The journey, through the Chunnel’s service road, started in London with a full battery and ended 369km later in Brussels.
The demonstration shows the single-charge range of the I-Pace, which is Jaguar’s first production battery electric vehicle (BEV) that goes on sale this year in Australia priced from $119,000 plus on-road costs.
Jaguar started the trip with its 90kWh battery fully charged at London’s South Bank, then to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone before driving it through the 50km service tunnel – the world’s longest subsea tunnel – before arriving at Calais.
It then drove to Mons Des Arts in central Brussels with eight per cent battery charge still in reserve.
As part of the challenge, the I-PACE used motorways and entered stop-start peak-hour traffic in summer heat.
The I-Pace can automatically heat or cool the battery before a journey to reach its ideal operating temperature. Jaguar said using power from the grid to do this instead of drawing current from the battery is more efficient and maximises range.
It has a navigation system that monitors route topography and driving style to calculate range and can plot the most energy-efficient route available. It will also alert the driver if the programmed destination cannot be reached and will help to find charging stations within range.
The I-Pace uses a 100kW DC rapid charger that can add up to 100km of extra range in 15 minutes. It can also charge to 80 per cent in 40 minutes (using 100kW DC) and home charging with an AC wall box (7kW) will achieve the same 80 per cent in about 10 hours.
By Neil Dowling
