I wrote this column last week after bidding a fond farewell to my 2019 Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicle.
Positively speaking, I have driven many cars, including exotics, and I have never enjoyed a car more than this one. However the demise of my I-Pace highlights a number of persistent issues with electric cars that persist to this day.
I want to share my experience so that those of you who are thinking about buying an electric car are better prepared for the particular issues of EV ownership, even though everything worked out well for me—thanks in large part to Jaguar of Portland and USAA insurance.
We’ll wrap up with my Product of the Week, a brand-new integrated conferencing bar from Biamp called Parlé (cute name), which may be ideal for people in the entertainment industry.
Come on, let’s do it.
Why I Acquired an I-Pace
Being one of the designated analysts covering the launch is why I purchased the Jaguar I-Pace. I was invited to be a launch analyst by Dell, who was providing the VR equipment and back-end for the event. I was in the market for an electric car that wasn’t a Tesla and agreed to do it since I had driven several Teslas and found them lacking.
My admiration for the I-Pace’s design, which is among the most exquisite non-sportscars available, was sparked by the launch event, which transpired in a way that was nearly magical. I wanted one of the first cars in the United States when the car was first released in Europe. S.
Spectrum Fear
Because the dealer hadn’t charged the battery before delivery, there were issues with the car’s initial delivery. Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but I live 180 miles uphill from the dealer, and even if the car was fully charged—which it wasn’t—winter reduced the effective range to very near that 180 miles.
The final 10% or so of the charge proceeds slowly even with a Level 3 fast charger, preventing the battery from being overheated. Heat is produced during charging, and lithium-ion batteries dislike heat since it rapidly ages the battery. So I didn’t get a full charge when I left the dealer.
In 2019, there weren’t many public Level 3 chargers that weren’t Tesla. The car’s range indicator was less than ten miles when it was about thirty miles from home.
One of the few Level 2 chargers available at the time was in a town where we tried to charge the car. It would have required almost a full day to fully charge the battery with a Level 2 charger. Even though we only needed to go 30 miles, we had already spent almost an hour at that location due to the late hour and the Telsa that was already using the charger.
Thus, we charged the vehicle while having lunch at McDonald’s, failing to realize that the estimated range is based on a summertime flat road rather than a wintertime ascent. Because of this, the car entered low-power mode and shut down entirely about five miles from home, right before I pulled into the garage.
It would have been an understatement to say that at that point I truly understood range anxiety.
Problems With New Automobiles
When I went to drive the car the following day, I discovered that a software update that had occurred over night had disabled a number of features, including the center console altogether. I therefore dialed Jaguar Roadside Assistance. I was without a car for a few weeks after they sent out a flatbed truck because you can’t tow an electric vehicle. I didn’t receive a loaner either because I was 180 miles away from the dealer.
My car was delivered back to me on a flatbed after Jaguar fixed the code and had it installed.
The car was effectively in need of a repaint to repair the scratches caused by someone’s dry wiping (we in this area use volcanic ash on the roads during the winter). Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how serious it was until I had the car wrapped to hide the dings.
Everybody who will service your brand-new car is still learning when you purchase it. Having something distinctive and eye-catching comes with a price: every car service technician will have to go through a learning curve.
It is unusual that there were still significant learning-curve issues four years after the car was released, but then again, I regularly buy cars this new, so I’m used to having issues.
My Path With I-Pace Unfolds
With the exception of the one complimentary first service that I had because I was unable to visit the dealer within the designated time, I loved the car once I got it back and never experienced another significant problem with it. After all, driving through the passes had become hazardous due to the snow.
I was no longer eligible for free service when the snow stopped and it was safe to drive to Portland. This still irritates me a little bit since it seems a little cruel and stupid to make a driver drive dangerously in order to receive a service that is part of the car’s purchase.
The car was a true joy to drive. It had flat corners and acceleration that was on par with my track car at the time, which was a beast, even though it wasn’t as quick as a Tesla (0-60 in 4.5 seconds). I’ve only seen one other I-Pace where I live over the years, and that one was obviously a guest as I only saw it once. That Jaguar was quiet and a pleasure to drive.
I like to purchase cars like this because I would frequently receive questions and compliments about the vehicle. However, as more cars come on the scene after a few months, this typically decreases. This never happened with the I-Pace, which kept attracting attention and giving excellent performance until it passed away.
I had a three-and-a-half-year lease on the vehicle, and I had the option to return it at the end of the lease, but I discovered that my residual value was significantly less than the vehicle’s market value. I decided to buy it from the leasing company rather than return it. I did that in part because it was such a great deal. Another reason, though, was that I hadn’t discovered anything superior, including from Tesla.
Up until March 30, everything was fine. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t.
A Jaguar I-Pace’s Life and Death
I returned early in the afternoon on March 30 after taking a flight from Chicago. My car flashed a ton of alerts when I tried to start it when I got there, and then it turned itself off. Not even releasing the e-brake or putting the car in neutral would work. When I called Portland Jaguar for advice, hoping it was something I could handle, they advised me to call Jaguar Roadside Assistance using the in-car emergency button, which worked remarkably well.
I called again after waiting for several hours for someone to arrive, only to discover that they had miscalculated and set the car for a 24-to-48-hour pickup because they believed the car was at my house rather than in an airport parking lot.
Once that was resolved, a tow truck driver with a flatbed truck showed up in 30 minutes. But the vehicle weighs about 5,000 lbs. The car was unable to be towed away from the parking spot and onto a flatbed because the tires were completely locked up.
I gave the truck driver the keys and told him to get the car to Jaguar the following day (Friday) with a stronger truck, which is exactly what he did. My nightmare then started.
They identified the issue and were able to address it fairly quickly the following Tuesday. An electric vehicle’s power distribution box had malfunctioned, which is unusual. The dealer informed me I had another problem, which turned out to be a terminal one, when they called to tell me they were finished working on my car.
The primary propulsion battery was damaged and cut into by the tow truck driver, who was skilled and very careful with the vehicle. The estimate for replacing that battery, which occupies the entire underside of the vehicle, was $100,000, more than twice what the vehicle was worth.
The dealer instructed me to contact my insurance provider, but I still believe they ought to have called Jaguar Roadside Assistance first since it was their subcontractor who caused the damage to the vehicle.
USAA insurance did total the car and compensate me for it after first telling me I was covered and then falsely claiming otherwise, which nearly sent me into a state of panic. My insurance policy included a replacement cost rider that paid out about $55,000, or roughly half of what I paid for the car but also about $10,000 more than Kelly Blue Book estimated the car was worth.
The rebirth part is that I paid $75,000 for another I-Pace from the dealer, a 2022 demo car with less than 1,000 miles on it, effectively upgrading it to the current model for $20,000, which I still believe to be a good deal.
It was the fastest I’ve ever purchased a new car, thanks to Jaguar of Portland, and that was made possible by both the dealer and USAA. I currently own a second Jaguar I-Pace, which makes me very happy. There are other interesting electric vehicles available, but the waiting lists are long, and I didn’t want to go more than a year without a car.
While I’m missing one of my old I-Pace’s best features and I’m back to the stock paint color instead of the color-shifting wrap and powder-coated matching wheels of my old car, I’m still in love with the new I-Pace. I drove that car home this time with a full charge.
Conclusion
Other than Tesla, which I dislike due to its numerous recalls, known safety issues, and uninspired design, electric cars are still very new, and most people aren’t sure how to operate them.
My car had been improperly towed and secured by the tow truck driver, but I could have done the same thing had I followed his lead. Car manufacturers still don’t seem to be providing tow truck companies with instructions on how to tow and secure their vehicles, which can result in accidents like this.
Lithium-Ion battery packs can warp and penetrate, which is extremely dangerous and can cause large, difficult-to-put-out car fires. If you own an electric vehicle, it’s a good idea to learn how to have it towed if you don’t want it to be written off.
I-Pace drivers can view the thread on that procedure on the I-Pace Forum. Basically, releasing the e-brake when you experience a total power outage, as I did, is challenging, and you must lift the car off its rear wheels with a dolly in order to tow it.
While all of this will be history by the year 2030, for the time being, if you own an electric car, you’ll need to learn how to do things to and with it that you wouldn’t need in a gas-powered car. The majority of the time, you’ll be the closest person in the room to an authority on it.
You’d think I would have known this given that I moderate this I-Pace forum. In order to avoid making the same mistakes I did, learn from my mistakes instead.
I’m getting to know my new I-Pace, and even though I miss my old favorite feature—the dash changing when you put the car into dynamic high-performance mode, which the new one doesn’t—I’m enjoying driving the new car almost as much as I do my old one, even though I miss the color-changing wrap shown here.
Speak VBC 2500 Conferencing Bar
The majority of us still seem to want to work remotely, despite the fact that businesses now seem to be reconsidering work-from-home policies and some CEOs seem especially heartless in comparison. As a result, businesses continue to outfit conference rooms with ever-improving video conferencing technology.
One of the best of these items is a conferencing bar from Biamp that seems especially well suited to the entertainment industry or anyone who wants excellent speaker performance (more important when working on soundtracks and music) or who just wants to use a conference room as an occasional place to relax and listen to music.
I’ve tested a number of conferencing bars, but the Biamp Parlé VBC 2500 has arguably the best audio quality. It is effective for both inbound and outbound sound because it has industry-leading speakers and a 17-element microphone array that can pick up voices from any location in a medium-sized conference room and transmit musical passages with little loss of quality.
You might think that sound this good would be excessive for a conference room, but when I used to work in an office, I frequently ate lunch with colleagues in a conference room because many employers prefer it because it requires less time off from work. The ability to play background music from the conferencing system would have improved my experience.
The Parlé from Biamp has a decent camera with auto-framing, 5x zoom, a 12MB video sensor producing 4K video, a privacy shutter that automatically closes the camera when not in use, premium optics, and integrated image processing.
The Parlé VBC 2500 isn’t a cheap date; it costs about $2,500. It is one of the more expensive conferencing products, but it makes good on that investment with superb optics and amazing sound. The Parlé VBC 2500 conference bar is therefore this week’s Product of the Week.