When it's not Chevy's new design language or the latest Phillips tale keeping us up at night, we stare at the ceiling and ponder if an electric car can match the character of a vehicle powered by tiny explosions. Complexity begets personality in machines. Can the eerily smooth and silent ever measure up?

Jaguar's electric I-Pace offers our best hope yet. It'll never be mentioned in the same breath as Miata or Cayman or Corvette, but the I-Pace whisked us away from traffic lights and through sweepers in ways that left our oil-stained palms tingling. While the EV genus is anchored to Earth by half-ton battery packs, the all-wheel-drive I-Pace builds off that stability with impressive athleticism. There's a natural fluidity to its body motions, organic tugs and lulls in its steering weight.

Agility and grip don't always go hand in hand. Nor do thrills and speed. But the I-Pace delivers the experience to match the numbers. This 4951-pound quasi-crossover claws through corners at 0.90 g and hits 60 mph in 4.3 seconds. Neither of those metrics is as impressive, though, as what happens when you stand on the accelerator from 30 mph. The speedometer jumps with the immediacy of flipping a switch and a jolt strong enough to stun the person whose right foot made it happen. The I-Pace's only dynamic misstep happens during the final 5 mph, as the friction brakes graunch and heads bobble when coming to a stop.

View Photos Michael Simari

While the I-Pace is an athletic prodigy, it doesn't do much to advance the EV state of the art. The sole battery pack, a 90.0-kWh unit, is EPA rated for 234 miles between charges. Tesla's Model X earns a 238-mile rating with a 75.0-kWh battery, and a Chevy Bolt covers that distance with just 60.0 kilowatt-hours. Perhaps the Jag's inefficiency is the price you pay for an EV that doesn't look like a suppository. The $1700 22-inch wheels clad in Pirelli P Zero summer rubber certainly didn't help the range of our $88,595 First Edition model.

On our 75-mph highway-range test, the I-Pace tallied 170 miles in ideal weather conditions. That effectively limits the electric Jaguar's reach to a roughly one-hour radius from your home base unless you have the patience—and you'll need it—to charge on the road. A DC fast-charging port is standard, but using the more common 240-volt AC equipment means the I-Pace adds less than 20 miles for every hour it's tethered to the grid.

With only average range, an $87K tug, and modest charging speed, the I-Pace is unlikely to pull EVs closer to the mainstream. Those ambitions are better left to mass-market brands, anyway. What Jaguar has done matters just as much to us. By building personality into the I-Pace, Jaguar moves the EV forward nonetheless.

It’s not just range that dictates an EV’s practicality, but also how many miles of range the vehicle collects for every hour it charges. A vehicle’s max charging rate depends on the power capacity of its onboard charger (rated in kilowatts) and how efficiently it turns a kilowatt-hour of electricity into motion. Think of the chart above as a livability index for EVs. The closer a vehicle is to the upper-right corner, the easier it is to live with.

View Photos Michael Simari

From the December 2018 issue

Specifications Specifications 2019 Jaguar I-Pace EV400 First Edition VEHICLE TYPE: front- and mid-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback PRICE AS TESTED: $88,595 (base price: $86,895) MOTORS: 2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 197 hp, 256 lb-ft each; combined output, 394 hp, 512 lb-ft BATTERY: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 90.0 kWh TRANSMISSION: 1-speed direct drive CHASSIS

Suspension (F/R): control arms/multilink

Brakes (F/R): 13.8-in vented disc/12.8-in vented disc

Tires: Pirelli P Zero PZ4 PNCS, 255/40R-22 103V DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 117.7 in

Length: 184.3 in

Width: 74.6 in

Height: 61.3 in

Passenger volume: 96 cu ft

Cargo volume: 26 cu ft

Curb weight: 4951 lb C/D TEST RESULTS

Zero to 60 mph: 4.3 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 10.4 sec

Zero to 120 mph: 16.6 sec

Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 4.6 sec

Top gear, 30–50 mph: 1.7 sec

Top gear, 50–70 mph: 2.3 sec

Standing ¼-mile: 12.8 sec @ 109 mph

Top speed (governor limited, mfr's claim): 128 mph

Braking, 70–0 mph: 160 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.90 g C/D FUEL ECONOMY

Observed: 66 MPGe

C/D 75-mph Highway Range: 170 miles EPA FUEL ECONOMY

Combined/city/highway: 76/80/72 MPGe

Range: 234 miles DOWNLOAD TEST SHEET Expand Collapse

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