For years, Jaguar was “grace, space, and pace.” But the era of the Mk II and XJ6 is long gone, and the Leaping Cat of Coventry is now a bit more high-tech thanks to the I-Pace electric crossover and the soon-to-be-revealed XJ electric sedan.
The problem with Jaguar’s newer vehicles, however, is that the British brand hasn’t made too much of an improvement in terms of reliability. Software is another weak point, as demonstrated by the electronic stability control of the I-Pace.
km77.com decided to put the e-crossover to the moose test, describing the result as “modest.” The driver clocked in at 77 km/h during the first pass, and as you can tell from the footage, the inertia along with the ESC couldn’t keep the front exterior wheel from understeering. The highest entrance speed achieved without hitting any cones is 73 km/h, “which is quite low” for a vehicle in this segment.
Even at this speed, we wouldn’t call the pass successful because the front wheel is locked altogether by the electronic stability control system. Other attempts saw the other front wheel lock up after turning into the next set of cones, and that’s more than enough proof that Jaguar development drivers weren’t paying attention when the I-Pace was being fine-tuned.
It’s widely known that Jaguar hurried up the R&D for the I-Pace while keeping costs on a tight leash, even to the detriment of handling. Someone willing to pay top dollar for an electric crossover wouldn’t be all that happy to find out about these deficiencies, more so if you remember the moose test is the kind of maneuver that could save someone’s life, be it a pedestrian or moose.
Heavy understeering is a big no-no in a modern vehicle with so many driving aids, let alone a premium electric vehicle that costs $69,500 from the get-go in the United States. Jaguar wouldn’t comment on the results, but if the higher-ups find out, an over-the-air update of the ESC should roll out sooner rather than later.
To make matters worse, the I-Pace ranked dead last in the emergency braking test of Norwegian publication Dinside 20 år. No fewer than 25 vehicles were evaluated, bested by the Hyundai Santa Fe and even the Jaguar E-Pace at 85 and 70 km/h as opposed to the 15 km/h of the I-Pace. Yup, it was that bad…
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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