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Written by Jack Rix
Jaguar is going Tesla-hunting. This hunk of futurism is the new Jaguar I-Pace concept: a 394bhp, 4WD, pure electric SUV that"s the size of a Porsche Macan but has Cayenne levels of space inside. And it"s not a far-away vision of the future: you"ll be able to buy something virtually identical to it in mid-2018."It"s a concept car, but honestly it"s pretty close," explains Jaguar design director Ian Callum. "There"s a few little details here and there that you won"t see in production, but most people won"t notice much of a difference. It"s really quite different from anything we"ve done before, or indeed anyone"s done before, really."He"s not wrong. If you"re having a hard time getting your head around the car"s proportions right now, that"s because they"re the polar opposite to its running mate, the F-Pace. By starting with what Callum calls a "skateboard" platform a flat battery between the axles with an electric motor at either end, all developed in-house he and his team had total freedom to place things wherever they wanted."There"s no point in a long bonnet because it doesn"t have a great six-cylinder engine like the E-Type. I found it fascinating that we could take an SUV and give it the characteristic of a mid-engine sports car in its profile because you"re bringing the cab forward and nestling it between the wheels," explains Callum.And it"s not just mechanical layout that encouraged him to throw the visual mass forwards. Getting the drag coefficient down to a remarkably slippery 0.29 (the F-Pace is 0.34) was a constant consideration. The scooped bonnet raises the front end and smooths air over the roof, and that most un-Jag-like rump. "Perhaps the high and square tail is in conflict with the boat tails from Jaguar"s history, but square back ends are aerodynamically efficient, so we bought into them and made it work, hopefully in an elegant way," says Callum."I was once quoted as saying a Jaguar should look like it"s moving when it"s standing still, and that an SUV looks like it"s standing still even when it"s moving until now."This is a bespoke aluminium architecture, not a carry-over or a battery slotted into an existing platform. It places the batteries between the wheels and as close to the road as possible, dropping the centre of gravity by 120mm compared with the F-Pace. And it"s the battery size that dictates the car"s basic shape, because a long wheelbase means you can cram in more lithium-ion pouch cells and go further on a charge.The upshot is a wheelbase that"s 115mm longer than an F-Pace"s, but overall it"s 40mm narrower and 50mm shorter. Not that you"d notice inside, because by exploiting that cab-forward design, there"s actually more rear legroom and a marginally smaller, but still vast, 530-litre boot.A motor at each end means near perfect weight distribution. The permanent magnet motors in question are a concentric design where the driveshaft runs through the middle helping them to be packaged into an incredibly tight space. As for torque, the car"s brain can distribute it to the front or rear as it sees fit, while an open differential on each axle sends more of it to the side where the most grip is. It can even control the level of regen deceleration on each wheel to help balance the car.Springs and dampers are lifted from the F-Pace (because why the hell wouldn"t you?), and the production wheels will be exactly the height you see here, albeit with a fraction more sidewall than these show-pony 23s, and slightly narrower to better slice through the air.
Date written: 14 Nov 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5783
Jaguar is going Tesla-hunting. This hunk of futurism is the new Jaguar I-Pace concept: a 394bhp, 4WD, pure electric SUV that"s the size of a Porsche Macan but has Cayenne levels of space inside. And it"s not a far-away vision of the future: you"ll be able to buy something virtually identical to it in mid-2018."It"s a concept car, but honestly it"s pretty close," explains Jaguar design director Ian Callum. "There"s a few little details here and there that you won"t see in production, but most people won"t notice much of a difference. It"s really quite different from anything we"ve done before, or indeed anyone"s done before, really."He"s not wrong. If you"re having a hard time getting your head around the car"s proportions right now, that"s because they"re the polar opposite to its running mate, the F-Pace. By starting with what Callum calls a "skateboard" platform a flat battery between the axles with an electric motor at either end, all developed in-house he and his team had total freedom to place things wherever they wanted."There"s no point in a long bonnet because it doesn"t have a great six-cylinder engine like the E-Type. I found it fascinating that we could take an SUV and give it the characteristic of a mid-engine sports car in its profile because you"re bringing the cab forward and nestling it between the wheels," explains Callum.And it"s not just mechanical layout that encouraged him to throw the visual mass forwards. Getting the drag coefficient down to a remarkably slippery 0.29 (the F-Pace is 0.34) was a constant consideration. The scooped bonnet raises the front end and smooths air over the roof, and that most un-Jag-like rump. "Perhaps the high and square tail is in conflict with the boat tails from Jaguar"s history, but square back ends are aerodynamically efficient, so we bought into them and made it work, hopefully in an elegant way," says Callum."I was once quoted as saying a Jaguar should look like it"s moving when it"s standing still, and that an SUV looks like it"s standing still even when it"s moving until now."This is a bespoke aluminium architecture, not a carry-over or a battery slotted into an existing platform. It places the batteries between the wheels and as close to the road as possible, dropping the centre of gravity by 120mm compared with the F-Pace. And it"s the battery size that dictates the car"s basic shape, because a long wheelbase means you can cram in more lithium-ion pouch cells and go further on a charge.The upshot is a wheelbase that"s 115mm longer than an F-Pace"s, but overall it"s 40mm narrower and 50mm shorter. Not that you"d notice inside, because by exploiting that cab-forward design, there"s actually more rear legroom and a marginally smaller, but still vast, 530-litre boot.A motor at each end means near perfect weight distribution. The permanent magnet motors in question are a concentric design where the driveshaft runs through the middle helping them to be packaged into an incredibly tight space. As for torque, the car"s brain can distribute it to the front or rear as it sees fit, while an open differential on each axle sends more of it to the side where the most grip is. It can even control the level of regen deceleration on each wheel to help balance the car.Springs and dampers are lifted from the F-Pace (because why the hell wouldn"t you?), and the production wheels will be exactly the height you see here, albeit with a fraction more sidewall than these show-pony 23s, and slightly narrower to better slice through the air.
Date written: 14 Nov 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5783
