Jaguar wants to change that. Just as McLaren conducts its Customer Racing Program (allowing owners to track their own cars, or McLaren-prepared race-ready examples), Jaguar is putting its production cars into competition with all-I-Pace events that run in conjunction with Formula E, the fast-growing electric race series that runs purpose-built electric vehicles (EVs).
Jaguar was the first automaker to take part in Formula E, but now it also involves Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi and Nissan. eTrophy was announced in 2017 and is the first official support series for Formula E. The races take place on the same weekends, and on the same tracks, as Formula E.
The eTrophy cars have big rear wings and all the usual race decals, but under the skin they’re not much different from production I-Paces. (an I-Pace is pictured at top.) The weight, around 4,500 pounds, is basically the same. The interiors come out, but roll cages and other safety gear go in.
On June 13, MediaVillage took part in an exclusive media lunch with Jaguar and Bryan Sellers (pictured below), a winning professional driver in the ABB FIA Formula eTrophy Championship, which puts 20 identical production-based Jaguar I-Pace electric cars (prepared by Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations team) in head-to-head competition around the world. There are 10 races, in such cities as Berlin, Paris, Hong Kong, Sanya (China), Monaco and Diriya (Saudi Arabia), finishing up in Brooklyn, New York July 13-14. With the cars the same, driver skill is paramount.
Sellers is currently the No. 2 driver in the series, with all podium (first, second or third) places in previous races, except for Berlin, where he placed fourth. (He said his Rahal team “tried some new things, but they didn’t work.”) The racing is a bit different. Sellers said he has to use strategy about when to expend battery power -- a bit different from worrying about running out of gas. Indeed, although his previous racing experience was in gas-powered sports cars such as the Porsche 911 GT3, he is convinced that the eTrophy series can sell buyers on the I-Pace, because it worked for him. “I’m a big believer in electric cars now,” he said. “This car totally changed my mind. I used to think that internal combustion was as good as it gets, that electric vehicles would ruin our sport, but I couldn’t think more differently now. I want to buy an I-Pace. I wish I had one now.”
Sellers sees electric vehicles as the future of the industry, and as emissions regulations tighten in Europe and automakers such as Volvo announce fully electrified lineups, it’s hard to argue with that conclusion. But consumers haven’t caught up. Sales are still relatively small – a mere 361,000 (including plug-in hybrids) in the U.S. last year. Dealers don’t push EVs, and a recent Sierra Club investigation found many down-playing their own products, or making excuses (“we lost the keys”; “they’re not charged up”) in response to queries about EV test drives.
But Jaguar is serious about selling the I-Pace, which