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By Jonathan Crouch

Jaguar makes a full-electric vehicle - and a very good one. Jonathan Crouch drives the I-PACE.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 66

Jaguar was one of first of the premium brand manufacturers to make a long range, practical, battery-powered electric vehicle. If you can afford the £70,000 asking price, you might well have everything you could want here: a near-300 mile driving range, 395bhp, potentially zero emissions and a car that might be as comfortable taking to a racetrack as to a gravelly ravine. Welcome to the I-PACE.

Backgroundword count: 133

It seems to have taken the posh car makers a long time to have got their heads round the concept of full-electric power. Yes, they've dabbled with plug-in hybrids and shown futuristic concepts at motor shows but in terms of products customers can actually buy, the Tesla Model S has had the full-EV premium market for large cars to itself for well over half a decade. But stand by Elon Musk: things are about to get a whole lot tougher. This Jaguar I-PACE delivers a Tesla-style 300-mile drive range but, thanks to proper 50/50 weight distribution and Jaguar know how, handling dynamics that owners of a Model S or a Model 3 could only dream of. Technology people can create an electric car. But only car people can make one like the I-PACE.

Driving Experienceword count: 212

We've enjoyed putting this I-PACE to the test; the prospects certainly are promising. The stuff you need to know here's quite straightforward - by electric vehicle standards anyway. The 90kWh lithium-ion battery pack lies between the axles and Jaguar has specified two electric motors so that it could position the wheels for a perfect 50/50 weight distribution. They're powerful too, giving this 'performance' EV a 395bhp output. Rest to 60mph takes just 4.5s. Drive like that though and the claimed operating range (up to 286 miles with base trim) will be used up pretty quickly. You'd expect silent refinement and instant acceleration from rest from an electric car but, due to the heavy weight of all those batteries, less than stellar ride quality. Jaguar claims it's put a lot of work into that and offers I-PACE buyers a wide choice of suspension options. You can have passive or adaptive dampers or air springs with adaptive damping. An electric 4WD system is standard - one of those that can put as much or as little torque as is necessary to any wheel. If you were ever brave enough to try your I-PACE off road, you might be surprised at what it could do. Jaguar claims it would wade up to 500mm of water.

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