We spent a week with this electric upstart finding out why it isn’t just the future of Jag – it’s the future of motoring

Jaguar’s a funny old brand. Over the past few years they’ve released some very good cars, albeit ones that tend to be brushed under the rug for real-world buyers as soon as they sample German competitors. It’s as if there’s a friendly Bavarian man in a smart suit outside each Jaguar dealer saying ‘Ah, wilkommen! Vould you like to drive ze 3 Series? Er ist a bit better than ze XE’.

That’s not to say that modern Jaguars have been overshadowed on every level. The XE, for example, handled better than the last-gen BMW 3 Series and the F-Pace is a bit of a legend for families who worship at the altar of boot space. But realistically, Jaguar’s development budget can’t match the Germans and it always showed when you looked at their cars as all-round packages.

But with this, the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace, things have changed. The British brand still might not have the financial clout of the continental colossuses, but they’ve worked out exactly how to spend their cash. Here’s what’s great and not so great after spending a week with the electric Jag.

It’s the best electric car for petrolheads

The optional HUD isn't cheap at £900, but it's worth the cash for the handy sat-nav directions, speed vs speed limit display and keeping your eyes where they should be The optional HUD isn't cheap at £900, but it's worth the cash for the handy sat-nav directions, speed vs speed limit display and keeping your eyes where they should be

The I-Pace gives you confidence to corner quickly and drive like a loon. It feels far lighter and more keen to help you out in a fast bend than a Tesla Model S or X, and you can tell the stability and traction control systems have been programmed to help you cover ground quickly, rather than stifle any fun the second there’s a trace of slip. Yes, we’re looking at you Elon.

Perhaps the best way to describe the I-Pace’s handling is like that of a four-wheel-drive hot hatch – just a slightly porky one. You turn in, it grips and you fire out of the other side of the bend on a wave of outlandish electric acceleration. Which brings us on to the next good thing.

It makes real-world driving easy – and very fast

The I-Pace has an equivalent of 400bhp from its twin electric motors, so it should be fast. But the instant torque means you can hammer past traffic on tight back roads, and overtake in smaller gaps than you’d think. Because there’s no gearbox to think about, overtaking is a simple case of stabbing the accelerator and zooming past. In silence. Take an I-Pace up a series of hairpins and it’s doubtful many normally fuelled cars would keep up.

That said, one part of the driving experience could use some more time and attention from Jag’s engineers…

The brakes need work

You can adjust how sharply the motors brake when you lift off the accelerator You can adjust how sharply the motors brake when you lift off the accelerator

There’s a squidginess to the I-Pace’s brake pedal that had us rapidly approaching the backs of other cars with our hearts well and truly in our gobs – on more than one occasion.

You see, the top inch or two of the brake pedal’s travel presumably brakes using the electric motors, which is fine for gentle deceleration and siphoning some of that accelerative energy back into the batteries. But it feels as though you have to push through this soft motor braking to call upon the normal mechanical brakes and any significant stopping power. This caught us out a few times (mostly when driving for the first time that day), and it feels annoyingly at odds with the way the I-Pace's handling and acceleration encourage you to drive it like your hair’s on fire.

Don't be cowed by the lack of leather

Cloth and Alcantara with dashes of metal-laced carbon fibre – Not Your Dad's Jag Cloth and Alcantara with dashes of metal-laced carbon fibre – Not Your Dad's Jag

The I-Pace we tested was a top-spec HSE model with lots of carbon-fibre exterior options and a beautiful black-themed interior with a dark suede-like steering wheel, door cards and dashboard. It felt very sporty and could run Volvo close in terms of cool factor.

The sooner more premium carmarkers realise we don’t all want leather, the better. Not using acres of dead cow is far more in keeping with the whole EV vibe, and the I-Pace’s contrasting light cloth stitching made the cabin feel airy and bright.

The rear seats feel a little claustrophobic for tall adults, but the Isofix points are easy as pie to find. Real-life advice right there The rear seats feel a little claustrophobic for tall adults, but the Isofix points are easy as pie to find. Real-life advice right there

It earns extra cool points for the push/pull climate controls with miniature high-res screens in them, which serve a dual purpose of adjusting the cooled and heated seats, as well as being able to set the cabin air temperature. It’s a seriously smart way of decluttering the centre console without putting all the car’s functions in the infotainment screen. Speaking of which…

The infotainment system could be better

The I-Pace gets Jaguar’s latest infotainment system whose touchscreen duties are split between a large widescreen display and a much smaller one underneath it, which carries shortcuts for climate control, media controls and more. The thing is, neither screen gives any haptic feedback so they’re a pain to use when you’re on the move. The rotary controller you get in Audis and BMWs helps you keep your eyes on the road far more of the time.

And then there’s the menu layout. The menus feel way more complicated than they need to be, with a frustrating inconsistency in how you go back to the previous screen – sometimes it’s a virtual ‘back’ button that appears at the bottom right of the screen, and sometimes it’s at the top right.

It’s fiddly and unintuitive – we stumbled upon a nice view that showed a zoomed-out map with your current electric range overlaid on it like a giant iron curtain. Despite hunting for this view for the next couple of days, we could never find it again. This smacks of little user-experience testing, and it’s a bit disappointing.

On the plus side the graphics are great, the screen is sharp, it responds quickly to your prods and the sat-nav makes it easy to find nearby charging points – although you’re still better off using Zap Map on your phone because the Jaguar missed a few in deepest, darkest Dorset.

It gets more attention than you'd think

The I-Pace’s curves, vents and carbon-rimmed front grille were peppered by second glances from strangers during our 400 miles with it. A combination of naturally good style, huge 21-inch wheels and the fact it creeps around silently meant it stole more than its fair share of stares around town. The little touches delight too. Door handles that pop out when you unlock it may feel pretty standard these days, but they amused my neighbours for days.

But it feels like a bit of a tank

Do you see what I did there? Do you see what I did there?

The price you pay for that sloping roofline is a rear window that’s only marginally bigger than a Ford F150’s door mirror. It’s tiny. Yes, the I-Pace can come with a fab 360-degree camera that gives you a handy top-down view of the car on the infotainment screen, but that small rear window does make the rear of the car feel a bit dark. Add in the fact that the roof does slightly restrict rear-seat headroom for your tallest passengers and it can feel a little claustrophobic back there.

And although the electric Jaguar shrinks around you on the move, it is still a pretty big car to park, and the fact you can’t really tell where the front corners of it are means it can be tricky to get nice and tight to a wall without gripping the seat firmly with your buttocks. It’s a minor whinge, but still.

Should you buy one?

If the negatives sound minor, it’s because they are. The Jaguar I-Pace is a fantastic electric car that brings a premium interior to match its premium price. After all, it’ll set you back £63,925 – but our top-spec one with all the toys came in at £85,360.

But if you have the cash you should absolutely go for it. It pulls Tesla’s pants down in terms of interior feel and the way it goes around corners. It’ll still put a grin on your face in terms of performance, and with a real-world range of around 260 miles it can really do the daily driver thing.

The electric ball is firmly in the Germans’ court.