Jaguar I-Pace more fun, cheaper to run than a petrol car

Jaguar updated their I-Pace earlier this year with a new infotainment system, improved driver assistance technologies and quicker charging capabilities.

As we had already covered these, the main focus of our recent test drive was centred around the more important real-world stuff. This being performance, charging and the economy of this full electric model.

Just like with everything else these days, everybody is an expert courtesy of the various platforms that social media has given them. And it is this self-proclaimed expertise that results in so much misinformation around charging and Eskom-fuelled fearmongering when it comes to operating or owning an electric car. But as you will see, there is no need to be afraid of the future.

Our test car was the top of the range EV400 HSE derivative that retails for a suggested R2 112 300 and is offered with an eight-year or 160 000 km battery warranty on top of the standard Jaguar Care plan which offers a 100 000 km warranty and servicing within in five-year period, whichever comes first.

Instant torque is addictive

The I-Pace is a full luxury, premium family-sized SUV that produces a full 294 kW of power and 696 Nm of electrified torque. Now I don’t know how many of you have experienced what almost 700 Nm of instant torque feels like. I can tell you that it is completely addictive and makes almost every other car you have driven feel a little lethargic. Even the most muscled ones.

Mash the accelerator pedal from stationary, or even while on the move, and the I-Pace silently zips away from the surrounding traffic like it has been hit with a bolt of lightning and is said to get to 100 km/h in less than five seconds.

This is the fun part of owning an electric car. Where people start to switch off, so to speak, to the idea of owning an electric car, is with the concepts of keeping it charged, range anxiety and even working out the associated costs of doing so.

Battery equals tank size

There are a few facets of this we must get through. First is understanding that you must look at the size of the battery as the petrol tank of the car.

Here the I-Pace has a 90-kWh battery, and you can see this number as litres of a normal tank, and just like with your normal car, this tank runs down as you use your car. And, just like your normal car, a full tank will only get you so far before the tank must be filled up. In the case of the I-Pace, a full tank, or fully charged battery should get you around 470 km.

ALSO READ: Jaguar puts price on updated all-electric I-Pace

Now comes the filling up part, or the charging part, and here you need a slightly different mindset than what you are used to with your normal car.

With a petrol or diesel car, you mostly wait till the tank is almost empty and then you go put fuel in. You go to one place, the filling station, you put fuel in at the same rate from the pump, and it costs the same price per litre. A very singular approach to filling your car. You don’t have too many decisions to make.

Plug and play

With an electric car this is not quite the case. You have a few choices to make in where you fill your electric car up. It can be done at home, or it can be done at a commercial charge point located at your nearest dealer or shopping centre. And in doing so, the time it takes to charge your electric car and the cost of the electricity to do so, will vary.

Finding these commercial charge points is very easy. You simply download the likes of the PlugShare App on your smart phone and all the charging stations are listed there. And the price you will pay per kWh to fill up.

Let’s tackle the charge rates. Basically how quickly you can put electricity into your I-Pace, and then get to the costs and consumption.

At home, Jaguar will come install a wall box in your garage, and this wall box will allow 11 kW of charge if you have three-phase electricity. If you are like me, I only have single phase electricity at home, then the box will allow seven kilowatts of charge. This means that the faster charge rate will take 8.6 hours to get the battery from empty to full, and the slower rate 12.75 hours.

Treat your car like your phone

Immediately, the pessimists will say that there is no way they want to wait 12 hours for their car to charge before they can drive it again. But as I said before, approach an electric car differently and you should never have any charging issues. Treat your electric car like you would your cell phone.

Just like you seldom run your phone battery down to empty before charging. We put our phones on charge each night while we sleep so that we don’t leave home with a flat battery. You will just have to adjust to doing the same with your electric car. It’s that easy.

Rates vary

If you are caught off-guard or have the time to kill during the day, say over a cup of coffee, then using one of the fast-charging commercial points will come in handy to top up on the go. Most commercial outlets are rated at 60 kW, with one or two rated at 100 kW. This means that you can get almost 80 km and 127 km respectively from just 15 minutes of charging time.

There is one downside to this speed, and that is an increase in electricity cost. Commercial charging will cost you between R3.00 and R3.50 per KWh at a Jaguar Powerway point as a Jaguar owner, and up to R5.88 per kWh if you are not. But if you charge at home, and at my home as an example, I will only pay R2.70 per kWh.

Now to work out your fuel consumption and actual cost from tank to tank, think normal petrol and diesel. I achieved an average real-world electricity consumption of 23 kWh per 100 km, and this translates into a cost of R62.10 per 100 km (23 kWh x R2.70 electricity). Petrol costs R18.30 per litre today, and for my R62.10 spent on electricity, I would get 3.4 litres of fuel

Cheaper than fuel

Therefore, in numbers we all understand, the Jaguar I-Pace would only use 3.4-litres of fuel per 100 km if it was a petrol driven car. And there is absolutely no way you would achieve these numbers with any other petrol-powered SUV that offers the performance or thrill you get from this 294kW/696Nm I-Pace. The future is electric!