The Jaguar I-Pace, an electric crossover ready to compete with the Tesla Model X, has entered production in Austria, as per a report from Automotive News.
The crossover is being developed by Magna Steyr, an automobile making division of Canadian provider Magna International. Although Jaguar engineers developed the automobile, Magna Steyr has had a considerable say in the I-Pace job from the start.
“We were invited really early in the product development timespan in order to provide our procedure and production engineering proposals,” stated Friedrich Stracke, Magna Steyr’s president of vehicle technology and engineering. “We aimed to include the best procedures in the product early onWe led from the manufacturability perspective. We did this for every single function– body exterior, drivetrain, body interior, body in white, paint. We did this with all features and optimized the design.”
It’s no simple task to develop a vehicle from the ground up. Not only is the I-Pace getting in production at a new body store in Magna Steyr’s plant, it likewise sits on a brand new architecture and has a new drivetrain. Along with that, Stracke states the model’s aluminum body will need using new joining methods such as the welding, riveting, and bonding of aluminum. The I-Pace is going to mark Jaguar’s first venture into electric vehicles.
The first units of the I-Pace are currently being developed. The SUV will introduce in Europe later on this year before visiting the U.S. in 2018.
Stracke is making some huge claims about the I-Pace’s performance. “The acceleration is unbelievable; it is much faster than Tesla,” he stated. “You press the accelerator and it pushes you back into the seat.”
Jaguar presented a concept version of the I-Pace midsize crossover in 2016. The model, which measured simply 2 inches shorter in length compared to the F-Pace, boasted 2 electric motors that produce an overall output of 400 hp. Jaguar approximated a 0-60 time of about 4 seconds, which does not quite put it in the exact same category as the Model X. Obviously, we’ll need to wait and see exactly what remains in store for the production I-Pace.
Magna Steyr has a history of producing automobiles for other car manufacturers. It has constructed the Aston Martin Rapide, and reports stated the company will likewise produce the spors cars jointly constructed by BMW and Toyota.