IN the early hours of this morning, Australian time, British car maker Jaguar took a massive leap forward in its promised move to full electric by 2020, with the unveiling of the brand new I-PACE – a car available from today.
In a unique situation, the new Jag hasn’t yet had its official public debut, that will come at the Geneva Motor Show on 6 March 2018, but confirmation has already come of its availability in Australia and around the world.
The incredible looking car, built as a performance SUV and earmarked already for a motor racing series in support of Formula E, is set to have a range of 480km and a 0 to 100km/h speed of 4.8 seconds.
The all-wheel-drive is built on the premise it’s a five-seater sports car in an SUV-like body, and will be packed with features including a massive new touch pad control system, a remote app, Wi-Fi, and full smart phone integration.
Among the stand out technology features though is an artificial intelligence system that learns your habits to set the car up better for you as a driver, a new look heads up display and interactive driver display.
Jaguar has confirmed that unlike rival Tesla, the new I-PACE, will make a noise, with the new model set to emit an external acoustic signal at speeds under 20km/h to help make pedestrians aware of the car’s presence.
Other safety features include six airbags, adaptive cruise control with steering assist, emergency braking, an adaptive speed limiter with traffic sign recognition, lane keep assist, driver condition monitor and rear camera.
A range of driver packs add further safety, including park assist, a safe exit monitor and a rear cross-traffic monitor.
A 90kWh battery powers the two drive motors in the I-PACE, pushing out 294kW of power and an impressive 694Nm of torque between them. Thanks to a 100kW DC charging system, it will be able to fill the batteries to 80% in an hour.
The new I-PACE is now available to order in Australia from $119,000 plus on-roads for the S variant. In addition to S, SE and HSE derivatives, there will also be a limited number of First Edition I-PACE models available. Delivery is expected from October 2018.
