2020 Jaguar I-PACE
Jaguar South Africa has released an update for its all-electric I-PACE. This is the future happening right now, where manufacturers send updates to their cars instead of bringing them into the dealership for the additional features. Let’s take a look at what the update is all about.
The English manufacturer made headlines last year following the announcement of the I-PACE eTROPHY series – the world’s first-ever international all-electric production vehicle racing series. Jaguar has taken insights from their racing model, the I-PACE eTROPHY. They have refined the software of the road-going model to optimise several components of the fully-electric powertrain that have already been implemented on the racing model.
Stephen Boulter, I-PACE Vehicle Engineering Manager, said: “The Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY has generated a huge amount of data for us to analyse and those marginal gains, derived from competition on the track, are now being applied to customers’ cars to further enhance their driving experience. The new software updates optimise the powertrain control systems to improve efficiency and allow I-PACE drivers to travel even further on a single charge without any hardware changes – it really is a case of the vehicle getting better with age.”
Although the eTrophy is a race car, there isn’t a significant difference in power compared to the road-going I-Pace. The majority of its changes are chassis orientated. The I-PACE is Jaguar’s first fully-electric production vehicle and offers a range of up to 470-kilometers from its electric powertrain. The update, which will be sent to customers for free, will not officially increase the range on paper although customers can expect to achieve about 20-kilometers more range per charge.
Other changes include adjustments to the torque distribution between the front and rear motors to make the vehicle more efficient in ECO mode while retaining permanent AWD traction. There are also refinements to the temperature control management systems and the battery, which allow the battery to be run on a lower state of charge than before without affecting the vehicles driveability, performance or durability.
