I-Pace Wins What Car?’s 2018 Reader Award
The British car-buying public can’t wait to get their hands on Jaguar’s upcoming all-electric crossover.
Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of Britain’s What Car? publication. Even if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Jaguar fanatic or Anglophile, the automotive resource doesn’t have much of an impact on our lives in America. But in the U.K., it’s been a go-to resource for car buyers for over 40 years. And every year, they poll their readers and ask them about their most anticipated models for the upcoming year. The big winner for 2018? The all-new Jaguar I-Pace.
Beating out the Citröen AirCross and Audi E-Tron among others, the I-Pace has got British car buyers abuzz. Interestingly, this trio proves that the Brits are just as crazy for crossovers as Americans are. But the I-Pace isn’t just another crossover. It’s the third people-mover in Jaguar’s history (behind the F- and E-Pace) and its first all-electric production model.
Introduced as a concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2016, the production I-Pace will bow at the Geneva Motor Show in March before hitting dealerships over the summer. Along with the aforementioned Audi E-Tron, it will be among the first wave of vehicles from mainstream automakers to take on Tesla.
The I-Pace is expected to start at around £50,000 (roughly $70,000), crank out 395 horsepower from two electric motors, make the zero to 60 sprint in around four seconds, and have a range of 310 miles. Compared to anything coming from Tesla’s Fremont factory, that makes it a real bargain.
ALSO SEE: Does the New Jaguar F-Type 2.0 Turbo Live Up To The Name?
According to What Car?, prospective buyers are abuzz over the electric Jag. Putting it into perspective, they say:
So, how early on in our voting process did the I-Pace emerge as your most anticipated car of 2018? From the very start, in fact. Since voting opened in November, you’ve ranked it far above any other car on our shortlist. To put the scale of Jaguar’s victory here into context, consider this: the I-Pace garnered more than six times the number of votes of our second-placed car.
We knew that the British love their Jaguars, but that’s still pretty impressive. How do you feel about the all-electric Jaguar? Would you give it a chance, or are you a straight-six, supercharged V8, or V12 purist? Let us know in the comments below.
