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
-
Wild sauna, anyone? The ultimate guide to exploring deep heat in the UK outdoors‘Wild Sauna’, a new book exploring the finest outdoor establishments for the ultimate deep-heat experience in the UK, has hit the shelves; we find out more about the growing trend
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
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
-
Mercedes-Benz previews its next-gen people mover with an ultra-luxury EV conceptThe Mercedes-Benz Vision V Concept is an art deco picture palace on wheels, designed to immerse passengers in parallel worlds as they travel
-
2025 Seoul Mobility Show report: all that's new and notableOpened at a time of high national drama, the 2025 Seoul Mobility Show has gone on to underscore Korea’s place at the cutting edge of the auto industry. Guy Bird was there
-
Meet the final drivable prototype of the Telo MT1 pickup truck, shaped by FuseprojectThe Telo MT1 is a modestly scaled EV that turns the traditional all-American approach to pick-up truck design on its head
-
EV start-up Halcyon transforms a classic 1970s Rolls-Royce into a smooth electric operatorThis 1978 Rolls-Royce Corniche is the first fruit of a new electric restomod company, the Surrey-based Halcyon
-
China’s Leapmotor pounces on the European car market with its T03 city car and C10 SUVLeapmotor’s tiny electric city car could be just the tonic for cramped urban Europe. We sample the T03 and its new sibling, the fully loaded C10 SUV, to see if the company’s value proposition stacks up
-
Wallpaper* takes the wheel of the Bentley Blower Jnr for a rich automotive experienceHedley Studios has shrunk the mighty Bentley Blower into this all-electric, road-legal barnstormer. We take it to the streets of London
