Quite a lot of new info on the I-PACE
(and a HINT on the sales price) in this interview with Wolfgang Ziebart:
The Road From High-Octane To High-Tech Is Dangerous. Father Of 'Tesla-Beater' Jaguar Says Why
... Ziebart realized that “an electric vehicle is fundamentally different from an ICE car. If you approach it with the standardized processes of the auto industry, you will have a hard time.“...
“We did not go down the usual route of developing a car and putting an electric motor in it, let alone using an existing platform,” said Ziebart. “Right from the start, we wanted to make a no compromise electric vehicle...
“It was clear that the vehicle needed two motors, one in the front, one in the back,” said Ziebart. “This gives you all the freedom to define the driving dynamics, a much better setup than in an ICE car with only one engine.”
For the motor, Ziebart’s initial intention was to buy it from a supplier, because after all, JLR “had no electric motor department.” It turns out, it did. JLR engineer Dr. Alex Michaelides “developed an ingenious concentric electric motor. It’s not the cheapest, but it is the lightest, most compact motor you can imagine,” Ziebart said. The battery cells come from LG Chem. The 90 kWh battery itself also was developed at JLR.
Despite falling battery prices, some 40% of the car’s cost is in the battery, Ziebart told me. It’s true value however sits in a black box, the battery management system. “The development of our own battery management system, and especially its software, was very important to us” he said. “We did that completely in-house. The core know-how of an EV is the battery management system, and we keep that to ourselves.”...
Why the wait? If working prototypes have been shown for half a year, why do we have to wait into 2018 for the car?
“O.K., so you finally have that new car with all the bits it is supposed to be produced with. You also have something else: Some 3,000 minor quibbles, all in themselves no show stoppers, but in total, it’s not the quality a customer demands. For a truly refined car, you must work through these 3,000 nitpickings. And finally, you also need to be able to replicate it on a production line, which runs at one car every two minutes.”...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bertelschm ... 9025827d94So, if it has a ~100 kWh pack (with ~90 kWh available) at a cost of ~$200 per kWh, about $20 k for the pack, and about $50 k cost for the complete vehicle?