[dtgsrq]

If you're struggling to spot another I-Pace around town, these figures tell the story. Based on this report, U.S. deliveries of the I-Pace are sluggish and slowing. Almost everyone familiar with the car blames poor marketing. I agree - have seen NOTHING promoting it. Perhaps winning 2019 World Car of the Year later this month will perk up sales? If the EQC range (as reported by EPA) comes in around the same as the e-Tron just announced (204 mi), that may help (a bit) too. When will JLR double down on its medalwinner and throw some marketing behind it?

https://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/

 

[McRat]

I have seen a lot of marketing for the I-Pace on the web. Since most EV buyers tend to be affluent (even the cheap models) and tech savvy, the web is the natural resource for exploring the EV options available.

Nobody so far has done what JLR did to market EVs: Invite the press to test the cars everywhere, snow, desert, racetrack, autoX, off-road. They started an I-Pace Racing Series.
They certainly spent a lot of money on the marketing end for a low-production (under 100,000 units a year) car. They also offered AutoX testing to potential customers. AutoX violates the warranty on all models of Teslas, per written agreement.

The US market is not going to be large. The Model S/X and I-Pace are being hammered by the more affordable Model 3 and it's queue; many people are still waiting from 2016 for the $35k variant, which reduces EV sales in general. There's not a lot that can be done to steal sales from the Model 3 since they opened sales over 3 years ago.

I'm guessing there are about 8,000 I-Paces on the road at this point.

I like having a car that is not common and looks good. But Year One cars are always a struggle. The Model S sold under 10k units in the first 12 months of sales.

 

[jsimon7777]

Yeah, we might just have to get a second I-Pace.

 

[Sinister_Crayon]

Thing is that even as a tech AND car geek I can say that the marketing for the I-Pace hasn't been stellar. I know about it because it happens to tick all the boxes in my own personal "interest" checklist... but I do find that generally the I-Pace isn't all that well known unless you happen to be like me.

I am not an I-Pace owner, but I am known as one of the big car-guys in my professional and personal circles. That means that most of my colleagues and friends know that my lease is almost up on my ATS-V and as usual with these things many of them are curious what I'm going to drive next... because I tend to go with somewhat off-the-wall and unusual vehicles... high performance more often than not... and this time is unlikely to be any different. But when I mention the I-Pace as a contender for my next car the response is almost always "What is that?". Of course, I then happily pull up pictures of the car on my cellphone, but the normal run-of-the-mill person on the street has no clue what it is. Now, professionally I'm in the tech field (and I'm surrounded by salespeople, so they're also decently affluent) so you'd think that their interests would also intersect with this car; namely tech, roominess and so on. But no... none of them have ever heard of it either. They all know the F-Pace... and the XJ, XF and XE... but the I-Pace just isn't a thing to them.

I think the marketing HAS been pretty decent in the sense that they have made sure that people for whom very specific interest sets intersect they get relatively bombarded with information. Heck, I had to turn YouTube notifications about I-Pace off because I was getting sick of my phone telling me about a new post. But the thing is that the normal person-on-the-street doesn't seem to have enough intersection in interest to be properly marketed to.

I'll grant you it's not helped by Jag's image as a car for boomers and retirees. I'm solidly Gen-X (though my wife often refers to me as the world's oldest Millenial because I am more of a digital native than many people 10 years younger than me) and other than the F-Type most of my peers have zero interest in Jaguar as a whole. Even the XE is barely a blip on their radar.

Rambling a bit here... but while I think the adveritising has been good, its hasn't been phenomenal. In fact I'd say that there are a lot of markets they are failing to target properly.

 

[Mister Dave]

I imagine some are giving it time to shake out the bugs. I always do. I never buy a year one anything. That takes more courage than I have at this price range, or any car's price range of those I've purchased.

I'm not saying that there are bugs, but this site sure does for those allegedly tech savvy buyers.

 

[McRat]

Thing is that even as a tech AND car geek I can say that the marketing for the I-Pace hasn't been stellar. I know about it because it happens to tick all the boxes in my own personal "interest" checklist... but I do find that generally the I-Pace isn't all that well known unless you happen to be like me.

I am not an I-Pace owner, but I am known as one of the big car-guys in my professional and personal circles. That means that most of my colleagues and friends know that my lease is almost up on my ATS-V and as usual with these things many of them are curious what I'm going to drive next... because I tend to go with somewhat off-the-wall and unusual vehicles... high performance more often than not... and this time is unlikely to be any different. But when I mention the I-Pace as a contender for my next car the response is almost always "What is that?". Of course, I then happily pull up pictures of the car on my cellphone, but the normal run-of-the-mill person on the street has no clue what it is. Now, professionally I'm in the tech field (and I'm surrounded by salespeople, so they're also decently affluent) so you'd think that their interests would also intersect with this car; namely tech, roominess and so on. But no... none of them have ever heard of it either. They all know the F-Pace... and the XJ, XF and XE... but the I-Pace just isn't a thing to them.

I think the marketing HAS been pretty decent in the sense that they have made sure that people for whom very specific interest sets intersect they get relatively bombarded with information. Heck, I had to turn YouTube notifications about I-Pace off because I was getting sick of my phone telling me about a new post. But the thing is that the normal person-on-the-street doesn't seem to have enough intersection in interest to be properly marketed to.

I'll grant you it's not helped by Jag's image as a car for boomers and retirees. I'm solidly Gen-X (though my wife often refers to me as the world's oldest Millenial because I am more of a digital native than many people 10 years younger than me) and other than the F-Type most of my peers have zero interest in Jaguar as a whole. Even the XE is barely a blip on their radar.

Rambling a bit here... but while I think the adveritising has been good, its hasn't been phenomenal. In fact I'd say that there are a lot of markets they are failing to target properly.

As the ATS-V dies after about 150,000 units, it will largely go unmourned since very few people knew Cadillac made a small BMW/MB Killer or that the ATS existed. It's a great track car. The CTS-V can't outrun it on a tight course. The ATS-V makes the time in the corners, the CTS-V makes it down the straights, and the CTS is not a crap chassis. It's better than most of what comes out Germany costing 50% more $, it's just that the ATS chassis is even better.

Now... Why didn't Cadillac market the ATS more? Surely they could have spent $5-$10 million more to gain public awareness. Because no matter what Cadillac did for marketing, or how much better an ATS is, nobody buys an ATS for Fashion. People will buy a freakin' FWD Mercedes EconoBox (CLA?) just so the neighbors know. A German taxicab. Status! I've made my way to the top of the livery stable. I can start a discount car rental company in France!

In California, the fully loaded I-Pace is less money than the ATS-V after incentives, yet the I-Pace has some technologies they don't put in Cadillac V cars, like ACC, steering assist, AWD, air suspension, full winter and off-road systems.

And nobody except gearheads will know what either one is.

 

[Mister Dave]

And nobody except gearheads will know what either one is.

The trouble is being a gearhead may be becoming a lost art. Our culture needs to return to values we learned as kids. I was tearing down engines and doing valve jobs before I turned 17. It wasn't about how we looked - it was just plain fun, and sometimes necessary to keep the family car on the road.

Try to explain that to a liberal arts major. We didn't even know they existed back then. Our high schools need to return to vocational studies. Without the auto shop I wouldn't have had the resources to keep Mom's car running.

And this was a "progressive" school at the time.

Oh, sorry - I hope that wasn't too political there.

Anyway, our next ride may well be a Cadillac. XT4 is still on the short list. I don't discriminate against ICE cars and the price is right.

 

[sciencegeek]

JLR are limited by budget. They're not going to spend oodles of cash on marketing of anything when they lose $4B in a single quarter (which was admittedly an anomaly but still.) It's easier for them to make sure to gain a solid foothold in the European market, which they've done, than to aggressively compete on Tesla's turf.

 

[LauderdaleFE]

I have just seen a few television ads for the I-Pace on cable news channels.



They've been running many ads for the E-Pace and/or F-Pace models on those same channels.

 

[Mister Dave]

I have just seen a few television ads for the I-Pace on cable news channels.

I don't remember any of those here.

They've been running many ads for the E-Pace and/or F-Pace models on those same channels.

Every day. It used to be E-Pace but now it's this F-Pace ad.

 

[LauderdaleFE]

I don't remember any of those here.

The one I've seen several times is the '3 AM' (Monaco run).



Here: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dLxd/jaguar-i-pace-3-am


A guy takes an early AM run through a Grand Prix course, but silently.



Every other ambient sound is louder, and he passes someone sleeping who hears nothing. Others feel the wind.


As he crosses the finish line and leaves the car, the car door closing disturbs a flock of birds, and the car door sound and the birds flying is louder than the car had been. Tag line: 'roar silently.'

 

[Mister Dave]

The one I've seen several times is the '3 AM' (Monaco run).

I have seen that one a couple of times. I don't remember where though. It might have been on an EV site or two, or maybe it was TV.

Great ad. It's very TV-worthy. Even better than the E and F ads IMO. :smile2:

That's how you sell EVs. Make 'em want it.

EDIT: No you're right. It was TV. I remember now wondering what the purpose of the sleeping guy was.

 

[dennis]

I like having a car that is not common and looks good. But Year One cars are always a struggle. The Model S sold under 10k units in the first 12 months of sales.

It was 12,950 to be accurate:

3Q12 - 250
4Q12 - 2650
1Q13 - 4900
2Q13 - 5150

It appears that JLR did a bit of channel stuffing into the dealer ranks at the end of Q1. US i-Pace inventory has jumped about 60% in the past week to 802. That represents over 4 months of inventory at the current sales pace.

I really don't understand the current sluggishness in US i- Pace sales. The admittedly long in the tooth Model S outsold the i-Pace by a factor of 12 in March, as did the more expensive Model X. Is it the dealer network?

 

[LauderdaleFE]

Tesla is getting shopping traffic from the model 3 interest, besides those who know they want the X or S. Some of the 3 shoppers decide to get the higher end models after reviewing the 3, I assume.

 

[ted99]

My 330e lease tolls a year from now and the i-pace is head of the list for replacing it. Hence my following the i-pace blogs. It's not an inter-city car for me so it's range is OK. I went on the Audi e-Tron $1K reservation list in mid-Feb to preserve that as an option. But, it doesn't seem like there is much of a waiting list for the e-Tron. "My" car is now in production and scheduled for delivery in June. I will decline to take it and get my deposit back because it's coming way too soon. The e-Tron Blog is full of people concerned about the 204 mile range's effect on resale and saying they won't execute unless there is a "sweet" leasing deal.

Frankly, I think the equivalent to the i-pace is the upcoming Porsche Taycan, not a SUV like the e-Tron. The Taycan will have immediate PRESCENCE because it's a Porsche. That HAS to rub off on the i-pace and perhaps that is the time for a JLR enhanced ad campaign. But, it has to be the right campaign. Those of a certain age will remember the original Infiniti Q45 ad campaigns. The car was contemporanious with the first Lexus. I leased one because if you actually drove it, it was better than the BMW 5 series for less money. But, the Infinity ad campaign showed rocks and water in a Japanese garden, but never the car. The Infiniti lost out big time to Lexus.

I think the ad campaign should feature VERY favorable lease deals for the i-pace to both get exposure and to get some cars on the road. Alfa did this with the new Guilia when they offered 24 mos $300 leases for a while. An equivalent i-pace deal would be $600 leases.

Brexit could also help this if, as expected, the pound drops.

 

[Sinister_Crayon]

As the ATS-V dies after about 150,000 units, it will largely go unmourned since very few people knew Cadillac made a small BMW/MB Killer or that the ATS existed.

Yeah, my point of mentioning the ATS-V was just as a point of reference that I do often tend to gravitate toward objectively GREAT cars that people haven't really connected with... probably why I'm looking at the I-Pace... :wink2:


But seriously, mostly it was just to say that I appreciate driving dynamics and in many ways the ATS-V is a great intersection of my interests as well (high performance, great chassis and steering feel and... for the time at least... pretty decent tech). Also, if the V is to be my last ICE car, then I'm glad to have ended up with one of the best. Now, that last statement is a bit subjective... there's a lot to dislike in the ATS-V like some of the interior materials and the glaring design flaws (in the coupe the seatbelt rubs on the shoulder of the Recaro seats... WTF?) but I drove it against its competitors like the C63, M4 and even cars like the 911... the V was by far the best of all of them in terms of overall package and price (the 911 drove amazingly but when optioned my way was 50% more expensive than my V)

In California, the fully loaded I-Pace is less money than the ATS-V after incentives, yet the I-Pace has some technologies they don't put in Cadillac V cars, like ACC, steering assist, AWD, air suspension, full winter and off-road systems.

And nobody except gearheads will know what either one is.

Well... the ATS-V does actually have LKA, but it's crap so I don't think I've had it turned on for 2 years.


As for only gearheads knowing about the I-Pace; that's exactly the problem with the marketing. Even a lot of gearheads aren't familiar with the I-Pace and it seems to be best known at that intersection point between gearheads and tech-focused people like me. Like it or not, that particular market is pretty small and a lot of them gravitate toward less tech in their vehicles ironically. The number of them that rock Miatas shocks me. One of my colleagues I was chatting with the other night about current cars is about as close to me in interests as you can possibly get... but in cars he's still driving his NA V8 powered E92 M3 coupe with a manual transmission and says that he's going to try to keep that thing going as long as humanly possible because "There's just nothing else like it out there." And he's right, there isn't. The M4 is too "squidgy" until you get into the top of the line... then it gets expensive as heck and still has circa 2010 Audi quality steering... and I say that as someone whose wife drives a 2010 Audi I'm going to have to pry out of her fingers one of these days.


Now, having said that at least in North America there's still time. The I-Pace is only in its first year and we still have a big chicken-and-egg situation where range anxiety is foremost in people's minds and the mindset of leaving the house fully charged in the morning just doesn't occur to people yet. They focus on the lack of good charging solutions. Heck, I make a couple of annual pilgrimages to Detroit in my car (wife's family is from there and I go to the Woodward Dream Cruise every year) and even I've found myself concerned about the range of the I-Pace and being able to do the trip in it. Yes, I can; but I have to be VERY careful about my route planning and I have to have faith that the charging stations won't be broken, ICEd or otherwise non-functional because in a couple of areas there is literally only one charging option. If that's broken then I'm sitting in an RV park for a few hours or leeching off someone's 120V feed for a week. However, I am taking the leap of faith that the first time I go to the WDC in my future I-Pace there'll be better options available... most Americans aren't that charitable with their faith in technology and business (I'm not American so that's another conversation entirely...)


Marketing needs to target that concern, and target a very different consumer set. I suspect that they're deliberately keeping the I-Pace marketing low-key because they don't really have the capability to manufacture enough to fill a real demand for this car. They know this, so they're trying to build inventory and get some into the hands of people for whom the interests intersect enough to be a buyer (and are affluent enough to afford it) and find ways to ramp up production. I will note that it's probably not the car itself that's the problem but rather the batteries. Supply chain can be a bear, and so far Jag is low volume enough a manufacturer anyway that they probably don't really have much pull to increase supply.


If I'm right, I suspect we'll see a bigger push to marketing in year 2 or 3 of the car. That'll also give them time to (hopefully) get some of the bugs out. I'm a natural early adopter so I'm pretty much expecting bugs after hanging around this forum for a few months... but as I noted I'm probably "exceptional" in that.

 

[Dantrium]

My 330e lease tolls a year from now and the i-pace is head of the list for replacing it. Hence my following the i-pace blogs. It's not an inter-city car for me so it's range is OK. I went on the Audi e-Tron $1K reservation list in mid-Feb to preserve that as an option. But, it doesn't seem like there is much of a waiting list for the e-Tron.

There are close to 900 I Pace’s sitting on the 225 or so Jaguar dealers in the US right now, with $5000k+ off the MSRP and 0% interest. Hard to imagine Audi will do worse than that with the E-Tron. In addition, since JLR doesn’t have a financial arm, offering a sweet lease deal is a bit more of a challenge for them.

 

[epirali]

There are close to 900 I Pace’s sitting on the 225 or so Jaguar dealers in the US right now, with $5000k+ off the MSRP and 0% interest. Hard to imagine Audi will do worse than that with the E-Tron. In addition, since JLR doesn’t have a financial arm, offering a sweet lease deal is a bit more of a challenge for them.

Its interesting, its a testament to the character of the car that I in no way regret getting the car. It is unfortunate that a car of this quality is not selling more, and besides a comment on the JLRs bad marketing it may indicate how the USA is just not going to be ready for BEVs anytime soon. Some of it is peoples lack of understanding (I find to be true every time I talk to someone) and the fact that we will never build the reliable infrastructure necessary. Here in London I see more and more public charging all over the place every day (including now adding them to light poles), while in USA I couldn't even get the fast charger to work at EA headquarters.

Looking at the UK forums people are driving around Europe with much better luck.

 

[Meldev##44]

A couple of things:

1. JLR marketing confused everyone by calling the new EV I-Pace instead of E-Pace.
F-Pace, E-Pace, I-Pace, just too many paces.

2. My wife makes the observation " you have this new fancy car and I can't even drive half way across the state to visit friends do to NO fast chargers"

Yes there are Level 2 chargers, but I consider them a bad slow charge option when traveling.
The level 2 chargers seem to be used by employees EV's to charge while at work location.

One last thing regarding JLR, it has been about 4 months since I got my I-Pace, and have not heard a word from the dealer. Time to give them a call or drop by in person.

 

[Dantrium]

I suspect that they're deliberately keeping the I-Pace marketing low-key because they don't really have the capability to manufacture enough to fill a real demand for this car.

Well, truth is often stranger than fiction, but if there is any truth to that strategy, the marketing team that dreamt it up needs to be fired immediately. You do not build demand for a product by ignoring it to the point of excess inventory that them must be deeply discounted to move. Especially in light of the fact the margins on the I-Pace were razor thin and with a $5k+ discount they are likely pretty close to cost or below.

Deep discounts, especially on a new product, tend to make most consumers even more leery as it gives the appearance of a poor value to price ratio to begin with and introduces doubt into the future value of the product. It is not by accident that you don’t see deeply discounted Apple products, even those things that had less than stellar sales.