Only a few weeks ahead of the launch of its first all-electric vehicle, Jaguar is testing the I-Pace in “the extremes of terrain and temperature” and released some of the results this week.
The British automaker brought I-Pace prototypes to the Jaguar Land Rover cold weather test facility in Arjeplog, Sweden, in order to test the vehicle at temperatures as low as -40°F.
The main piece of information that they released is that the vehicle is capable of a DC fast charge “from zero to 80 percent in approximately 45 minutes with a 100kW” despite sub-zero temperatures.
Ian Hoban, Jaguar Vehicle Line Director, commented:
“Not only will the I-PACE charge quickly enough for our customers to carry out their everyday lives, it will offer powerful and precise performance in a variety of conditions and climactic extremes. Allied with the versatile credentials of our celebrated PACE family, this will be an electric performance SUV like no other,”
Furthermore, the company confirmed that I-Pace owners will be able to use battery preconditioning in cold weather through their mobile app.
They wrote in a press release today:
“While plugged into power, customers will be able to prepare the car’s battery and cabin temperature ahead of a journey without tapping into the battery’s range. Pre-conditioning the car ensures maximum range, performance and comfort whether temperatures are freezing cold or extremely hot. Setting up preferred charging times and pre-conditioning schedules can be done from either the on-board Jaguar InControl® system2, or the Jaguar InControl® Remote™ smartphone app.”
Tesla released a similar feature for all its vehicles via software update just a few weeks ago.
As part of a series of videos, Jaguar brings potential customers to witness parts of the I-Pace test program.
Last month, they invited a woman from California on a 200-mile test drive along the coast.
Now they invited Tony Westerlund, a potential customer from Sweden who had some questions on living with I-PACE in Arctic conditions:
Jaguar also confirmed this week that the I-PACE will be revealed in a live global broadcast on March 1, 2018 at 1:00PM ET/19:00 CET and will go on to make its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show on March 6, 2018.
Electrek’s Take
Jaguar has been weird about the way they are talking about the I-Pace’s fast-charging capacity.
They don’t want to talk about the vehicle’s actual charge rate limit and instead, they talk about how fast it can charge “using a 100 kW charger.”
100 kW is not bad, but many have been expecting something capable of more in order to compete with Tesla and take advantage of the new 150+ kW fast-charging stations currently being deployed.
It’s likely going to be something that will be clarified at the launch in March.
The production car itself is expected to be similar to the prototypes seen before, but we will be looking for updated specs and pricing, which so far looks like it will be close to ~$76,000, according to early reservation holders.
