Deposit on I-Pace

I placed my pre-order back in April. There was no fanfare and no cool document - just a simple receipt. I placed the order in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada and was told I am third on their list.

The failure to launch at Frankfurt is a bit of a blow which leaves one to wonder if the car has the ability to live up to the hype or perhaps its a bit of a mid course correction. My hope is the later given that Audi plans to beat the I-Pace to market with its E-Tron SUV on what appears to be a Q5 platform, and if the speculation is correct - it has a 95 KWH battery. Further Jaguar would have you believe that a 2 hour recharge rate is outstanding using a DC Fast Charger Level III - "not so much" (an estimated 50 KW/hour). Audi's corporate cousin, Porsche is touting a 15 minute recharge-rate on its Mission-E and Tesla's "Level IIII" Superchargers provide about 120 KW/hour which would get our I-Pace charged up and good to go - in 45 minutes. So my hope is that Jaguar will tweak their battery/charger-rate specs or at least offer enhanced capabilities as a reasonably priced option.

Clearly battery and charge-rate are a priority especially as the competition in the premium car models really heats up. I do take solace however, in spite of less than class leading specs, in the fact that the I-Pace is first and foremost a - BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) which was designed as such, from the get-go and not a modified ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle like the Audi and Mercedes and to some extent the Teslas. Ian Callum designed the I-Pace and has beautifully embraced the design potential of a BEV. My BEV shortlist did include the Tesla Model X and as impressive as that car might be - the seats are the pits - they are awful. I cannot image draining the battery once in a day of driving, never mind trying for two, if I had to operate that vehicle from those seats. Jaguar will not make that mistake.