correctly. I am not complaining. On the contrary. My interest in cars is probably exactly where it should be. But it has not been on the cards to start driving Jaguar. Even though I have a boyhood dream of one day owning one of those slightly older saloon models with leather armchairs and big engines.

What is however becoming increasingly topical for most motorists, me included, is this thing with electric cars. For my own part I have been rather sceptical and the questions have been many. Above all my scepticism and most of my questions have taken their starting point in charging and range. I will admit straight away, I understand nothing when it comes to electrical theory and different types of voltage. I look like a birdhouse when someone starts talking to me about volts, amperes and kilowatts. So trying from that position to understand how I should think about power, charging and range around an electric car has so far been a little hard going.

But, that is why it was so much fun to take up the offer of test driving the Jaguar Ipace during a weekend trip to the southern parts of the country. I realised that it was an excellent opportunity both to test drive a cool car and to get direct insight into how it works to switch over to an electric car after having been completely used to ordinary cars that you fill up. Perfect set-up for learning by doing.

The test example and a bundle of surpirses

The test example was a Jaguar Ipace HSE EV400 and the first thing that struck me was that it, apart from being really good looking, also looked to be smaller than I had thought. The outside and the slimmed, almost compact, lines do not give the impression of a big car. On the contrary, the feeling and the first impression were more towards the sports car end. The short front gives almost MacLaren vibes and the general feeling around the exterior is compact and sporty SUV. Before I opened the doors I got a little worried. After all I was going to make a journey of about 100 mil there and back with the car packed full of children and at this point I became unsure whether everyone would fit.

Those thoughts were however knocked away immediately when I opened the door and slid down into the leather-clad driver’s seat. And this became the first really positive surprise. What looked like it could be a cramped cabin from the outside turned out on the contrary to be a really generous cabin with plenty of room.

The space paranoia was instead swapped for a completely different paranoia. The whole interior was in light leather and in light materials. As a seasoned parent I know from my own experience that a light interior in a car is not particularly compatible with children. But that had to become a later problem. Now I want to get out on the roads in the first electric car I have ever test driven completely on my own.

Silent ride

The second surprise was how quiet it is in an electric car. Pressing the start button really gives no other response than that panels and screens in the car light up. For natural reasons there is no response from the engine, it does not clatter, it does not rumble, it does not even hum. And before I took my foot off the brake I was not even sure that I had managed to start the car up. But the third surprise came as soon as I pressed lightly on the accelerator. Sure, I have read about the power in electric cars and I have experienced it as a passenger on a few occasions.

But this is as mentioned the first time I am driving an electric car and it is a pretty cool experience to press the accelerator in a car with just over 400HP and a performance of barely five seconds up to 100km/h. I know, it is childish to think that things like this are fun. But it is fun. Childishly fun.

If you also set the car in sport mode (yep, you do that by pressing a button with a racing flag) then you not only get a stiffened chassis and quicker power. You also get a real engine sound that is played. A little silly on paper but for an old codger like myself it heightens the experience of pressing the accelerator. You almost fool yourself that it is a real engine roaring under the bonnet. Almost.

Calm and tidy

When the first slightly childish delight had settled and I had got the chance to get to know the car a little, the lasting impression is that it is exceedingly quiet in the cabin. The absence of engine noise is almost total and the only thing that can be heard is the road noise. Buttons and controls are reasonably easy to take in and are a mixture of traditional controls and touchscreen. Things like this are to a very high degree a matter of habit so I content myself with noting that sits smoothly where it should and there is no problem intuitively keeping track of music, maps and car data. Even if on a personal level I think some things sit a little back to front. Probably because in recent years I have driven another car brand privately and am reflexively set on a different set up. Subjective, but it took a while to learn anew.

Classic interior and comfort

The interior feels very much Jaguar. There is cream-coloured leather and panels everywhere and the comfort is top notch. There is quite clearly a Jaguar heritage here that is recognised from considerably older models. A heritage that I think is managed nicely in the Ipace, albeit in a modern guise. The cabin is, as mentioned, considerably roomier than you might believe when you look at the car from the outside. The feeling of roominess is also reinforced by the glass roof which helps to create space in the cabin.

The assistance systems also do the job in a tidy way. The lane assist feels strikingly soft compared with for example Audi’s or Volvo’s which I can experience as considerably more heavy-handed. In the Ipace you are instead offered a soft type of corrections that do not demand any direct parrying from the steering wheel. Reversing cameras and blind spot warners also work smoothly and clearly without standing out. Nor does the navigation system feel particularly surprising but flows on frictionlessly with easily surveyed settings. No surprises in either the negative or for that matter the positive direction.

Long journey and range anxiety

My absolutely biggest problem with electric cars is that I know nothing about the technology itself. Add that I do not know anything about charging and charging stations either and you surely understand that I experienced it as a little challenging that fairly immediately after I had collected the car I was to set off on a longer trip together with four children. All parents know that a long journey by car with children places certain demands on patience and flexibility. Now I had to bake a further component into the equation, planning for charging an electric car. I will not hide the fact that I got a bit of a stress surge when I realised that we were going to drive 45 mil and that the car, under the best of circumstances, would manage 37 mil. Stopping somewhere along the way and charging would therefore become necessary.

Beginner’s mistakes

So I did what all structured people do and started googling how charging would work and where I would do it. Mistake number one was that I completely disregarded the need for apps and subscriptions. Because it is of course not so simple and smooth that one can drive into a petrol station, charge, pay by card and continue the journey. Apps and subscriptions are of course needed. Naturally every charging station chain also has its own variants. And we can stop ourselves there and note that the apps leave something to be desired as regards functionality and clarity.

Mistake number two was that I had not understood the difference between fast charging and destination charging. Fast charging is apparently the thing, then the battery is charged up to like 80% in a good half hour. Fast charging takes place at special fast charging stations and preferably then while under way. Destination charging takes considerably longer and takes place preferably on arrival at the destination and then preferably over a slightly longer period of time. Think overnight.

These things I had to learn the hard way. If I had understood this difference I would not have put the car on charge at a shopping centre in Norrköping, gone into McDonalds with the children and come out an hour later to realise that I had managed to charge 1% of the battery. A dreary surprise since in my simple-mindedness I had believed that the battery would have been fully charged. So it simply had to become an extra ice cream break at a real fast charger a few kilometres away. But, now I had got the hang of it so for the rest of the trip I successfully managed both to destination charge on site and fast charge in connection with longer stops.

Comfort driving

A long drive with the Jaguar Ipace is extremely pleasant. The comfort is really top class even with five people in the car. During my trip the car was filled not only by myself but by a reasonably full-grown 18-year-old in the front seat, with two five-year-olds on booster cushions in the back seat with an 11-year-old in the middle. On top of that with the luggage compartment filled with everything needed for a weekend trip. I will honestly say that I was sceptical about whether we would all fit. But it worked beyond expectation. The room was more than enough for all of us and the air suspension in combination with the comfortable seats made the journey really pleasant for both big and small travellers.

The engine and the road manners leave nothing to be desired. The 400 horses in the twin electric motors in combination with four-wheel drive give lovely driving characteristics and are more than enough for moderately dynamic driving on the motorway. The torque is a hefty 690NM. A fascinating advantage with electric car motors is also that you as a driver have access to all the power all the time. Overtaking never becomes sluggish. Safe and stable.

But then we have this thing with range anxiety. Yes, it is a pain. Personally I sat more or less constantly looking at the range meter and the percentage for how charged the battery was. And even though the Ipace is a lovely car, the range of just over 35 mil in the example I drove easily becomes a stress factor. In combination with the fact that the powerful motors and the four-wheel drive easily suck a lot of current without you having to be excessively trigger happy with the accelerator, the range in particular feels on the stingy side. Especially since the car lends itself so well to longer trips. Now this is no specific problem for Jaguar in particular but perhaps more a general electric car problem. Fortunately Jaguar has updated the battery capacity for the Ipace to a good 45 mil. And the fact is that those extra 10 mil make an enormous difference, at least for me.

Better all-round than you might think

So how should the impressions of a long journey with the Jaguar Ipace be summed up? I would probably sum it up as this car being considerably more all-round than you might think. My level of expectation was more towards compact and sporty SUV with fine performance. An impression that to begin with held up. But after a little driving with a full car and a few other demands on family friendliness it struck me that the format of the car lends itself really well as a family car. A little surprising perhaps, but the Ipace has an ability to just work absolutely fantastically as a comfortable long distance car for the whole family. That typical conflict that tends to exist between sportier cars for dynamic driving and the more practical family oriented ones is sort of dissolved in cars of the same type as the Ipace. Something that opens up more options in the choice of a more fun electric car.

Is it enough that it is a Jaguar?

So is the Ipace a fun choice of electric car? Absolutely. The performance sits where it should, the comfort is phenomenal and however odd it sounds it feels practical. There are really two things that speak against it, the one is this thing with the range. In the latest versions it is extended to 47 mil at full charge (according to the so-called WLTP standard) which is probably acceptable but a lot of power goes if you indulge a little more in the dynamic driving the model invites, so we put a small question mark here. In the test example the range was lower. And even if it is enough for shorter driving and the possibility of charging at home, the test example’s 37 mil is on the short side on a long drive.

The other is the price. The Ipace starts at approx 969 900 kr which is a hefty sum of money. It is simply not possible to hide the fact that this is a very expensive car. But sure, electric cars are expensive and the nearest competitors are expensive too. At the same time it is also difficult to disregard the fact that Tesla’s beefier models and the larger electric cars from Audi, BMW and Mercedes could from certain aspects be seen as safer buys in terms of second hand value, service network etc.

On the other hand they are not Jaguar. And that is a brand that has a certain charm and aura. And if we weigh in those hard to measure parameters about brand, history and feeling, then the Ipace becomes something completely different. Because it is perhaps here that the Jaguar Ipace has its greatest advantage? Precisely that it is a Jaguar. Despite the electric motor.

Jaguar Ipace HSE EV400

Engine & drivetrain: Twin electric motors and 4WD. 400HP/690nM
Performance: 0-100 in 4.8 seconds
Range at full charge: 37 mil in the test car. 47 mil in the 2022 model (according to WLTP)
Price: from 969 900 kr