Frankfurt Motor Show - no show of production version of I-Pace

[AliKelman]

The E-Pace production car was on show at Frankfurt but not the I-Pace production car.

According to the Financial Times, later this year, JLR will start making the E-Pace in Austria using third-party manufacturing group Magna, which already has a contract to make Jaguar’s first electric car, the I-Pace, from next year. In 2018 the E-Pace will also be made in China at the joint JLR-Chery plant in Changshu. JLR manufacturing director Wolfgang Stadler said: "The UK is the heart and soul of our manufacturing, design and engineering capabilities. However, with our UK facilities operating close to capacity, our contract manufacturing partnership with Magna Steyr and our joint venture in China provide additional volume, agility and flexibility to deliver the new Jaguar E-Pace alongside our other exciting vehicle launches this year."

JLR made 604,009 vehicles in the 12 months to the end of March, and has ambitions to make 1m by 2020. The £28,500 E-Pace vehicle pushes the Jaguar brand further into the booming SUV market. Jaguar’s existing SUV, the F-Pace, has sold 80,000 vehicles since launching earlier this year. 

But the production version of the i-Pace was at the Frankfurt Motor Show. According to Nick Gibbs "...There has been so much interest in the I-Pace, which will sell for less than the Tesla Model X at about 60,000 pounds in its home market, that JLR figured it that the show attention would be better focused on its more mainstream entrants, a company spokesman said ... Jaguar says it has over 25,000 confirmed orders for the I-Pace, with customers in big markets in Europe and the U.S. placing "four-figure" deposits, despite the not knowing the exact final price. That order book is almost two year's worth of production at Magna Steyr's contract manufacturing plant in Graz, Austria, where the I-Pace will be built based on capacity predictions from IHS Markit."