Jaguar plans big charger network ahead of I-Pace EV release

Jaguar Land Rover is spending up to $4 million rolling out 150 changing stations ahead of the release of its first electric vehicle, the I-PACE, in Australia later this year.

Jaguar has appointed Australian charging network provider Jet Charge to install the network, including at its new HQ and showrooms.

The Jaguar iPace is capable of 100kW DC charging, which will take the EVs from 0-80 per cent charged in 40 minutes, and add 100km range in 15 minutes.

The I-PACE was launched officially at the recent Geneva Motor Show, and will be showing off its wares in the first official test drives for invited motor journalists in Portugal in early June.

The car, the first to confront Tesla head on in the luxury EV market, will be available in Australia from October, at a price of around $120,000, a battery of 90kWh and a range of 480km.

Jaguar intends to offer an electrified version of all its models from around 2020.

“It’s different for us,” Jaguar network manager Brett Lewis-Driver said at a session on Electric Vehicles at the Renewable Cities conference in Adelaide. “For a start there’s no engine. That’s a new thing.”

The network of charging stations will be installed at 45 dealerships across the country, including 13 at its new headquarters in Mascot, Sydney, that will open in September, and at its new show-rooms in Essendon, Melbourne

Customers will get 3 years free charging on the ChargeFox network.