Fred has some good news for I-Pace owners:

Software enhancements will be provided free of charge and will deliver up to 8% range improvement.

Jaguar, via Electrek

Alright! That’s what I’m talking about Jaguar! This should bring the $70,000 I-Pace’s range from 234 miles to around 250 –– in line with the $40,000 base Model 3.

Interestingly, the automaker said that the range increase comes, at least partly, from enhancements discovered through their work in the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY race series.

Electrek

They’re calling the performance version of the car an eTROPHY? Nice, I’m really liking this branding direction they’re taking. Just keep adding more letter-nouns until sales take off. After your wife leaves you for blowing money on another crappy Jaguar EV, you can upgrade to the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY X-WIFE.

Here’s how they got the range improvements:

Changes to the torque distribution of the permanent all-wheel-drive system will deliver greater efficiency when driving in ECO mode, while refinements to thermal management control will see the active radiator vanes close more often to enhance aerodynamics. The battery will also run to a lower state of charge than previously without affecting drive ability, durability or performance.

In addition to the racing-derived enhancements, analysis of real-world data has enabled us to recalibrate the Regenerative Braking system to harvest energy more efficiently when the battery is in a high state of charge and recover more energy at lower speeds. Changes to the predictive range calculation algorithm will deliver a more accurate and consistent estimate of vehicle range, while being more reflective of an individual’s driving style.

Electrek

Sounds like there were some good improvements, but there may also be some funny business going on. Letting the battery run down further? Changes to the algorithm? Seems like they really needed to hit that 250 mile benchmark, whether they could figure out how to engineer it or not.

Finally, the automaker says that the update, which needs to be installed at the dealership, will facilitate future over-the-air software updates, which means that the next time they do have software improvement owners might not have to go to the dealership in order to get them.

Electrek

Ooooooo Jaguar!!! So close, but no cigar!

You almost had it with the improving range via software update thing… but I really hope this is the last time you ever ask customers to bring their cars into a dealership for a software update.

If there’s one piece of software you want to get done before you ship, it’s the part of the code that handles over the air software updates.

Congratulations to all the I-PACE owners out there on the improved range! And my sincere condolences that you have to drive a Jaguar EV.

Jaguar is extending the range of the I-Pace via software update! You just have to… bring it into the dealership and they’ll install it? 🤦‍♂️

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Read the full story at Electrek