Jaguar I-Pace First Edition 2018 first drive review

It’s worth reiterating the risk Jaguar is taking with such a rule-breaking model: it is deliberately ditching the long bonnet, short boot proportions of nearly every successful Jaguar model in favour of a short bonnet, cab-forward design. The logic is irrefutable: there’s simply no need to make space for 350kg of rubber-mounted metal in the nose. Two much more easily accommodated 80kg motors take the conventional engine’s place – one front, one rear – so why not use the space for carrying people?

For the first time, a Jaguar must do without a great-looking internal combustion engine – perhaps with a heritage of its own – and the accompanying sound of combustion, in the past painstakingly engineered to please an owner’s ear. Now, the I-Pace has silent electric motors mounted at either end of a skateboard chassis, the pair contributing 395bhp and 513lb ft to give the car 0-60mph acceleration in 4.5sec. 

It’s time to drive. There is no noise or auto-style creep, although you can choose the latter from a huge range of driving options if you desire. We glide off the mark like no combustion car ever did, then accelerate to the first obstacle cleanly and strongly. Instantly, the extreme faithfulness of this car to control inputs is clear. This is a tight course, so very soon we’re jinking and accelerating and regen-braking constantly. You can get 0.2g of retardation from simply coming off the accelerator, and another 0.2g from initial use of the brake pedal, so in most situations you hardly need friction braking at all.

The steering wheel feels big for tight manoeuvres like these, but the driving position is perfect: a fairly high wheel, plenty of seat bolstering and under-thigh support, an ideal instrument view, and the response to lock is accurate. Even here, with tyres screeching and the car always turning fast, Shaw’s words about the I-Pace’s torque distribution ensuring “uncorrupted” steering come back to me. The weighting is just right for serious driving, not merely convenient parking, and I’m surprised how little this body rolls. That’s a function of the low-mounted battery, I’m told, and the centralisation of the major masses.

In most derivatives you get conventional steel anti-roll bars (accompanying steel coil springs) to handle things. The low centre of gravity means they don't need to be as intrusive as many. On air suspension models – which offer three ride heights that vary over 90mm – the quick-acting air suspension units help control roll too. As for grip, there’s plenty on the airport’s slow, non-slip tarmac, though off throttle the car tightens neatly in bends, especially when its maximum regeneration setting is engaged. This is only a five-minute drive, albeit an action-packed one, but the impressions I take from it are the I-Pace’s accuracy and precision.