Back to the future: Electrifying ride

I remember two things from my very first Jaguar experience as a young child. The Jaguar Mark ll I was travelling in was a beauty… and it backfired a lot.

Fast-forward to 2020 and to Jaguar’s sophisticated pure electric SUV, the I-Pace. It too is a knockout, but there is no backfiring. That’s because there is no combustion engine to tune incorrectly, nor an exhaust system to emit loud popping noises. Now I’m in a car that is silent, has two electric motors, a raft of lithium-ion battery cells and loads of tech.

It has been quite a leap coming from the basic cars of yesteryear that I learned to drive in. Those naturally-aspirated combustion engine vehicles were rudimentary;