[Dr.AD]

Test Drive of Jaguar I-Pace HSE (Part 1/2)

BHPian robimahanta and I did a short test drive of I-Pace HSE today. Thanks to robimahanta ("Robi") for setting up this test drive and letting me join him on this. I will share my observation here and I would request Robi to add his expert comments and photos too.

Although it was a short drive, I ended up taking a lot of pictures and could not resist sharing many of those here. That made this post a bit long, and hence I am breaking this into two parts.

Part 1: Likes & Dislikes, External looks and Driving
Part 2: Internal Design and Infotainment

Before we go on, some disclaimers: This was my first time driving a "proper" electric vehicle, and that too with so much power and torque. This is very much a high performance EV by any standards! Therefore, my views of these are those of a novice, and please take them with a pinch of salt :-)

Further, this TD was a short TD, done right in the middle of a crowded city area. We did not have a luxury if driving on a highway or taking the car to a scenic location for a proper photoshoot. Therefore, most of my comments are applicable to city driving. Further, all photos are taken with my basic mobile phone, and that too in ordinary city locations.




What I liked:

• Clean and elegant design. Nothing too flashy, and not very boring too.
• Amazing torque and acceleration. 0-100km/h in 4.8s.
• Overall fantastic performance. Picks up speeds crazy quick and masks high speeds very well too.
• Top notch build quality, fit and finish. Everything feels premium.
• Dead silent cabin. All the fun with zero noise.
• Perfect ride for Indian road conditions. Very comfortable ride quality even on bad roads without being too soft.
• Neutral handling, especially by SUV standards. Well controlled (although not zero) body roll
• Good ground clearance to tackle most of the bad roads
• Easy ingress and egress. Ideal height so one can "walk" straight into the car.
• Great visibility all round. No blind spots anywhere.
• Extremely comfortable seats, with absolutely top notch interior quality.
• Great interior space in front and rear seats.
• Overall, if one wants a rich, spacious, silent and comfortable cabin, this is their car
• Loaded with gadgets, screens, features and technology (lovely HUD too, and of course, a beautiful panoramic moonroof)
• Very good music system
• Reasonable range for an high performance EV (should run for about 350km in real life driving conditions on one charge)

What I did not like:

• Brakes! Maybe it needs some getting used to. But the car picks up speeds fast and the first thing I noticed is the brake bite is poor and gave me a moment or two of anxiety before I got used to it. Poor bite and very spongy brake feel.
• Lack of engine braking/regenerative braking (or may be I did not try all options well) added to the feel of poor brakes.
• Torque is amazing, but has surprisingly non-linear torque delivery. The non-linear acceleration was almost nauseating for the co-driver. Again, maybe it was out first time on a high power EV, and it may need some getting used to.
• Although body roll is well controlled, it is not minimal. Cornering will not be fun in this. I guess I am a sedan guy and this TD again prove that.
• I have some concerns over real-world range. In our hard driving for about 20km, the range dropped way too fast.
• Not very spacious boot for such a big vehicle.
• External styling is a bit bland. It does not stand out from the crowd like the other Jaguar models do.
• Lack of engine sounds and the lack of usual drama of an IC engine meant it is not involving to drive. Maybe again it is just the EV thing. But both Robi and I felt lack of typical driving excitement and connect with the car that we usually feel in other good cars.

External Photos:

As I mentioned above, all photos are taken in regular city locations. Thus, these photos actually show how the car will look in day to day city conditions, as opposed to those sexy photos taken at exotic locations and/or with artificial backgrounds.

The car looks the best from the front. Unmistakably a Jaguar from the front:



Nice and clean design. Clean side profile. But does not stand out:



Rear three quarter view has a good stance:



Lovely LED turn signals look great:



"EV 400 AWD" badge on the right had side on the rear:



And the "I-Pace" badge on the left:



The flush door handles pop out when the car is unlocked. They look great when locked and sitting flush on the doors:



This was the range topper HSE trim that we test drove:



Good looking 19" wheels shod with "Micheline Pilot Sport 4 SUV" tyres:



Another view of the wheels. Notice the tyre size: 235/60/R19. Same size in front and rear.



The "frunk". It has a small compartment to store charging cables. Notice the windshield washer fluid tank. The sales representative proudly said that the only liquid that needs to be filled in is the windshield washer:



The "Bonnet" (if we could call it so) has a thick plastic cladding underneath, instead of the typical insulation in ICE cars:



A lovely moonroof with Shark Fin Antenna (more on the moonroof in the next post):



Finally a parting shot. Notice the flush door handles:



Driving the I-Pace:

The first thing you notice when you start the... car (I was going to say the engine, but there is no engine; it does take some time to get used to the new terminology; I kept on talking of the "engine performance" while driving this car ) is the total lack of sound. You fire the car. Nothing happens. No sound. No drama. Then you press the gear buttons for R or D, and slowly release the brake and give a bit of .. (not gas for sure; I need to be careful what I say) a current (?) and the car moves very smoothly, and totally silently. Feels magical at the beginning.

And then once you are out of the parking lot and on the open road, press the pedal and then see the real magic. The accelerates at am amazing rate. It is as if the car is always in launch control mode. The car just launched ahead. The 394 BHP and 696 Nm numbers are very impressive on paper for sure. But not just on paper. The car proves than these numbers are very real and very easy to extract with just a little bit of push on the pedal. It was fun to push the pedal and see the car launch itself. It was addictive. The car picks up speeds at very alarming rate. And all this with very minimal sound. As I picked up speed, I could actually hear the electric motors spinning, but the sound was minimal.

Overall the car has extremely good sound insulation. Hardly any sound from outside entered the cabin. Given this dead silent cabin, lack of engine sounds, and overall plush ride, it is impossible to tell the speeds. We picked up speeds quickly but yet they were masked so well we never felt the speed. However, the braking left us a bit confused. When you press on the brake from decent speeds, the bite is lacking, and it felt like the car took forever to stop. Brake feel is very spongy too. Given that the car masks speeds so well, brakes with extra bite was the need. But we felt the car is a bit lacking on this.

I could be wrong here but from what I understood (and also confirmed by the sales rep) that this model lacks regenerative braking. I felt that a bit odd, and maybe that could also be part of the reason why braking felt a bit inadequate. Maybe some experts can comment on this.

Coming to the suspensions and ride quality, again Jaguar has done a great job. The car has perfect ride quality for Indian roads. We drove over some bad patches, and some huge speed breakers. The car ironed out everything quite well. The ride quality was very comfy, but yet not very soft. It was not so soft that it will cause undulations and other unwanted movements. The damping was spot on! When we drove over a flyover with those typical rough joints, we were amazed by how well the car ironed out those and how smoothly it drove over the flyover.

The handling is overall neutral. The car is an SUV after all, and thus we can not expect a sedan-like handling and cornering abilities. I did not get a chance to take any high speed corners to be able to comment on that anyways. But whatever turns we took, the car handled well. But I would not call the handling as "great" - certainly not like other Jaguars. Maybe I am a sedan person and I should not compare this car to a sedan. But keeping aside some nitpicking, the car handles well.

The car has two electric motors driving the two axles, and thus it is an All Wheel Drive (AWD), The grip levels were great and the car felt well balanced. However, it was too short a TD to really check the benefits of AWD.

In summary, I would give 10/10 on power and performance, 9/10 on ride quality and 7/10 on handling. Again, it was too short a TD to really give a proper rating, and therefore, I would request you to take these numbers with a pinch of salt.

Oh yes, and maybe 15/10 on the creature comforts, the luxurious feel, and comfort levels in the cabin. More on that in the next post.

[Dr.AD]

Test Drive of Jaguar I-Pace HSE (Part 2/2)

Coming to the interiors, the car is a lovely car when you are inside. The material quality, fit and finish, and the design is all very rich and classy. I loved the interiors. The interior is not only rich and nice, it is also quite spacious. We had more than enough room in the front seats as well as in the rear.

The seats are fantastic. Top notch leather quality (as expected in a Jaguar), and lovely color too:



I am big fan of this color for seats (this reminded me of the Cognac interior in my friend Graaja's 330i GT, and I love that too):



The steering and the center console. Very elegant and clean. I loved this interior design:



The steering wheel was nice to hold. Again top quality materials and buttons everywhere:



The instrument panel. It had nice and clean display with clear fonts. I am sure there are tons of different themes, designs, displays and setting here. But we did not get a chance to play through those in our short TD:



The center console with Infotainment Screen and the AC panel. Again a beautiful design and great quality screens:



Seat Memory buttons for driver, and Tweeters for the lovely sound system:



Door lock and unlock buttons. Every button had a very high quality and tactile feel.



Memory seats for passengers too, with a door lock/unlock button:



Another view of the steering wheel from passenger's seat:



The center console with "gear positions" and driving mode buttons. There is no gear lever or knob. Just these buttons:



A close-up of the gear position buttons:



A very nice screen with good graphics to show AC settings, along with tactile rotary knobs to control temperature. I loved this design:



Once of the many nice features. When you unlock the car and go in, it pops up an option to "precondition" the cabin temperature:



A tap on that option on the screen, and preconditioning started:



Very spacious and comfortable rear seats:



The space in the rear when the driver's seat was set to my driving position:



Rear AC controls, with two USB C ports below:



Argh, the notorious space saver taking away the boot space! This is all too familiar to me. I suffer from the same weird design in my 320d:



Now coming to the "star attraction", the gorgeous moonroof. This moonroof does not open nor does it have a shade from inside. This dark glass roof always remains uncovered. It is huge! A truly panoramic roof. It is lovely for sure:



However, I found it to be showing just the reflection of the interior all the time, and even in bright lighting conditions, I could not really see much of the outside view. This picture is the proof (and this could get quite annoying for rear passengers):



Although there is no shade to cover the roof, it is sufficiently dark (not sure if the darkness is adaptive/adjustable). This is how the mid-day sun (almost exactly at noon) on the top looks through the roof:



The car is loaded with cameras. Front parking cameras and 360 degree cameras with great image quality and resolution:



Reversing camera. Again top quality:



The car has a big size infotainment screen, that greets you when you start the car:



Great screen quality, with great touch sensitivity and myriad of options, features, displays and settings (we did not get a chance to explore these). With so many features and options, I missed some physical buttons. The BMW iDrive controller type control would have been great. It is a bit too confusing to manage this while driving:



Nice and clean interface for radio stations, and most other things. The interface is very intuitive. Just that any physical buttons are lacking.



And finally, a parting shot in a lighter vein. When we clicked on the "EV Stations" option in the maps menu, it opened up a list of "nearest" stations, showing us stations in China, some 4500km away.



With that, let me wrap up the test drive story of this lovely car. Overall the car is just fantastic! Amazing performance, great luxury and comfort, loaded with features and technology, and rides well too. And with all that, still a bit boring to drive. "Glimpse of the future for us" - robimahanta and I joked.

Acknowledgements: Robimahanta arranged this TD. Thanks to Robi and the sales rep from JLR for this TD. The sales rep came from far away. He was very knowledgeable, polite, friendly, and explained all the features to us quite well, and answered our questions. It was a great experience. Thanks to him for this wonderful TD experience!

[robimahanta]

AD has summed it up very well. The iPace is fast and the driving dynamics seems to be well sorted. We did a short 20 odd km city test drive over varied road surfaces. I am not sure how the car will behave in triple digit highway speeds. A few points I would like to add would be,

Likes:

• Lovely contemporary crossover styling. Neither over the top nor bland.
  
• Driving dynamics is more like a sedan than a large SUV even though it is over 2 tons. Maybe the lower centre of gravity due to the battery pack helps here. The demo car didn’t have air suspension which I believe will improve the dynamics even more.
  
• Power is awesome but the delivery felt non linear and kind of nauseating to be honest. Maybe since I am not used to electric cars or even high torque diesel cars.
  
• Interior quality is top notch (although I not a fan of so many touch screens, but that is the future I guess). The Meridian Surround system is great and there are a lot of useful driver assistance features on offer.
  
• It has a water wading depth of 500mm with a completely sealed underbody. AWD as well, so it is good for estate runs (if you are able to reach there before the charge runs out)
  
  The underbody
  
  
  
• Very spacious for four adults with all the creature comforts (has both usb a, c and 12V). I know some guys will start ranting about unavailability of usb A in a 1 Cr car, even though an adapter costs 200₹.
  
  
  
  
• 3 year service interval with negligible service costs other than tyres and brake pads/discs. Extremely meagre registration charges too due to subsidy.

Dislikes:

• The car doesn’t have a soul and there is no driver connect. No drama at all. This is a stark reminder as to how much fun it is to redline an IC engine. Downshifting in a corner and redlining as we exit is what an enthusiast yearns. The iPace has all the speed and maybe even the handling for its bulk but something is amiss. It is like driving a simulator with the volume turned off. Actually with the large screens all over (which are a tad laggy at times, it seems you are in a video game than actually driving in the real world). If the future is heading this way maybe we should pick the last of the best IC cars soon and hold on to it (fuel prices be damned)
  
  Something amiss for sure
  
  
  
• Very uneven brake feedback. The demo car didn’t have any sort of regeneration mode to select. Maybe over time you will get used to the braking but definitely the feedback is not what I expected.
  
• Over optimistic claimed range for Indian conditions. I would say 300-320km is the maximum you will get.
  
• Extremely slow charging over a regular charging point. Apparently it takes around 14hrs for a full charge. Recently I did a drive from Mumbai in around 14hrs. The same would easily take 3 or 4 days in an iPace.
  
• Sketchy charging infrastructure in India. So it is still a 1Cr city crossover.
  
• Tesla Model X launch is imminent and they have been the pioneers in the electric game. So I would hold on if I was in the market for a luxury electric vehicle. E-tron is out but I suppose it is just an electric Q5 (I may be wrong)

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Argh, the notorious space saver taking away the boot space! This is all too familiar to me. I suffer from the same weird design in my 320d:

Thinking more about how the spare wheel was just kept in the boot just like in a BMW or a Mercedes, I find it even more odd. The reason a BMW or a Mercedes did not give a proper spare wheel or a place to store it was that those came with Run Flat Tyres (RFTs). With RFTs, they were designed and intended to run without any spare tyre at all. The spare wheel was a mere afterthought in those cars.. However, in case of the I-Pace, it comes with regular tubeless tyres as OEM tyres. That means the car is not intended to be driven without a spare wheel, and at least in this car they should have given a proper place to store the spare wheel. I find it quote odd that a car with regular tubeless tyre has no place to keep the spare wheel.

Maybe the battery pack under the floor takes a lot of space and leaves no space to have a proper spare wheel place under the boot floor. Or maybe it is the electric motor driving the rear wheels that takes a lot of space under the boot. Whatever the reason, the spare wheel just sitting in the middle of the boot is a bad idea. It significantly reduces the usefulness of the boot. It does so in any car that has this kind of design, and I-Pace seems no exception.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, guys! This is too good to be in an existing thread, so moving out to a new thread. Will also go to our homepage in the coming days .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Brakes! Maybe it needs some getting used to. But the car picks up speeds fast and the first thing I noticed is the brake bite is poor and gave me a moment or two of anxiety before I got used to it. Poor bite and very spongy brake feel.

I think it's an EV thing. All electric cars that I've driven have had numb / wooden / mushy brake pedals.

Lack of engine braking/regenerative braking (or may be I did not try all options well) added to the feel of poor brakes.

Am surprised. This is actually a highlight of EVs. The regenerative braking is top class, and very similar to engine braking. Are you sure you went through all the options?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for sharing, guys! This is too good to be in an existing thread, so moving out to a new thread. Will also go to our homepage in the coming days.

Great! Thank you very much, GTO!

I think it's an EV thing. All electric cars that I've driven have had numb / wooden / mushy brake pedals.

OK, I see. Yes that was my guess too. I wonder why this is so though. Do they use some different brake design than conventional ICE cars? I actually do not see any reason why brakes should be bad in EVs.

Am surprised. This is actually a highlight of EVs. The regenerative braking is top class, and very similar to engine braking. Are you sure you went through all the options?

No, I am not really sure. I might have missed some options/settings. I agree with you that regenerative braking is the highlight of EVs and I had taken it for granted that the car had that. However, it felt missing for sure and the sales rep also said the particular model we tested did not have that feature. But we did not go through all the options, and therefore, it is possible that we missed some option and the sales rep could also have missed that. Surprising for sure.

[anandpadhye]

Nice to see this test drive report Dr. AD and Robi.

I am also a low slung sedan guy Dr. AD and SUVs don't excite me.

And I quite like that superhero who doesn't talk much, just hits. And we can always play whatever engine sound track that we want from the speaker.

I have test driven Kona, eZS and Nexon EV. Brakes were good and Kona and eZS have adjustable regen which was very effective. Shocking to hear that I Pace does not. However, I will prefer no regen over compulsary regen (which is what Tata have done in Nexon which is stupid and makes steady cruising on open highways quite a task)

BTW, M340i is what @70L on road and I-Pace is what~105L? The ~35L that M340i would save upfront will vanish in a blink, given the fuel consumption, fuel prices and BMW's service costs

Future is electric and it's a good thing. Embrace the change friends

Cheers!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

I am also a low slung sedan guy Dr. AD and SUVs don't excite me.

I must admit I am realizing I am a sedan guy too. I do like the concept of SUV and driving around on remote roads. I keep dreaming of those adventurous mountain drives in an SUV. However, every time I drive a SUV, I end up missing sedans.

BTW, M340i is what @70L on road and I-Pace is what~105L? The ~35L that M340i would save upfront will vanish in a blink, given the fuel consumption, fuel prices and BMW's service costs

Well, here in Bangalore, the BMW M340i is Rs. 78L on road, and the I-Pace HSE that we drove is Rs. 1.3 Cr on road. So the difference is more than Rs. 50L. I do not think any amount of fuel, service and maintenance costs will come to Rs. 50L :-)

Thus, I do not think EVs are financially viable yet. There could be other reasons to get an EV, but not financial reasons.

Yes, I agree that we have to embrace the change and accept the EVs. I am sure I will accept it some day. But that acceptance will be due to other reasons (government policies/rules, performance, or something else) and not financial reasons.

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

And I quite like that superhero who doesn't talk much, just hits. And we can always play whatever engine sound track that we want from the speaker

Yes this is actually public transport called metro (listen to any music on a headphone)

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Shocking to hear that I Pace does not. However, I will prefer no regen over compulsary regen..

The iPace has brake regen, just that the TD model didn't have the option to choose "High/Low".

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

BTW, M340i is what @70L on road and I-Pace is what~105L? The ~35L that M340i would save upfront will vanish in a blink, given the fuel consumption, fuel prices and BMW's service costs

Even with 3 year BSI, M340i will be around 80L on road and the cheapest variant of iPace will be still 1.1Cr. So vanishing 30L in a blink will be task difficult for even a mute superhero. Even when you drive the M340i hard, you will get 7-8 kmpl over a long distance with decent average speeds. (with you driving you may get even 14-15 kmpl, as you get 18-20 kmpl in the Polo GTi)

Maybe an X3M will be a closer comparison in price to the iPace. But trying doing a Pune to Bangalore trip in either now.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Future is electric and it's a good thing. Embrace the change friends
Cheers!

This a known fact. But it is still a long time away in India to be main stream.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Yes this is actually public transport called metro (listen to any music on a headphone)

Actually, I didn't have a car until a good 3/4 years after I started working. I grew up travelling in an EV (Borivali fast, Dadar fast), so I always find IC engine slow

Originally Posted by robimahanta

The iPace has brake regen, just that the TD model didn't have the option to choose "High/Low".

Interesting! And it should also have "regen off" option.

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Even when you drive the M340i hard, you will get 7-8 kmpl over a long distance with decent average speeds. (with you driving you may get even 14-15 kmpl, as you get 18-20 kmpl in the Polo GTi)

Let me drive the I Pace. May be it can do 600km in one charge

[carthick1000]

Nice drive report Dr. AD & robimahanta. It was very interesting for me to read how non-EV users encounter their first EV drives and what they think about it. Since it is a very short drive, you get to enjoy the first hand things of the silent powertrain, extreme accelerations even from 0rpm. If one of you is planning to buy this, then it would be wise to take a multi-day test drive to get a feel of living with an EV. Then you get to see the charging at home, enroute, efficiency and planning your trips etc.

Originally Posted by GTO

I think it's an EV thing. All electric cars that I've driven have had numb / wooden / mushy brake pedals.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Do they use some different brake design than conventional ICE cars? I actually do not see any reason why brakes should be bad in EVs.

Having lived with a model 3 for few years and now and then driving ICE cars during business trip/rental etc. I have a theory why it feels so. It is not tested or proven. But just based on my experience. Here it goes.

There are 2 parts to my theory:

1. When you brake in an EV, just like acceleration, there is no drama. It is synthetic (technically electro-magnetic) unlike in an ICE vehicle, where your sense of sound feels the engine revving up (if you are downshifting) and then gradually dropping rpms when you come to a stop. This is a linear/natural aural experience which your brain relates to slowing down. When you drive an EV, esp. after a long time driving an ICE vehicle, you have to suddenly rely only on the vehicle slowing down and not the aural experience coupled to it.

2. EVs are generally heavier than their ICE counterparts, due to inherent battery /pack volume-weight limitations (as of now). This leads to EVs having larger momentum and when someone from ICE driving experience, takes time to estimate the moment in time when one has to start braking. This is especially pronounced, if your regenerative settings is set to low or no. 1&2 coupled to have the mushy/woody/lagging brake feel.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

But we did not go through all the options, and therefore, it is possible that we missed some option and the sales rep could also have missed that.

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Interesting! And it should also have "regen off" option.

Regeneration off is not posssible in I-pace, however the low and high settings should be possible in all I-pace models. There is no difference in terms of variants, esp. for an EV regenerative braking is a must to be more efficient.



source

Also notice that one can configure whether the car has to creep or not when brake pedals are released. I would call this a transition feature for making ICE drivers move to EVs smoothly. I have never used it on my model 3 for the last 3 years and almost all other EV drivers whom I know don't use this creep. With EVs it is more straightforward. If I want to drive, I press the A-pedal, if I want to stop B-pedal. No movement when no pedals are pressed.

PS: Nice to hear that there are still sedan lovers out there . We are a dying breed in the bigger scheme of things

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by carthick1000

Having lived with a model 3 for few years and now and then driving ICE cars during business trip/rental etc. I have a theory why it feels so. It is not tested or proven. But just based on my experience. Here it goes.

There are 2 parts to my theory:

Thank you very much for pointing this out from your Model 3 experience. I think your theory makes sense. Now thinking back of the drive, yes, your theory is exactly what we experienced. Good to see experienced EV users sharing their thoughts. I realized EV is a different thing altogether, and it will take us ICE engine users some time to learn various intricacies of EV experience.

By the way, coming to lack of aural drama, as I mentioned, thre are lot of positives too. The car is very silent and if one would like to use their car as a office or take calls from the car, this is the ideal car. Incidentally, I had to take a quick office call during the TD when Robi was driving it. The silence in the cabin was so good that my colleagues at the other end did not even realize I was speaking from a car. Thus, inadvertently, we ended up testing the cabin silence for office calls too. :-)

Regeneration off is not possible in I-pace, however the low and high settings should be possible in all I-pace models. There is no difference in terms of variants, esp. for an EV regenerative braking is a must to be more efficient.

Also notice that one can configure whether the car has to creep or not when brake pedals are released. I would call this a transition feature for making ICE drivers move to EVs smoothly. I have never used it on my model 3 for the last 3 years and almost all other EV drivers whom I know don't use this creep. With EVs it is more straightforward. If I want to drive, I press the A-pedal, if I want to stop B-pedal. No movement when no pedals are pressed.

Great. Thanks for this info too. So clearly the I-Pace has the regen feature but somehow we missed it. Maybe that calls for another TD to set the record straight.

BTW, great point about creep too. Now that I think of it, the creep was set to OFF, and both Robi and I were startled in the first moments when we took our foot off the brake. Absolutely nothing happened, and we were compelled to check if the car was on. It was on. Just that nothing happened until we pressed the A pedal too. And then the car took off. Very unusual for our brains used to decades of ICE driving.

PS: Nice to hear that there are still sedan lovers out there. We are a dying breed in the bigger scheme of things

Oh yes. I love sedans. In fact, the next day after this review I took my good old 3-series on some isolated but smooth roads and had a ton of fun. Lovely weather, smooth tarmac with corners and ups and down, and a lovely old fashioned sedan. It is funny that I am calling a 2017 car as "old fashioned" one. But that is how fast things are changing. This I-Pace test drive was an eye-opener for me in terms of how fast the automobile world is evolving.

[Fateh Salim]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I actually do not see any reason why brakes should be bad in EVs.

Greater mass and increased inertia correspond to longer braking distance.

Because of the torquey and powerful dual motors, we don't feel the weight of such EVs until we brake. We can only gain a clearer understanding of these things when we talk numbers.
I was amazed to see that the I-pace is around the same weight as the Urus, if not slightly heavier . Another point to mention is that your BMW weighs the same as the Hyundai Kona. Both are about half a tonne lighter than the I pace.

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

A lovely moonroof with Shark Fin Antenna (more on the moonroof in the next post):
Attachment 2177175

I like the way Jaguar has increased the glass area for sunroof. This cutting has some wastage to the material (cost involved )and many mass market car makers shy away from making such adventures.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The center console with "gear positions" and driving mode buttons. There is no gear lever or knob. Just these buttons:
Attachment 2177220


A close-up of the gear position buttons:
Attachment 2177210


Now coming to the "star attraction", the gorgeous moonroof. This moonroof does not open nor does it have a shade from inside. This dark glass roof always remains uncovered. It is huge! A truly panoramic roof. It is lovely for sure:
Attachment 2177222

1. I am unable to see parking brake switch, is is integrated with PRND switch?

2. Dr.AD sir, did the large roof console (housing the ADAS Camera) cause you any peripheral vision distraction?

[PearlJam]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Rear AC controls, with two USB C ports below:
Attachment 2177224

Excellent pictures and review, AD! You've covered all the important points. And congratulations on being a DBHPian now!

Are the rear a/c vents under the seats? Sorry if I missed out anything obvious.