The Jaguar I-Pace is quite a complicated car to look at. Its long wheelbase is the natural by-product of the traditional (relatively speaking) ‘skateboard’ EV powertrain layout, which makes its short overhangs an exercise is rigorous necessity. The rear end is particularly meagre, almost to the point where it seems the rest of what was intended to be the rear end, will one day be found in a skip in an alleyway in Coventry.
The I-Pace is also difficult to place in an obvious size class. Too low to be an SUV; too high-set to be a saloon; and too sculpted to be an estate. It shares this trait with Porsche’s also electric Taycan, in being tricky to categorise.
There is, however, one absolutely stand-out dimension of the I-Pace’s unconventional aesthetic, and that is the front wheel arch.
The arch is long, elegant, indulgent and really rakes the nose of the Jaguar to the ground. The arch itself is quite large, but the low nose means the apex of the arch crease disrupts the smooth line of the I-Pace’s bonnet/frunk.
The whole bonnet warps and flexes in keeping with the arch’s elegant aluminium dogmatism, and the top of the arch now affects the bonnet’s aesthetic, AMC Javelin-style.
In an age of warped panels, creases like balled-up pieces of paper, and plastic trim mayhem, the wave of aluminium crosses the I-Pace’s front axle like a Brunelian railway bridge.
Form and function.
Kerbside 