Electric Jaguar I-Pace will arrive as a PERFORMANCE SVO model

The electric Jaguar I-Pace is already something of a success for Jaguar, but they’re planning a range-topping performance model from SVO.

The electric Jaguar I-Pace is something of a success for Jaguar, arriving ahead of the Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQC, its sales are bolstering Jaguar’s sales numbers as the rest of its range struggles, even if there doesn’t seem to be quite the appetite in the US for the I-Pace that there is in other parts of the world, especially Europe.

In the UK the I-Pace is still selling well, managing to be the third best-selling EV in Q2, and does auger well for future electric models from Jaguar, like the forthcoming electric Jaguar XJ.

But perhaps the one flaw in the I-Pace, certainly according to the Teslerati, is the I-Pace’s performance; the Tesla crowd like to crow about the I-Pace’s ‘feeble’ performance, and it’s certainly true that, in a straight line in Ludicrous mode (or whatever it’s called now), the Tesla Model X would muller the I-Pace.

But, as we know, that was an intentional decision by Jaguar to make the I-Pace a more-rounded car, and they didn’t think it appropriate to make it less enjoyable by endowing it with bonkers one-off performance potential.

As we learnt from Jaguar’s I-Pace Engineering Manager, Dave Shaw, Jaguar weren’t looking for pub bragging rights with the I-Pace’s straight-line performance, although they could, if they chose to, go much faster.

And now it seems the I-Pace is going to get more performance potential after all, with a Jaguar I-Pace SVO arriving at some point, according to SVO boss Michael van der Sande, talking to Autocar.

He said that it’s a question of “when, not if” SVO get to deliver a performance version of the I-Pace, building on the experience they already have with the development of the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy race cars (pictured above) which support Jaguar’s Formula E race series.

The eTrophy I-Paces gets no additional power, but when SVO get the green light to deliver a road-going I-Pace SVO, you can be sure it will be with enough power to make a real statement.