The Jaguar I-Pace is a big car in every sense. As the first premium full-electric vehicle from a European manufacturer, beating Audi and Mercedes to market by several months, it is the self-appointed standard-bearer for this important next generation of automotive technology. For Jaguar itself, the model represents a radical departure for a manufacturer way too in love with its own image and comfort zone.
The I-Pace is also a physically hefty machine, its scale neatly disguised by elegant and appropriately futuristic styling. The company's design department, under former design chief Ian Callum, has done well to bring just the right dose of traditional values to this all-new genre, maintaining a sense of elegance and grace that isn’t always obvious in its current crop of conventional cars. It also drives with exceptional verve, deploying the best bits about an electric powertrain (smooth, instant acceleration and near silent progress) and cleverly cloaking its downsides, namely the weight of the battery pack.
As with all with electric cars, that weights sits low, so it’s down to chassis engineers to mask its impact with clever suspension that can insulate the passengers from bumps and thumps and still feel lithe and responsive in the corners. To Jaguar’s credit, the I-Pace is easily the most accomplished driver-focused EV to date, although the imminent arrival of the Porsche Taycan will no doubt shake things up.
Jaguar has bravely done away with the accumulated cruft of the brand’s weighty heritage and still to squeeze a distinctly Jaguar ‘look’ into a very un-Jaguar crossover-style body shape. Jaguar occasionally feels straitjacketed by its past, forever glancing over its shoulder at the veritable gallery of icons that it produced in the latter half of the 20th-century. Unlike, say, Porsche, the company has never completely capitalised on an evolutionary approach to design, instead see-sawing back and forth between clean breaks from the past and heavy-handed homages.
The I-Pace is none of these things, save for the mandated Jaguar grille, hardly a requirement on a pure electric car but now evolved into a visual shorthand for the best bits of the past, complete with feline headlights. In terms of proportion, as we've already noted, this is a very different beast. The four-square, crossover form makes enormous sense for electric vehicles and although the test car came with nearly £11,000 worth of largely cosmetic options, the base model is still an accomplished piece of design and packaging, with a flaring belt line that kicks up to convey a tapering passenger cell.
Inside, a full-length glass sunroof creates a light, airy interior, while the touch screens and dials are nicely balanced and intuitively arranged. In the long term, EVs threaten to do away with traditional car styles – saloons, estates and SUVs – in favour of more mono-box forms. The I-Pace might have broken one company's mould, but it also points the way to the shape of future competitors.
INFORMATION
Jaguar I-Pace HSE, from £74,445. jaguar.com
-
Dine within a rationalist design gem at the newly opened Cucina TriennaleCucina Triennale is the latest space to open at Triennale Milano, a restaurant and a café by Luca Cipelletti and Unifor, inspired by the building's 1930s design
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear seasonBetween the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Meet artist Michael McGregor, using hotel stationery as his canvasMichael McGregor unveils an exclusive postcard set made with notepads from The Luxury Collection properties in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Savannah
-
A mighty concept coupé from Mercedes-AMG rewrites the electric performance car rulebookThe Mercedes-AMG Concept AMG GT XX is a four-door coupé that explores new approaches to battery tech, brake cooling and aerodynamics. As a sign of things to come, it can’t be ignored
-
Waymo brings more self-driving cars to California – with sights set on New YorkIf you live on the eastside of LA, you can now catch a Waymo to work
-
Slate is an ultra-simple EV truck intended as an affordable and customisable workhorseSlate designer Tisha Johnson discusses her role at the US electric truck start-up, a company that wants its customers to have complete freedom of expression
-
We drive the World and UK Car of the Year, the all-electric Kia EV3The new Kia EV3 is an EV for the masses that doesn’t skimp on design detail, features and overall functional elegance
-
The Peugeot E-5008 is an adept but ostentatious take on the all-electric SUVPeugeot has swapped its seductive design language for something shoutier and less discrete as it attempts to conquer the electric SUV segment with the new E-5008
-
The Micra (finally) goes electric as Nissan ramps up its range of EVsThe compact Nissan Micra was once a global bestseller. After getting an early head start on electric mobility, the Japanese giant is looking to a new version of its small car to recharge its status
-
Mika Cars wants to build the Mino, a sporty, ultra-compact electric two-seater for the open roadAn evolution of Mika’s Meon electric beach buggy, the little Mino is an ultra-light EV with big-car aspirations
-
Our pick of the reveals at the 2025 New York Auto Show, from concept SUVs to new EVsInterest in overseas brands remained strong at this year’s NY Auto Show despite the threat of tariffs designed to boost American-owned brands
