Before we talk about the driving experience, you need to understand the car’s design and make peace with how different it is to a normal ICE vehicle. The I-PACE has a floor made of battery packs. It has two electric motors, one at the front axle and one at the rear, each with its own single transmission. The centre of gravity therefore is lower and due to the 97% efficiency of getting that power to the wheels, it has almost instantaneous torque as you plant your right foot. 

At this point it will lurch into the distance, powerfully accelerating like a Jag should I suppose, but this time in a hushed silence save for air friction and tyre noise. Nothing else. It’s a cool trick to pull off where others are watching or where a tricked out Citi Golf is keen on some fun at the lights. 0 – 100km/h is dispatched in 4,8-seconds and with the all-wheel drive system, it’s 2,13-tons of SUV fun. Power is a commanding 294kW and torque is a colossal 696Nm. These are sportscar numbers. 

It handles surprisingly well for the same reasons, the only real noise being the tyre squeal noise should you really ring its neck in an emergency lane change or under extreme cornering. It is prone to understeer of course, but if offers loads of grip for its size and weight.

The brakes offer a regenerative braking option, something that is quite common on electric cars but it does take some getting used to with strange pulses through the brake pedal that sometimes result in slightly uncomfortable brake applications. 

With the self-levelling air suspension system and virtually no noise, the word refinement seems amiss here. It wafts and whispers both to onlookers and to those within. Electric and luxury seem to go hand in hand so where Rolls Royce is making car cabins as silent as possible, the electric car has that advantage from the onset. It is comfortable and serene, perhaps its only vice being the fact that there is no shutter for the panoramic glass roof so whilst it does do a decent job of keeping temps down from the glaring sunshine, it is something that I found myself wanting to close especially at noon time. 

There’s quite a bit going on under the I-PACE. It features, among other things, off-road modes similar to that of other family member products. There’s Adaptive Surface Response, All Surface Progress Control and a Low Traction Launch control setting, all of these managing the throttle, brakes and traction control to maximise grip levels in tricky conditions. Add the safety of torque vectoring and an adaptive suspension, and you quickly understand the poise and capability of the I-PACE. It’s incredibly versatile. 

Let’s unpack the electric complexities

The idea of the electric car always brings some trepidation around a number of issues, some of which we can indeed control and some not. From a driver’s point of view, the I-PACE is as good as it gets concerning living with an electric car. Its 90kWh battery has the highest quoted range of any electric car in SA. Jaguar quotes around 470km but we could only manage around 390km, and that's through much effort. 

As with internal combustion engine cars, the energy required for a car is entirely based on the conditions of the driving need at the time. I found a marked difference in the I-PACE’s efficiency on very hot days, as I turned the climate control to its lowest setting or as I hightailed onto the freeway for long periods of battery deployment, especially on a hot day once again. The I-PACE range would drop quite quickly and in essence this is something we should be quite used to.

The difference is that the option of charging requires a very different approach than simply pulling in to the local garage. Charging the I-PACE can be done in a few ways. Arrive home in the evening, set the car’s pre-conditioning system to the time you plan to leave in the morning and plug it in for an overnight charge. 3-phase power is best and would yield a full battery over an 8 – 10 hour period. Single phase power is much much slower. After charging overnight for 12 hours, the battery increase was a mere 32%. The same can be said for AC vs DC chargers that can be found at a growing number of locations around the country. These are mostly operated by a company called GridCars who are gradually adding more charging stations at casinos, hospitals, malls, traditional filling stations, airports etc. AC charging once again is a slower process but certainly faster than charging at home. A DC Charger will yield about 80% charge in just over an hour which is something you can work with. 

So it can be quite complex and requires some forethought, education and planning. 

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