What's happening with the Jaguar I-Pace? From promising bestseller to filling scrapyards

Victor Alós Yus @sepelaci 6 February 2025 2 min.

The Jaguar I-Pace has faced many problems due to its battery, which has led the brand to buy back the cars rather than fix them.

When it arrived, the Jaguar I-Pace promised to be a revolution within the Jaguar lineup. It is an electric crossover presented in 2019 that proved ahead of its time, since there was no similar model on the European market. Its elegant design, along with the advantage of being the first of its kind, made it a symbol of hope for success.

But things did not go as expected, and the Jaguar I-Pace failed to achieve the sales that had been anticipated. To further derail the model’s promising path to success, problems began to surface. There were numerous signs that it was prone to fires, that it was unreliable, and that it was plagued with issues.

As a result, fewer and fewer I-Paces are seen on the roads and more and more end up in scrapyards. During its years on the market, the Jaguar I-Pace has suffered several recalls due to problems with the battery and other important components of the car.

This situation has led Jaguar to take a radical decision in several markets. In some countries, Jaguar has started buying I-Paces back from their owners to remove them from the market and avoid future claims from them.

Images are now being made public of several scrapyards where these recalled Jaguar I-Paces are ending up, waiting to be processed and dismantled. Part of the problems suffered by this model from the British brand appear to stem from the characteristics of the LG batteries it was equipped with.

These were prone to thermal overloads and tended to overheat excessively, with the consequent risk of catching fire. Jaguar tried to offset this risk by modifying the software, aiming to better manage the flow of energy and avoid the risk. It also tried to identify the vehicles most likely to suffer a spontaneous fire.

In the end, the brand has decided to start buying back the cars and stop trying to solve the problem. Jaguar’s plans involve developing a new electric model, previewed in the form of the Type 00 Concept electric prototype, which was presented in December.

This model will be equipped with safer batteries that will avoid all these problems and offer a range of up to 694 kilometres.