I have owned my I-PACE from new and thought it was about time that I put its long-range capabilities to the test, so I decided to use it for a weekend away visiting family in Tonbridge, Kent.
As my wife and I packed up the Jag with our luggage, two kids, and Misty (our cockapoo) I felt a little apprehensive as I had only ever used the vehicle for local trips. I had done some preparation for the trip ahead and Jaguar state that my I-PACE has a range of (up to) 292 miles, I then checked Google Maps and the journey is 151 miles from Leicester to Tonbridge so the trip should be a breeze! I steadied my nerves and set off on our road trip to the south.
The I-PACE is a fantastic car to live with day-to-day with enough room for our family, luggage, and our small cockapoo. It is extremely comfortable, obviously very quiet, and has all the modern features such as USB plugs in the back for the kids iPads, led touch screens, lane departure warning, etc. The I-PACE also goes like stink with a 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds, a low centre of gravity, and a 4 x 4 system making it almost as much fun to drive as a Porsche Carrera 4S I used to own in my younger days.
Anyway, back to our road trip, my 10-year-old son was enjoying keeping tabs on the actual mileage as it slowly ticked down on the sat nav and comparing it to the electric range which he noted was ticking down at a far faster rate and setting alarm bells ringing in my head as I started to mentally check my son’s maths, it became apparent that the ratio between real miles and electric range miles is approximately 3 real miles to 4 electric miles.
When leaving home having charged the I-PACE to 100% overnight the range showed 220 miles so 72 miles less than Jaguars claimed 292 miles. We were running with no aircon as the outside temperature was a comfortable 19 degrees but even so I was starting to get a little range anxiety creep into the back of my mind.
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As we approached Tonbridge, I felt an inner sigh of relief as we still had 47 miles of electric range showing on the car and only 3 miles to go.
Having safely arrived in Tonbridge, I unload the family and luggage and then headed for a Local BP Pulse charging station. As I pulled into the garage which was conveniently located within a mile of my in-laws I was delighted to see that both chargers were empty and devoid of other cars.
This particular charger happened to be a 150kw fast charger which was a real bonus, the only downside being the convenience will cost you £0.35 per Kw compared with £0.25 at a standard 50kw BP Pulse charger, this equated to a total charge cost of £28.71. An equivalent charge at home with our Octopus Energy Electric Car Charging Tariff would cost me under £4 so my advice would be where possible, always charge at home!
Having spent a pleasant couple of days in Kent it was time to drive back home to Leicester, the range on the I-PACE was showing at 160 miles so we would require a top-up charge on the way home. We decided to stop at South Mimms, we pulled into the car park and drove past a row of shiny Tesla chargers and eventually found some Electric Highway chargers which were unfortunately only half working with the faster charger’s screen showing blank.
Fortunately, the standard charger was not occupied so I plugged in, and having spent £30 on coffee and KFC for the family we returned to the car which had finished its 45-minute charge.
We unplugged and set off to finish our journey and were dismayed to see that the charge level had barely increased (no idea why this happened), my bank app showed that £12 had been deducted from my card but I had only received £1.76 worth of charge. I have now learned that that the charging station takes a minimum of £12 regardless of how little charge you use, but they do issue an auto refund.
This was a very disappointing experience in comparison with my visit to the BP pulse station and resulted in us limping home with the charge warning sign on but we did eventually make it home without any further dramas.
In conclusion, if you are sticking within an 80-mile radius of your home the I-PACE is an amazing proposition but for longer trips, you do really need to plan them very carefully and you will also require a pinch of luck to have a successful trip.
Paul from Leicester, Jaguar I-PACE 90kWh SE, 69 plate, 7,000 miles
