E-test – Jaguar I-Pace virtually climbs Mount Everest


A Jaguar I-Pace drove up Mount Everest – well, theoretically. In fact, he took on the Everesting Challenge in Great Britain, as cyclists usually do.

Now it was an electric car. The narrow strip of asphalt up to Great Dun Fell in Cumbria winds over a length of 5.8 kilometers and with gradients of up to 20 percent from 547 to 848 meters above sea level. In the Everesting Challenge, the highest asphalt road in the United Kingdom involves climbing a cumulative 8,848 meters in altitude, i.e. up to the summit of Mount Everest.

Elinor Barker (26), Welsh Olympic champion and world champion in track cycling, was at the wheel. With one battery charge she covered almost 200 kilometers on the 5.8-kilometer mountain road and reached the aforementioned 8,848 meters with a total of 16.2 climbs. There were slight minus degrees on the summit of Great Dun Fell.

There could have been more
In the end, the electric SUV still had residual voltage for over 128 kilometers in the 90 kWh battery. Elinor Barker benefited from the Jaguar’s regenerative brakes, because on the 16.2 descents, energy flowed back into the battery for around 93 kilometers. For example, the I-Pace produced around 60 percent of the additional electricity available on the descents.

The Jaguar I-Pace recently received a software update that gives it 20 kilometers more range. According to the WLTP, the Briton can travel 470 kilometers.

According to the manufacturer, this is made possible by improvements in battery and thermal management as well as in all-wheel drive, which have become possible through the brand’s experience in electric racing. Jaguar is active in Formula E and also maintains its own racing series, the eTrophy, as part of its supporting program, which is contested with near-production I-Pace vehicles.