Some forum members are engrossed in tracking and graphing every electron that goes in and out of their I-Pace. Some are reverse engineering the InControl app to 'hack' control.... others seem to post here only when they find faults. I decided to examine what I observed as an absolute disconnect between sales and the quality and superiority of the end product (not just my opinion, as you'll soon read below). The answer, in a nutshell (spoiler alert), "its the marketing, stupid."
First if you haven't watched
, you should. It's the overview of the design and production of the I-Pace. Very impressive. The video is almost a year old and has garnered a whopping... wait for it.... 7,000 views.
did get 160K views, but should (by now, a year later) have been 10x that figure. Comparable Model 3 videos have 1M+ views, and there are dozens of them. Online advertising would be particularly effective for reaching a high-earning, tech-savvy, EV-oriented customer base, but apparently not a skill set in JLR's quiver. Unfortunately, much of their history is steeped in selling stodgy sedans to seniors.
Then, you should visit the Jaguar I-Pace Wikipedia page. I must confess that as a by-product of my research over the past week or two, I personally took the Awards section on that page from half a dozen entries to its current list of 40 international awards! I stayed strictly with awards of some type or another, but after reading hundreds of articles there were dozens more fabulously quoteworthy statements like "Best Electric Vehicle We've Ever Driven" (Maxim Magazine), and "Whatever image you have of Jaguar, it will soon be rendered obsolete by the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, which 'transforms luxury expectations' (Bend Bulletin), and many more. You could take out a full page ad in the WJS built just from the compelling quotes about the I-Pace, and their remarkably reputable sources (hint, is JLR reading this?). Then, of course you can't ignore the fact that Google spinoff Waymo chose to order 20,000 I-Pace vehicles for its driverless ride hailing service (monetarily, that's more than DOUBLE Amazon's investment in Rivian - not a direct comparison, but a vastly underplayed and undermarketed vote of confidence from Google/Waymo).
Tesla famously doesn't advertise, and Jaguar (among other early EV manufacturers) seems to have mistakenly taken its cue from them. I personally have not seen a single advertisement on TV or in print for the I-Pace. However, Jaguar cannot afford such luxury, even with a better product. Jaguar lacks the daily media exposure Tesla gets due to its colorful superstar CEO, multiple lines of business (PowerWall, Roof Tiles, etc.), and wildly swinging stock price, let alone Tesla's preeminent worldwide leadership position in the EV space. In fact, most peripheral coverage of Jaguar these days is highly negative, focused on JLR's financial losses that have absolutely nothing to do with the I-Pace. If not carefully managed, this negativity can also undermine the success of the I-Pace.
Last fall, Jaguar USA did announce its "national marketing launch plan". Here it is: go to FOUR (not a typo, only 4) cities and offer test drives on a closed course. OMG, this is a groundbreaking, racecar-like SUV, but let's have people drive it around some cone-riddled Walmart lots. (???) And if you don't live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, or New York.... well, sorry, call your nearest dealer and see how helpful they might be. If you've been reading this forum, you know how woefully unprepared and undertrained the JLR sales staff are about the I-Pace (that could be another research project in and of itself!).
Among friends, I've been calling this Jaguar's "national failure to launch plan" for the I-Pace. Maybe they should have stolen Matthew McConaughey from Lincoln? Their lone
was a dud, maybe why I've seen it nowhere else than YouTube (whopping 41k views in 4 months). Whether they were afraid to fail, afraid of their own success, or afraid Magna Steyr's production capacity could not meet demand, their decision to stunningly underfund I-Pace marketing is obviously now rearing its ugly head as the cars are piling up on dealer lots even faster than the awards for it!
IMHO, if Jaguar doesn't step up, advertise the lights out of this vehicle, touting the 40+ international awards (FYI, the I-Pace is still in the running for European Car of the Year and Worldwide Car of the Year!) and leverage the dozens of high profile complementary media reviews (and Tesla comparisons), they are completely dropping the ball on one of the best product launches in the company's history... all on account of a miserable marketing effort, likely underfunded due to JLR's current precarious financial position.
Which leads me to my forum user survey (sorry, not sure how to setup a poll - more interested in the details anyway)... How did your first hear about the I-Pace? (for me, it was this video, found as I stalked the MX for competitors).
First if you haven't watched
Then, you should visit the Jaguar I-Pace Wikipedia page. I must confess that as a by-product of my research over the past week or two, I personally took the Awards section on that page from half a dozen entries to its current list of 40 international awards! I stayed strictly with awards of some type or another, but after reading hundreds of articles there were dozens more fabulously quoteworthy statements like "Best Electric Vehicle We've Ever Driven" (Maxim Magazine), and "Whatever image you have of Jaguar, it will soon be rendered obsolete by the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace, which 'transforms luxury expectations' (Bend Bulletin), and many more. You could take out a full page ad in the WJS built just from the compelling quotes about the I-Pace, and their remarkably reputable sources (hint, is JLR reading this?). Then, of course you can't ignore the fact that Google spinoff Waymo chose to order 20,000 I-Pace vehicles for its driverless ride hailing service (monetarily, that's more than DOUBLE Amazon's investment in Rivian - not a direct comparison, but a vastly underplayed and undermarketed vote of confidence from Google/Waymo).
Tesla famously doesn't advertise, and Jaguar (among other early EV manufacturers) seems to have mistakenly taken its cue from them. I personally have not seen a single advertisement on TV or in print for the I-Pace. However, Jaguar cannot afford such luxury, even with a better product. Jaguar lacks the daily media exposure Tesla gets due to its colorful superstar CEO, multiple lines of business (PowerWall, Roof Tiles, etc.), and wildly swinging stock price, let alone Tesla's preeminent worldwide leadership position in the EV space. In fact, most peripheral coverage of Jaguar these days is highly negative, focused on JLR's financial losses that have absolutely nothing to do with the I-Pace. If not carefully managed, this negativity can also undermine the success of the I-Pace.
Last fall, Jaguar USA did announce its "national marketing launch plan". Here it is: go to FOUR (not a typo, only 4) cities and offer test drives on a closed course. OMG, this is a groundbreaking, racecar-like SUV, but let's have people drive it around some cone-riddled Walmart lots. (???) And if you don't live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, or New York.... well, sorry, call your nearest dealer and see how helpful they might be. If you've been reading this forum, you know how woefully unprepared and undertrained the JLR sales staff are about the I-Pace (that could be another research project in and of itself!).
Among friends, I've been calling this Jaguar's "national failure to launch plan" for the I-Pace. Maybe they should have stolen Matthew McConaughey from Lincoln? Their lone
IMHO, if Jaguar doesn't step up, advertise the lights out of this vehicle, touting the 40+ international awards (FYI, the I-Pace is still in the running for European Car of the Year and Worldwide Car of the Year!) and leverage the dozens of high profile complementary media reviews (and Tesla comparisons), they are completely dropping the ball on one of the best product launches in the company's history... all on account of a miserable marketing effort, likely underfunded due to JLR's current precarious financial position.
Which leads me to my forum user survey (sorry, not sure how to setup a poll - more interested in the details anyway)... How did your first hear about the I-Pace? (for me, it was this video, found as I stalked the MX for competitors).
