11 more images below the cut:

Light heads to meet L at the pick-up point for their date and is met with a surprise.  Another more frustrating surprise was finding out that Sayu had followed him.  She briefly meets “Hideki Ryuga,” and has her suspicions all but confirmed as far as she knows.  With the delay over, they drive off to officially begin the date.

Next

Previous

First

Master List

Transcript

The Mandalorian... In Lego form

What can I add to the praise about the Disney Plus series, The Mandalorian, that has not already been said?

Yes, it is really very good, I was captivated within the first minute and was heart broken during the third episode, entitled The Sin, when the Mandalorian handed over the child to the Imperial officer, played so beautifully by Werner Herzog. Of them all, it is probably episodes three and four that are my favourites, showing the more gentle side to the character. But let us be honest, when choosing favourite episodes of this series, we the viewer have been rather spoilt because there is not a dud among them. Not even the sixth episode, which was a heist story and could easily have been done rather badly, but wasn’t and even included a fabulously dry Dave Filoni cameo as a New Republic pilot. No, not a single missed beat, bad line or failed joke throughout series one.

This is not to say that it does not have its cold brutal moments though, the Quarren being bisected in the first episode was utterly shocking, you even hear his legs heit the floor! Encasing the good natured Mythol in carbonite was really mean. Yet, they saved the humour of child abuse right up until the end and the speeder scouts indifference in violently handling the child. These moments of suffering are balanced so perfectly with real heart and leave a lump in the throat, even when dealing with an assassin droid walking into a lava flow. Terminator eat your heart out!

So, it must be time to combine some of the biggest loves of my rather childish, adult life into one hobby, namely my love of Star Wars and my love of Lego. With every new franchise released under the Star Wars banner, Lego get good dibs on making tie in sets. With the release of the Mandalorian, the Lego sets have been exceptional and if you have not yet seen them, you should go and have a look at the Brickset page.

The first set, number 75254 or AT-ST Raider is a glorious reworking of the beloved Imperial walker, as seen during the Battle of Endor, but here it comes with loose wiring and scratched paint. The colours are indicative of rust, repainting of old worn out parts and some battle damage, all achieved with coloured bricks and several stickers. The effect is really very pleasing and the walker stands at just over twenty five centimetres tall. All that it is missing is the red glow in the cocpit. The minfigs that come with this set just wonderful. Cara Dune, played so effortlessly well by Gina Carono in the show, is a really lovely minifig, although having a globally available minifig of your character must be exciting even for a movie star. Along with the walker come two raider pilots and then even Mando himself, in his dirty and mismatched armour, which is a little odd. By this point in the show, when he meets and briefly fights with Cara Dune, he already has his new Beskar cuirass of armour, complete in shining silver. So one has to ask why he is presented to us in the older colours of his armour that was destroyed by the Mudhorn in the second episode? Over all though, 75254 is a lovely set, even with the annoyance of having to apply stickers (which is a topic that takes on the additional needs of disability issues for me and my manky old lady fingers), rather than using printed pieces.

Set 75267, the Mandalorian Battle Pack is simple, cheap and rather pretty. This is a basic set with four minifigs, all in various colours of Mandalorian armour which may be different clans, with a small gun emplacement and speeder bike. The warriors are split equally male and female, but I have no idea which is which, due to the lack of lipstick, floral tops and flowing long hair, the usual key indicators used by Lego to show the gender split (stories of my subverting this by placing  the ‘male’ bodies with the ‘female’ heads, are very likely true!). Removing the helmets reveals an unprinted black head, which is slightly disturbing, but this is something that Lego had done for several years now.

The big set of this theme for 2020 has to be the fabulous ship used by the Mandalorian, the beautifully named Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport Ship… Oops yeah, it seems that somebody fucked up. Set number 75292, Razor Crest has in some cases been renamed following claims of trademark usage by another company, who just happen to make Lego compatible sets and some may claim have been guilty of cloning Lego sets without license. Oh dear.

I pre-ordered my set a good three months prior to release and thank the heavens that I did, because it was hopelessly delayed and finally cancelled three days after release and so I had to deal with Lego directly... during a pandemic outbreak... when every anguished parent with a Star Wars addicted child was no doubt screaming for their Mandalorian set too. Lego were hellishly busy and no doubt there were many like me, disappointed Amazon customers scrabbling to find the sets they had ordered weeks before. How many of those adults with debit cards were buying the toy for themselves though, remains a closely guarded industry secret.

When the set arrived, I was impressed by the actual size of the box which was huge and which my cat now uses for a bed! This was just the outer packaging used by Lego to ship the set, but the actual set box was still quite large and also beautifully printed, if surprisingly heavy.

Building the model was fun, even if there is a fair amount of repetition due to the chirality of the ship and the usual struggles with yet more bloody stickers! The engine nacelles are probably the least screen accurate feature, given the rough tooth like arrangement on the front intakes bares little resemblence to the smooth circular versions on the screen rendered ship. This is a tiny little complaint about an otherwise awesome model though. (I am just going to pause here for a moment. Are they really air intakes? Given that this is a spacecraft and it can travel at ‘light-speed’, why does it have these large open front intakes that resemble the compressor fan of a jet engine? Actually, that is a stream of thought that can only lead to sadness, especially with the roar of said engine as it flies across screen, supposedly in space, you know space. The place where NO ONE can hear you scream! But can hear if you miss a gear on your spaceship!)

Minfigs with this set are thoroughly cool, with our classic Mando himself, Din Djarin. He does of course have the child with him and the fidure of the child is adorable. This set also includes Greef Karga, a Scout Trooper and IG11… Um. Once again, this is a potentially confused set. Is this from the first episode or the last two? I don’t recall seeing the Scout troopers in the first episode so much, but they are present and a large part of the finale. Mando does of course have some serious issues with droids, having been orphaned during the Clone Wars, by a B2 Super Battle Droid (Speaking of droids and the Clone Wars, this does explain to me why when Luke and Obi Wan visit Mos Eisley, the cantina owner tells Luke that the droids are not welcome. It was a glaringly obvious issue that I never gave thought to, of course people would mistrust droids, the Clone Wars were a political tool used by a member of the elite, to secure their own power while creating political turmoil in which they could thrive and in which many thousands of innocent people lost their lives. I wonder if this was written to parallel real life, not that we have many examples of this in the real world), which is shown in heart breaking visceral detail during the several flashbacks we see. Again, this is just another element in this series that goes to such great depth to give the characters real heart. Anyway, back to my point, a part of his redemption was Mando coming to accept and even trust a droid, which he does with IG11, despite it being Mando himself who terminated the IG unit to begin with. So with a Scout trooper, IG11 and Greef Karga, would it be fair to say that with the child in hand, Mando should be in his silver Beskar armour? It would appear not and thus Mando is still in his dirty, rusted and damaged armour with this set. At some point they simply must release a set with him in shiny new Beskar, but maybe that will come with the release of Series two.

Over all, the sets released in this theme for 2020 have all been excellent and to an adult child like myself, well worthy of collecting, building and displaying… Because these are not  toys! They are valuable collectors pieces, future antiques and actually rather pretty. Which leads me onto my next section, how to display the models while making them look like something interesting and not just a pile of bricks. I had a space that you could have called a bookshelf, not a great space for books if I am honest, being slightly awkward and on top of my Lego desk. So I decided to fill this space with a Lego Diorama that measures one hundred and six studs wide and twenty four studs deep. It was a crap bookcase and my Lego books kept falling over or worse, falling off altogether to land on whatever I was working on at the time. The gloss painted finish proved to be be sticky, which damaged a couple of my instructions booklets and well, these are the issues you get when you design and build your own furniture, out of scrap wood and offcuts. Yes, the furniture is a bit mismatched in my office, but I made nearly all of it. Maybe one day I will do a show and tell.

The display started as a simple thing, a couple of enclosed boxes in which I could build a pair of scenes. My first scene was the Rebel Alliance looking at a hologram of the Death Star, while planning an attack on the technological terror. It is half based on Episode four with a dash of episode six. I added flickering lights and a large Death Star shell from the planets sets and stood back to admire my work. It was… OK-ish and sat like that for several months as I planned the next box and then what was to go above it.

With the release of the Mandalorian, I knew that the remaining box had to be the Covert, with the Armourer and her forge. I also knew that with the Razor Crest, I wanted some kind of scene above the covert to place both the ship and the AT-ST together, which while technically mixing a couple of episodes set on different worlds, could be seen in the soul of the show, rather than an accurate depiction of the Mandalorian itself. With the addition of some more lights it was all going so well and then I had to re-home Vader's castle, a task of Sisyphean proportions. 

Humour aside, I need a larger office. With my Solo, Rebels, Rogue One, Clone Wars, New Hope and final trilogy themes to my Star Wars Lego display, plus the collection of Technic lego so large it required specialist furniture to be built, I have run out of room. Vader’s castle is thankfully taller than it is wide and it fitted onto the shelf fairly well. It also took lighting effects really nicely and I was pleased with the results, in particular, the glowing hologram of the Emperor that appears in miniature in front of Vader's desk. However, it now looks like I have a nice castle, built on the edge of a run down city slum, with the sewers taken over by rogue blacksmiths and a group of noisy political activists. If any of you can spot the social commentary in here, well done you. Poor old Vader however can barely get any sleep, no wonder his mouse droid keeps leaping off the model and onto my carpet, it wants to escape for some peace!

So now that the office shelves are filled, what should I do next? Well actually, there are some things on the Razor Crest that I am not happy with, aspects that need some work to make it look a little better. First to go is that hideous hole in the top. Yes, it allows you to claw the pod out, but for display, rather than play, the hole is unacceptable. I made my own Moff Gideon (Using Winstone from Ghostbusters for the head and an Imperial Pilot body) and equipped him with a Darksabre. I added a pair of speeder bikes too, one for the scout that came with the Razor Crest and one for a scout that I added later.

I dread to think how much I have spent on this project, there is easily three hundred pounds in sets on my shelf alone, consisting of three large ships, one walker and a castle. There are also the various minifigs I bought from else where, such as the Rebel Alliance leadership and spare Mandalorian warriors. There are all of the lights, the wire and the switches, which cost about twenty pounds. It all adds up rather quickly and luckily for me, most of the Lego consists of bricks that I have collected over the years and a lot of those bricks were second hand.

Was it worth it? Yes it was. Not only was it a lot of fun to plan and build, but as a disabled person, it is nice to have a hobby that I can still manage and do fairly well. It is nothing like climbing a mountain, or wild camping with my mountain bike, but it stopped me going insane with boredom, especially during lockdown. Who knows what I can do next, but it is nice to be back on the technic and building actual gear boxes again.

First Drive: 2019 Jaguar I-Pace EV

FARO, PORTUGAL — The cars are lined up nose to tail in the pits, gleaming in the early afternoon Algarve sun and ready for maximum attack. Helmets on, we climb in, hit the stop/start button and … silence. But it’s on alright, its three high-def screens alight and displaying information. Dynamic mode selected and D button pushed, we creep out of our spot and toward Turn 1 of the Algarve International Circuit in an all-electric crossover. Yes, you read that right.

Although we’re not exactly sure what to expect once we get up to speed out on the track (complicating matters is that it’s our first time at Portimão), we already have a pretty good idea that the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace is going to acquit itself quite well. Because we’ve already put it through its I-Paces all over southern Portugal, and it has taken that flogging from us with barely a whimper—and barely making one as we did.

The I-Pace is one of a number of electric vehicles headed to the showrooms of mainstream automakers in the next year or two. If the majority of them end up coming out like Jag’s first effort, we’re going to find out pretty soon whether this whole EV thing is for real, because this sleek crossover-hatch is the real deal.

Its baseline specs are impressive enough for a vehicle of this type. Jag says it hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds—not bad for a vehicle that weighs roughly 4,800 pounds. Range is always a talking point, and with an estimated 240 miles to a charge (official EPA numbers haven’t been posted quite yet), it’s on par with a Tesla Model X 75D.

Step on the gas, er, electrons—or whatever you want to call it—and the I-Pace gives you that instant torque shove characteristic of EVs, which will push you back in its comfortable and supportive driver’s seat. Its single-speed automatic delivers power to the I-Pace’s front and rear synchronous electric motors located on each axle that combine to deliver 394 hp and 512 lb-ft of torque at peak efficiency. Power is supplied by a 90-kwHr battery pack with 432 pouch cells that look like individually wrapped Pop Tarts, about 1,400 pounds worth of them boxed and stored in the car’s floor. It’s not ludicrously fast, but any all-EV vehicle with a sub-five-second 60 mph time is going to feel faster than it is, and the I-Pace is no exception.

The electric Jaguar crossover delivers power to the rear motor up to 30 mph. After that it optimizes delivery between the axles in an effort to keep range pegged. Other tricks to find a few more miles include a higher brake regeneration setting that you can switch to if you desire, which can make for mainly one pedal driving depending on situation. Another clever feature is the addition of a creep mode that mimics the off-brake forward movement of a traditional automatic. It works as intended.

One issue that has been perplexing automakers with a performance heritage to maintain like Jaguar is how to create sound for an EV, a noise that mimics the aggressive driving experience that the Leaper is famous for. It’s a double-edged issue, as many EV fans enjoy the diminished racket, and indeed at low speeds the I-Pace is as hush-hush as expected. Jag engineers had a go at creating some aural dynamism and allow you to dial up the artificial jams that get a smidge more raucous when you’re jamming in Dynamic mode on some of the Algarve region’s killer twisted-up backroads. It’s not going to make you forget a D-type’s wail, but it (sort of) does the job.

Jaguar also wanted to make sure the I-Pace would handle, and to that end it succeed quite well. Bolted onto what’s essentially an all-aluminum chassis is a version of the automaker’s double wishbone front and integral link rear setup—with anti-roll bars. It’s augmented by an air suspension that allows the crossover to be raised and lowered about two inches depending on the setting. It also automatically drops the car around a quarter inch in high-speed situations.

Aerodynamics also play a huge part in getting range up, and lead designer Wayne Burgess and his team worked some interesting angles on the I-Pace, not the least of which was bending the top of the modern Jaguar look grille and opening up a gap in the hood area, which pushes air over the huge expanse of glass that tops the crossover and to the rear rooftop spoiler. When combined with the other work done to push air away from the car, the effect is that swirling dust and rain are kept off of the back window, nixing the need for a rear wiper—made possible in part by the I-Pace’s EV packaging.

Other interesting fun facts about the I-Pace: it can ford water up to just short of 20 inches high (we splashed through a tiny creek and tackled a couple of light off-roading obstacles with ease), it has a near 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, and a lithe 0.29 drag coefficient with the 18-inch tire/rim package. We rolled primarily on the optional 22-inch setup, and a 20-inch option is also available.

It can also get around a track. The fact that Jag had the stones to let us loose in the I-Pace at Portimao was impressive in its own right. As we’ve outlined, driving an EV is a different experience, as a couple of hot laps in the battery-powered cat reinforced. It’s hard to immediately wrap your head around a car that essentially starts trail braking the second you lift, one that is balanced but heavy. While we tackled the circuit well enough and approached its 124 top end on the long straight, the brake pedal itself can be a bit on the soft side when you first put your foot to it. The steering wheel feels great to hand with its diameter and thickness, and its heavy turn-in worked well for the track and aggressive maneuvering, but seemed a bit ponderous and artificial at times in typical around town driving. While it exhibited some roll at the track, out on the squiggly ribbons we were straight up tearing it up and having an E-blast. What little bumpy stuff we encountered, the I-Pace soaked up fairly well, likely helped by its longish 117.7-inch wheelbase.

You typical I-Pace customer (i.e. well-off types in their 50s) is likely never going to go near a track unless they’re there to root on Nelson Piquet Jr. driving the Jaguar Panasonic I-Type E-Racer in the Formula E series. Or maybe one of the drivers who will pilot race-spec I-Paces later this year as part of a support series for Formula E called eTROPHY. Yeah, this EV was built to run very fast. We will not be shocked (sorry) to see a tuned version of the I-Pace soon enough.

No, what the I-Pace driver is likely to show off other than the pull from the stoplight to his or her friends is its InControl Remote app that can pre-condition the car to your optimum climate control settings, radio preferences, and the like. (Over the air updates will also be available.) Or the three digital screens (instrument panel, 10-inch main vehicle control navi/entertainment, and supplemental 5.5-inch screen below). Or the well-laid out, luxury leaning, and spatially optimized cab-forward cabin that will fit four grown humans with ease (five in a pinch)—or a decent amount of gear, especially with the back seats folded to offer up 51 cu-ft of space. Then there’s that impressive, all glass, stem to stern panoramic roof (which does not open, but hey, it looks super cool).

What those friends are also likely to ask though is how easy it is to charge it? Can it get to work three days straight or to my mountain hideaway and back?

The answer is mainly yes. The I-Pace has a feature that shows you how much battery life it has left at various points along a journey you set in the navigation, and will tell you where the nearest charging stations are. It can handle 50-kW DC (85 minutes to 80 percent charge) or 100-kW DC (40 minutes to 80 percent charge) charging. If you have a 240-volt setup in your garage, it’ll get to 80 percent in 10 hours or so, almost 13 to full charge. So there are some drawbacks, as charging stations can be hit or miss, although topping off to say 40 or 60 percent charge isn’t super onerous on a quicker charger. There’s no getting around the fact that the infrastructure and charge times are not to mass market standards, but if you don’t know that and aren’t prepared to deal with some of the downsides, an EV isn’t a great option at this point, you late adopter, you.

What the I-Pace proved to us is that Jaguar made an EV that’s really good and fun to drive. It is also prepared to put its plug where its socket is with a major 80,000-mile warranty for the battery. It’s a package that bodes well for what’s to come from other major automakers that are eager to see if the Tesla phenomenon is limited to Tesla, or if the car buying public is truly ready to embrace EVs, especially at the lower end of the market—although the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace most definitely does not reside there given its 70 grand starting point. One thing’s for sure, more competition will spur innovation, and after our drive we can safely say that Jaguar is off to one heck of a head start over most of the coming electrified horde.

2019 Jaguar I-Pace Specifications

ON SALE August 2018 PRICE $70,495 (base) MOTOR Dual synchronous/200 hp, 512 lb-ft BATTERY Li-on/ 90 kWh TRANSMISSION Single-speed LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front- and rear-motor, AWD Crossover EPA MILEAGE 93/97 mpge (city/hwy) EPA MAX RANGE 240 miles 240V CHARGE TIME 13 hours (est.) L x W x H 184.3 x 63.1 x 84.2 in WHEELBASE 117.7 in WEIGHT 4,784 lb 0-60 MPH 4.5 sec TOP SPEED 124 mph

IFTTT

First Drive: 2019 Jaguar I-Pace EV

FARO, PORTUGAL — The cars are lined up nose to tail in the pits, gleaming in the early afternoon Algarve sun and ready for maximum attack. Helmets on, we climb in, hit the stop/start button and … silence. But it’s on alright, its three high-def screens alight and displaying information. Dynamic mode selected and D button pushed, we creep out of our spot and toward Turn 1 of the Algarve International Circuit in an all-electric crossover. Yes, you read that right.

Although we’re not exactly sure what to expect once we get up to speed out on the track (complicating matters is that it’s our first time at Portimão), we already have a pretty good idea that the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace is going to acquit itself quite well. Because we’ve already put it through its I-Paces all over southern Portugal, and it has taken that flogging from us with barely a whimper—and barely making one as we did.

The I-Pace is one of a number of electric vehicles headed to the showrooms of mainstream automakers in the next year or two. If the majority of them end up coming out like Jag’s first effort, we’re going to find out pretty soon whether this whole EV thing is for real, because this sleek crossover-hatch is the real deal.

Its baseline specs are impressive enough for a vehicle of this type. Jag says it hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds—not bad for a vehicle that weighs roughly 4,800 pounds. Range is always a talking point, and with an estimated 240 miles to a charge (official EPA numbers haven’t been posted quite yet), it’s on par with a Tesla Model X 75D.

Step on the gas, er, electrons—or whatever you want to call it—and the I-Pace gives you that instant torque shove characteristic of EVs, which will push you back in its comfortable and supportive driver’s seat. Its single-speed automatic delivers power to the I-Pace’s front and rear synchronous electric motors located on each axle that combine to deliver 394 hp and 512 lb-ft of torque at peak efficiency. Power is supplied by a 90-kwHr battery pack with 432 pouch cells that look like individually wrapped Pop Tarts, about 1,400 pounds worth of them boxed and stored in the car’s floor. It’s not ludicrously fast, but any all-EV vehicle with a sub-five-second 60 mph time is going to feel faster than it is, and the I-Pace is no exception.

The electric Jaguar crossover delivers power to the rear motor up to 30 mph. After that it optimizes delivery between the axles in an effort to keep range pegged. Other tricks to find a few more miles include a higher brake regeneration setting that you can switch to if you desire, which can make for mainly one pedal driving depending on situation. Another clever feature is the addition of a creep mode that mimics the off-brake forward movement of a traditional automatic. It works as intended.

One issue that has been perplexing automakers with a performance heritage to maintain like Jaguar is how to create sound for an EV, a noise that mimics the aggressive driving experience that the Leaper is famous for. It’s a double-edged issue, as many EV fans enjoy the diminished racket, and indeed at low speeds the I-Pace is as hush-hush as expected. Jag engineers had a go at creating some aural dynamism and allow you to dial up the artificial jams that get a smidge more raucous when you’re jamming in Dynamic mode on some of the Algarve region’s killer twisted-up backroads. It’s not going to make you forget a D-type’s wail, but it (sort of) does the job.

Jaguar also wanted to make sure the I-Pace would handle, and to that end it succeed quite well. Bolted onto what’s essentially an all-aluminum chassis is a version of the automaker’s double wishbone front and integral link rear setup—with anti-roll bars. It’s augmented by an air suspension that allows the crossover to be raised and lowered about two inches depending on the setting. It also automatically drops the car around a quarter inch in high-speed situations.

Aerodynamics also play a huge part in getting range up, and lead designer Wayne Burgess and his team worked some interesting angles on the I-Pace, not the least of which was bending the top of the modern Jaguar look grille and opening up a gap in the hood area, which pushes air over the huge expanse of glass that tops the crossover and to the rear rooftop spoiler. When combined with the other work done to push air away from the car, the effect is that swirling dust and rain are kept off of the back window, nixing the need for a rear wiper—made possible in part by the I-Pace’s EV packaging.

Other interesting fun facts about the I-Pace: it can ford water up to just short of 20 inches high (we splashed through a tiny creek and tackled a couple of light off-roading obstacles with ease), it has a near 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, and a lithe 0.29 drag coefficient with the 18-inch tire/rim package. We rolled primarily on the optional 22-inch setup, and a 20-inch option is also available.

It can also get around a track. The fact that Jag had the stones to let us loose in the I-Pace at Portimao was impressive in its own right. As we’ve outlined, driving an EV is a different experience, as a couple of hot laps in the battery-powered cat reinforced. It’s hard to immediately wrap your head around a car that essentially starts trail braking the second you lift, one that is balanced but heavy. While we tackled the circuit well enough and approached its 124 top end on the long straight, the brake pedal itself can be a bit on the soft side when you first put your foot to it. The steering wheel feels great to hand with its diameter and thickness, and its heavy turn-in worked well for the track and aggressive maneuvering, but seemed a bit ponderous and artificial at times in typical around town driving. While it exhibited some roll at the track, out on the squiggly ribbons we were straight up tearing it up and having an E-blast. What little bumpy stuff we encountered, the I-Pace soaked up fairly well, likely helped by its longish 117.7-inch wheelbase.

You typical I-Pace customer (i.e. well-off types in their 50s) is likely never going to go near a track unless they’re there to root on Nelson Piquet Jr. driving the Jaguar Panasonic I-Type E-Racer in the Formula E series. Or maybe one of the drivers who will pilot race-spec I-Paces later this year as part of a support series for Formula E called eTROPHY. Yeah, this EV was built to run very fast. We will not be shocked (sorry) to see a tuned version of the I-Pace soon enough.

No, what the I-Pace driver is likely to show off other than the pull from the stoplight to his or her friends is its InControl Remote app that can pre-condition the car to your optimum climate control settings, radio preferences, and the like. (Over the air updates will also be available.) Or the three digital screens (instrument panel, 10-inch main vehicle control navi/entertainment, and supplemental 5.5-inch screen below). Or the well-laid out, luxury leaning, and spatially optimized cab-forward cabin that will fit four grown humans with ease (five in a pinch)—or a decent amount of gear, especially with the back seats folded to offer up 51 cu-ft of space. Then there’s that impressive, all glass, stem to stern panoramic roof (which does not open, but hey, it looks super cool).

What those friends are also likely to ask though is how easy it is to charge it? Can it get to work three days straight or to my mountain hideaway and back?

The answer is mainly yes. The I-Pace has a feature that shows you how much battery life it has left at various points along a journey you set in the navigation, and will tell you where the nearest charging stations are. It can handle 50-kW DC (85 minutes to 80 percent charge) or 100-kW DC (40 minutes to 80 percent charge) charging. If you have a 240-volt setup in your garage, it’ll get to 80 percent in 10 hours or so, almost 13 to full charge. So there are some drawbacks, as charging stations can be hit or miss, although topping off to say 40 or 60 percent charge isn’t super onerous on a quicker charger. There’s no getting around the fact that the infrastructure and charge times are not to mass market standards, but if you don’t know that and aren’t prepared to deal with some of the downsides, an EV isn’t a great option at this point, you late adopter, you.

What the I-Pace proved to us is that Jaguar made an EV that’s really good and fun to drive. It is also prepared to put its plug where its socket is with a major 80,000-mile warranty for the battery. It’s a package that bodes well for what’s to come from other major automakers that are eager to see if the Tesla phenomenon is limited to Tesla, or if the car buying public is truly ready to embrace EVs, especially at the lower end of the market—although the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace most definitely does not reside there given its 70 grand starting point. One thing’s for sure, more competition will spur innovation, and after our drive we can safely say that Jaguar is off to one heck of a head start over most of the coming electrified horde.

2019 Jaguar I-Pace Specifications

ON SALE August 2018 PRICE $70,495 (base) MOTOR Dual synchronous/200 hp, 512 lb-ft BATTERY Li-on/ 90 kWh TRANSMISSION Single-speed LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front- and rear-motor, AWD Crossover EPA MILEAGE 93/97 mpge (city/hwy) EPA MAX RANGE 240 miles 240V CHARGE TIME 13 hours (est.) L x W x H 184.3 x 63.1 x 84.2 in WHEELBASE 117.7 in WEIGHT 4,784 lb 0-60 MPH 4.5 sec TOP SPEED 124 mph

IFTTT

First Drive: 2019 Jaguar I-Pace EV

FARO, PORTUGAL — The cars are lined up nose to tail in the pits, gleaming in the early afternoon Algarve sun and ready for maximum attack. Helmets on, we climb in, hit the stop/start button and … silence. But it’s on alright, its three high-def screens alight and displaying information. Dynamic mode selected and D button pushed, we creep out of our spot and toward Turn 1 of the Algarve International Circuit in an all-electric crossover. Yes, you read that right.

Although we’re not exactly sure what to expect once we get up to speed out on the track (complicating matters is that it’s our first time at Portimão), we already have a pretty good idea that the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace is going to acquit itself quite well. Because we’ve already put it through its I-Paces all over southern Portugal, and it has taken that flogging from us with barely a whimper—and barely making one as we did.

The I-Pace is one of a number of electric vehicles headed to the showrooms of mainstream automakers in the next year or two. If the majority of them end up coming out like Jag’s first effort, we’re going to find out pretty soon whether this whole EV thing is for real, because this sleek crossover-hatch is the real deal.

Its baseline specs are impressive enough for a vehicle of this type. Jag says it hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds—not bad for a vehicle that weighs roughly 4,800 pounds. Range is always a talking point, and with an estimated 240 miles to a charge (official EPA numbers haven’t been posted quite yet), it’s on par with a Tesla Model X 75D.

Step on the gas, er, electrons—or whatever you want to call it—and the I-Pace gives you that instant torque shove characteristic of EVs, which will push you back in its comfortable and supportive driver’s seat. Its single-speed automatic delivers power to the I-Pace’s front and rear synchronous electric motors located on each axle that combine to deliver 394 hp and 512 lb-ft of torque at peak efficiency. Power is supplied by a 90-kwHr battery pack with 432 pouch cells that look like individually wrapped Pop Tarts, about 1,400 pounds worth of them boxed and stored in the car’s floor. It’s not ludicrously fast, but any all-EV vehicle with a sub-five-second 60 mph time is going to feel faster than it is, and the I-Pace is no exception.

The electric Jaguar crossover delivers power to the rear motor up to 30 mph. After that it optimizes delivery between the axles in an effort to keep range pegged. Other tricks to find a few more miles include a higher brake regeneration setting that you can switch to if you desire, which can make for mainly one pedal driving depending on situation. Another clever feature is the addition of a creep mode that mimics the off-brake forward movement of a traditional automatic. It works as intended.

One issue that has been perplexing automakers with a performance heritage to maintain like Jaguar is how to create sound for an EV, a noise that mimics the aggressive driving experience that the Leaper is famous for. It’s a double-edged issue, as many EV fans enjoy the diminished racket, and indeed at low speeds the I-Pace is as hush-hush as expected. Jag engineers had a go at creating some aural dynamism and allow you to dial up the artificial jams that get a smidge more raucous when you’re jamming in Dynamic mode on some of the Algarve region’s killer twisted-up backroads. It’s not going to make you forget a D-type’s wail, but it (sort of) does the job.

Jaguar also wanted to make sure the I-Pace would handle, and to that end it succeed quite well. Bolted onto what’s essentially an all-aluminum chassis is a version of the automaker’s double wishbone front and integral link rear setup—with anti-roll bars. It’s augmented by an air suspension that allows the crossover to be raised and lowered about two inches depending on the setting. It also automatically drops the car around a quarter inch in high-speed situations.

Aerodynamics also play a huge part in getting range up, and lead designer Wayne Burgess and his team worked some interesting angles on the I-Pace, not the least of which was bending the top of the modern Jaguar look grille and opening up a gap in the hood area, which pushes air over the huge expanse of glass that tops the crossover and to the rear rooftop spoiler. When combined with the other work done to push air away from the car, the effect is that swirling dust and rain are kept off of the back window, nixing the need for a rear wiper—made possible in part by the I-Pace’s EV packaging.

Other interesting fun facts about the I-Pace: it can ford water up to just short of 20 inches high (we splashed through a tiny creek and tackled a couple of light off-roading obstacles with ease), it has a near 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, and a lithe 0.29 drag coefficient with the 18-inch tire/rim package. We rolled primarily on the optional 22-inch setup, and a 20-inch option is also available.

It can also get around a track. The fact that Jag had the stones to let us loose in the I-Pace at Portimao was impressive in its own right. As we’ve outlined, driving an EV is a different experience, as a couple of hot laps in the battery-powered cat reinforced. It’s hard to immediately wrap your head around a car that essentially starts trail braking the second you lift, one that is balanced but heavy. While we tackled the circuit well enough and approached its 124 top end on the long straight, the brake pedal itself can be a bit on the soft side when you first put your foot to it. The steering wheel feels great to hand with its diameter and thickness, and its heavy turn-in worked well for the track and aggressive maneuvering, but seemed a bit ponderous and artificial at times in typical around town driving. While it exhibited some roll at the track, out on the squiggly ribbons we were straight up tearing it up and having an E-blast. What little bumpy stuff we encountered, the I-Pace soaked up fairly well, likely helped by its longish 117.7-inch wheelbase.

You typical I-Pace customer (i.e. well-off types in their 50s) is likely never going to go near a track unless they’re there to root on Nelson Piquet Jr. driving the Jaguar Panasonic I-Type E-Racer in the Formula E series. Or maybe one of the drivers who will pilot race-spec I-Paces later this year as part of a support series for Formula E called eTROPHY. Yeah, this EV was built to run very fast. We will not be shocked (sorry) to see a tuned version of the I-Pace soon enough.

No, what the I-Pace driver is likely to show off other than the pull from the stoplight to his or her friends is its InControl Remote app that can pre-condition the car to your optimum climate control settings, radio preferences, and the like. (Over the air updates will also be available.) Or the three digital screens (instrument panel, 10-inch main vehicle control navi/entertainment, and supplemental 5.5-inch screen below). Or the well-laid out, luxury leaning, and spatially optimized cab-forward cabin that will fit four grown humans with ease (five in a pinch)—or a decent amount of gear, especially with the back seats folded to offer up 51 cu-ft of space. Then there’s that impressive, all glass, stem to stern panoramic roof (which does not open, but hey, it looks super cool).

What those friends are also likely to ask though is how easy it is to charge it? Can it get to work three days straight or to my mountain hideaway and back?

The answer is mainly yes. The I-Pace has a feature that shows you how much battery life it has left at various points along a journey you set in the navigation, and will tell you where the nearest charging stations are. It can handle 50-kW DC (85 minutes to 80 percent charge) or 100-kW DC (40 minutes to 80 percent charge) charging. If you have a 240-volt setup in your garage, it’ll get to 80 percent in 10 hours or so, almost 13 to full charge. So there are some drawbacks, as charging stations can be hit or miss, although topping off to say 40 or 60 percent charge isn’t super onerous on a quicker charger. There’s no getting around the fact that the infrastructure and charge times are not to mass market standards, but if you don’t know that and aren’t prepared to deal with some of the downsides, an EV isn’t a great option at this point, you late adopter, you.

What the I-Pace proved to us is that Jaguar made an EV that’s really good and fun to drive. It is also prepared to put its plug where its socket is with a major 80,000-mile warranty for the battery. It’s a package that bodes well for what’s to come from other major automakers that are eager to see if the Tesla phenomenon is limited to Tesla, or if the car buying public is truly ready to embrace EVs, especially at the lower end of the market—although the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace most definitely does not reside there given its 70 grand starting point. One thing’s for sure, more competition will spur innovation, and after our drive we can safely say that Jaguar is off to one heck of a head start over most of the coming electrified horde.

2019 Jaguar I-Pace Specifications

ON SALE August 2018 PRICE $70,495 (base) MOTOR Dual synchronous/200 hp, 512 lb-ft BATTERY Li-on/ 90 kWh TRANSMISSION Single-speed LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front- and rear-motor, AWD Crossover EPA MILEAGE 93/97 mpge (city/hwy) EPA MAX RANGE 240 miles 240V CHARGE TIME 13 hours (est.) L x W x H 184.3 x 63.1 x 84.2 in WHEELBASE 117.7 in WEIGHT 4,784 lb 0-60 MPH 4.5 sec TOP SPEED 124 mph

IFTTT

First Drive: 2019 Jaguar I-Pace EV

FARO, PORTUGAL — The cars are lined up nose to tail in the pits, gleaming in the early afternoon Algarve sun and ready for maximum attack. Helmets on, we climb in, hit the stop/start button and … silence. But it’s on alright, its three high-def screens alight and displaying information. Dynamic mode selected and D button pushed, we creep out of our spot and toward Turn 1 of the Algarve International Circuit in an all-electric crossover. Yes, you read that right.

Although we’re not exactly sure what to expect once we get up to speed out on the track (complicating matters is that it’s our first time at Portimão), we already have a pretty good idea that the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace is going to acquit itself quite well. Because we’ve already put it through its I-Paces all over southern Portugal, and it has taken that flogging from us with barely a whimper—and barely making one as we did.

The I-Pace is one of a number of electric vehicles headed to the showrooms of mainstream automakers in the next year or two. If the majority of them end up coming out like Jag’s first effort, we’re going to find out pretty soon whether this whole EV thing is for real, because this sleek crossover-hatch is the real deal.

Its baseline specs are impressive enough for a vehicle of this type. Jag says it hits 60 mph in 4.5 seconds—not bad for a vehicle that weighs roughly 4,800 pounds. Range is always a talking point, and with an estimated 240 miles to a charge (official EPA numbers haven’t been posted quite yet), it’s on par with a Tesla Model X 75D.

Step on the gas, er, electrons—or whatever you want to call it—and the I-Pace gives you that instant torque shove characteristic of EVs, which will push you back in its comfortable and supportive driver’s seat. Its single-speed automatic delivers power to the I-Pace’s front and rear synchronous electric motors located on each axle that combine to deliver 394 hp and 512 lb-ft of torque at peak efficiency. Power is supplied by a 90-kwHr battery pack with 432 pouch cells that look like individually wrapped Pop Tarts, about 1,400 pounds worth of them boxed and stored in the car’s floor. It’s not ludicrously fast, but any all-EV vehicle with a sub-five-second 60 mph time is going to feel faster than it is, and the I-Pace is no exception.

The electric Jaguar crossover delivers power to the rear motor up to 30 mph. After that it optimizes delivery between the axles in an effort to keep range pegged. Other tricks to find a few more miles include a higher brake regeneration setting that you can switch to if you desire, which can make for mainly one pedal driving depending on situation. Another clever feature is the addition of a creep mode that mimics the off-brake forward movement of a traditional automatic. It works as intended.

One issue that has been perplexing automakers with a performance heritage to maintain like Jaguar is how to create sound for an EV, a noise that mimics the aggressive driving experience that the Leaper is famous for. It’s a double-edged issue, as many EV fans enjoy the diminished racket, and indeed at low speeds the I-Pace is as hush-hush as expected. Jag engineers had a go at creating some aural dynamism and allow you to dial up the artificial jams that get a smidge more raucous when you’re jamming in Dynamic mode on some of the Algarve region’s killer twisted-up backroads. It’s not going to make you forget a D-type’s wail, but it (sort of) does the job.

Jaguar also wanted to make sure the I-Pace would handle, and to that end it succeed quite well. Bolted onto what’s essentially an all-aluminum chassis is a version of the automaker’s double wishbone front and integral link rear setup—with anti-roll bars. It’s augmented by an air suspension that allows the crossover to be raised and lowered about two inches depending on the setting. It also automatically drops the car around a quarter inch in high-speed situations.

Aerodynamics also play a huge part in getting range up, and lead designer Wayne Burgess and his team worked some interesting angles on the I-Pace, not the least of which was bending the top of the modern Jaguar look grille and opening up a gap in the hood area, which pushes air over the huge expanse of glass that tops the crossover and to the rear rooftop spoiler. When combined with the other work done to push air away from the car, the effect is that swirling dust and rain are kept off of the back window, nixing the need for a rear wiper—made possible in part by the I-Pace’s EV packaging.

Other interesting fun facts about the I-Pace: it can ford water up to just short of 20 inches high (we splashed through a tiny creek and tackled a couple of light off-roading obstacles with ease), it has a near 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, and a lithe 0.29 drag coefficient with the 18-inch tire/rim package. We rolled primarily on the optional 22-inch setup, and a 20-inch option is also available.

It can also get around a track. The fact that Jag had the stones to let us loose in the I-Pace at Portimao was impressive in its own right. As we’ve outlined, driving an EV is a different experience, as a couple of hot laps in the battery-powered cat reinforced. It’s hard to immediately wrap your head around a car that essentially starts trail braking the second you lift, one that is balanced but heavy. While we tackled the circuit well enough and approached its 124 top end on the long straight, the brake pedal itself can be a bit on the soft side when you first put your foot to it. The steering wheel feels great to hand with its diameter and thickness, and its heavy turn-in worked well for the track and aggressive maneuvering, but seemed a bit ponderous and artificial at times in typical around town driving. While it exhibited some roll at the track, out on the squiggly ribbons we were straight up tearing it up and having an E-blast. What little bumpy stuff we encountered, the I-Pace soaked up fairly well, likely helped by its longish 117.7-inch wheelbase.

You typical I-Pace customer (i.e. well-off types in their 50s) is likely never going to go near a track unless they’re there to root on Nelson Piquet Jr. driving the Jaguar Panasonic I-Type E-Racer in the Formula E series. Or maybe one of the drivers who will pilot race-spec I-Paces later this year as part of a support series for Formula E called eTROPHY. Yeah, this EV was built to run very fast. We will not be shocked (sorry) to see a tuned version of the I-Pace soon enough.

No, what the I-Pace driver is likely to show off other than the pull from the stoplight to his or her friends is its InControl Remote app that can pre-condition the car to your optimum climate control settings, radio preferences, and the like. (Over the air updates will also be available.) Or the three digital screens (instrument panel, 10-inch main vehicle control navi/entertainment, and supplemental 5.5-inch screen below). Or the well-laid out, luxury leaning, and spatially optimized cab-forward cabin that will fit four grown humans with ease (five in a pinch)—or a decent amount of gear, especially with the back seats folded to offer up 51 cu-ft of space. Then there’s that impressive, all glass, stem to stern panoramic roof (which does not open, but hey, it looks super cool).

What those friends are also likely to ask though is how easy it is to charge it? Can it get to work three days straight or to my mountain hideaway and back?

The answer is mainly yes. The I-Pace has a feature that shows you how much battery life it has left at various points along a journey you set in the navigation, and will tell you where the nearest charging stations are. It can handle 50-kW DC (85 minutes to 80 percent charge) or 100-kW DC (40 minutes to 80 percent charge) charging. If you have a 240-volt setup in your garage, it’ll get to 80 percent in 10 hours or so, almost 13 to full charge. So there are some drawbacks, as charging stations can be hit or miss, although topping off to say 40 or 60 percent charge isn’t super onerous on a quicker charger. There’s no getting around the fact that the infrastructure and charge times are not to mass market standards, but if you don’t know that and aren’t prepared to deal with some of the downsides, an EV isn’t a great option at this point, you late adopter, you.

What the I-Pace proved to us is that Jaguar made an EV that’s really good and fun to drive. It is also prepared to put its plug where its socket is with a major 80,000-mile warranty for the battery. It’s a package that bodes well for what’s to come from other major automakers that are eager to see if the Tesla phenomenon is limited to Tesla, or if the car buying public is truly ready to embrace EVs, especially at the lower end of the market—although the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace most definitely does not reside there given its 70 grand starting point. One thing’s for sure, more competition will spur innovation, and after our drive we can safely say that Jaguar is off to one heck of a head start over most of the coming electrified horde.

2019 Jaguar I-Pace Specifications

ON SALE August 2018 PRICE $70,495 (base) MOTOR Dual synchronous/200 hp, 512 lb-ft BATTERY Li-on/ 90 kWh TRANSMISSION Single-speed LAYOUT 4-door, 5-passenger, front- and rear-motor, AWD Crossover EPA MILEAGE 93/97 mpge (city/hwy) EPA MAX RANGE 240 miles 240V CHARGE TIME 13 hours (est.) L x W x H 184.3 x 63.1 x 84.2 in WHEELBASE 117.7 in WEIGHT 4,784 lb 0-60 MPH 4.5 sec TOP SPEED 124 mph

IFTTT