{"id":150802,"date":"2020-07-30T12:14:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T16:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=150802"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:14:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T16:14:58","slug":"from-track-to-street-to-track-with-the-jaguar-i-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/07\/from-track-to-street-to-track-with-the-jaguar-i-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"From Track to Street to Track With the Jaguar I-Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jaguar’s Formula E car is co-sponsored by Panasonic, which provides the batteries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pandemic-shortened Formula E season just wrapped up, but the all-electric racing series will be back on track soon, according to organizers \u2013 and that\u2019s good news as far as Jaguar Land Rover is concerned.<\/p>\n

The British automaker has been an active proponent for battery-car racing, both with Formula E and its own eTrophy series. They provide an obvious PR boost for the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV, but there are other benefits, Jaguar officials noted during a webinar this week. Racing helps engineers improve products like the I-Pace. But, in turn, that production model is also helping improve the Jaguar racing program.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be competitive on road and track you have to keep up with the pace of technical developments and change,\u201d said James Barclay, head of Jaguar\u2019s electric vehicle racing program, which includes Formula E.\u00a0 What happens on the track, he added, \u201chas a real relevance back to (production) cars\u201d like the I-Pace.<\/p>\n

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(Hong Kong’s fate has China taking aim at Jaguar Land Rover.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

There have been a number of improvements to the electric SUV since it was launched in Europe in mid-2018 \u2013 U.S. sales following that October. Some have come from Formula E, which is a rigidly regulated series where manufacturers run dart-like racers essentially identical but for their powertrains. Jaguar has also sponsored what is essentially a stock series, the eTrophy, where the I-Pace undergoes only modest updates, and most of those for safety reasons, such as the addition of a roll cage.<\/p>\n

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Cars line up on the grid for the start of a race in Jaguar’s eTrophy race.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the eTrophy that has yielded one of the most significant improvements in the production iPace, according to Barclay. \u201cAs a result of (our) learnings,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019ve been able to deliver a complementary software upgrade\u201d to the production vehicle \u201cthat\u2019s delivered up to an additional 12 miles per charge.\u201d The U.S. version of the SUV now is EPA-rated at 234 miles range.<\/p>\n

With both Formula E and the eTrophy, Jaguar engineers have focused heavily on software updates which have a \u201chuge\u201d impact on a vehicle like the I-Pace, including not only range but performance and creature comfort, added Stephen Boulter, the SUV\u2019s vehicle engineering manager.<\/p>\n

Of course, it helps to have the ability to do smartphone-style over-the-air updates to the I-Pace, rather than requiring owners to bring the vehicles back to a dealer, he said.<\/p>\n

Like rival Tesla, Jaguar has been closely monitoring data uploaded from production SUVs for insight into how they perform in the real world. That is added to what Boulter called \u201cthe incredible wealth of knowledge\u201d derived from Jaguar\u2019s electric racing efforts.<\/p>\n

(Jaguar Land Rover taps Chinese banks for $705 million in pandemic funding.)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Along with the boost in I-Pace range, the automaker has used its learnings to reprogram the behavior of the active air vanes at the front of the vehicle which are opened when cooling air is needed. Other updates include:<\/p>\n