British GQ - 04.2020

Jaguar I-Pace

Engine

Twin electric

motors (395bhp),

powered by 90kWh

lithium-ion battery

Performance

0-62mph, 4.5 secs;

top speed, 124mph

Price £63,495

Contact jaguar.co.uk

Need

to

know

Lightweight construction plays

a major role in the Jaguar’s eSUV

GQ CARS

The acceleration is extraordinary, with

almost video-game dynamics. You feel

you are driving a massive Scalextric car

EVs present

carmakers the

opportunity to

reconfigure design

inside and out

>> slightly cheaper to run. Many of us

are driving hybrids, but we know they’re

not the answer to our problems... so

we’d like to make the change. But we

need help. Last month the government

brought forward its proposed ban on the

sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five

years, to 2035 (subject to consultation),

although at the same time Grant Shapps,

the transport secretary, announced

that the £3,500 grant that offset the cost

of an electric car might soon be stopped.

With plastic it was easy. Sir David

Attenborough made a TV programme

and suddenly we were all demanding

recyclable water bottles. Straws were

immediately outlawed, as were plastic

bags and plastic-wrapped fruit in super-

markets. The consumer tipping point

seemed to happen in about a month, but

then not only were all these entry-level

purchasing decisions, but public appetite

was mirrored accordingly by the market.

With cars it’s different. We don’t see

as many charging points as we’d like to.

Petrol stations and motorway services

seem stuck in the 1980s. We’re worried

our cars won’t be able to go from Reading

to Birmingham without running out of

power. We’re not especially excited about

having a power cable running under

our door into the street. We don’t feel

the government has much interest in the

electric switchover. And aren’t Teslas

the only EVs worth having? After all,

they’re the ones with all the chargers

you see along the M4, aren’t they?

And what about the resale value of my

electric car when I decide to cash it in

for another? We know that EVs don’t

incur the annual £145 road tax, but

that’s hardly an inflection point (they

still tend to be more expensive than

petrol and diesel vehicles). While the

AA has lobbied for the government to

scrap VAT to encourage sales and the

government has set a target to abolish

the sale of new petrol and diesel cars

within the next 15 years, sales of EVs are

still sluggish (making up only 0.2 per cent

of the cars on UK roads). There is central

investment, and the government is defen-

sive about its transition programme, but

what it’s doing is not enough.

This year will be a big one for all-

electric cars, with new models from

Volkswagen, Rivian, Aston Martin,

Volvo, Mini, Polestar, Lotus, BMW,

Porsche and Audi. A recent audit of the

launch plans of British manufacturers

showed that this year as many as 22 more

fully electric cars will become available.

The assortment of riches to be found in

all of these new models is staggering and

the levels of sophistication with electric

cars puts their petrol and diesel cousins to

shame, but will anyone buy them? British

car sales have been flat for a while, as

customers have been worried about the

economy after Brexit, as well as environ-

mental and regulatory issues concerning

diesel. Even if there was mass adoption of

EVs there would be problems with infra-

structure. Boris Johnson has promised to

ensure that no one is ever more than 30

miles from an charging point, as part of

an effort to energise the economy post-

Brexit – and pledging £500 million in the

process – but then this promise was made

pre-election, so who knows what will

happen to it? After all, for many people,

going electric is a lifestyle choice rather

than an economic necessity.

Despite the uncertainty, most of us are,

I feel, skewing towards the future, but if

we want to make the move then we’ve

got to do it ourselves. Help will inevitably

come later, but if we want to invest in the

future then we’re going to need to be

early adopters. And if you decide to move

with the times, you could do a lot worse

than invest in a Jaguar I-Pace. You cer-

tainly won’t be alone: in February JLR

halted production of the car for a week

because it had run out of batteries, thus

rubber-stamping the car’s popularity.

“One of my key issues with EVs is

that, for all their high performance and

efficiency, they can still feel sterile, but

the I-Pace has genuine character,” says

Barlow. “Buyers don’t want an EV that

looks like a renegade from Blade Runner,

but there’s still an opportunity for car

makers to define a new paradigm. Jaguar

has nailed it with the I-Pace, both inside

and out, and created something that

looks sufficiently ‘other’ without being

too polarising. No mean feat.”

Just be sure to remember it doesn’t

do foreplay. G

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