Jaguar I-PACE to channel Star Wars pod racer

Jaguar designer Ian Callum believes the upcoming I-PACE electric SUV should emit some sort of soundtrack – both to forewarn pedestrians and to elicit more emotion from an electric vehicle.

But the likely solution under consideration may surprise some: the chief designer wants to emulate a Star Wars pod racer like those depicted in the Phantom Menace.

Speaking with motoring.com.au at this month’s LA motor show, Callum revealed he had pictured the I-PACE emitting an otherworldly-type noise when he first dreamt up the concept three years ago.

"When I was working on it, I did envisage it making a noise, but we haven't put it in the car yet,” Callum said, adding: “it was kind of like a Star Wars pod racer, a sort of zheew! And whoop-whoop-whoop. It was lovely."

With no mechanical rumblings to leverage sound from, the Star Wars gag would be purely synthetic, Callum confirmed. There are other sound bites up for consideration as Jaguar attempts to offset the demise of beautiful internal combustion noise.

Whatever the case, he believes the I-PACE – and other future Jaguar electric vehicles for that matter – need to emit some sort of sound.

"Noise I think will happen as legislation comes in,” he said.

“I think there'll be a need in some countries for some sort of artificial noise, so that gives us a chance to start thinking what white noise or blue noise or green noise would sound like, which should be a bit of fun, or you could just transmit a V8 noise if you want.”

As one of only a handful of people to drive a prototype I-PACE ahead of the official car’s 2018 release, Callum is adamant that the production model won’t be short of emotion, regardless of sound.

Reinforcing his claims will be a zero to 100km/h time in the vicinity of four seconds.

"I drove the prototype last week and it's very impressive and what strikes you first is the performance, but there's no noise,” Callum said.

"But what you get is a sense of serenity that you don't get in an F-TYPE. Every morning when I go to work in mine, I start to wonder, do I really want this bloody noise all the time?"

Callum believes vehicles like the I-PACE can lead manufacturers into a new era of design and performance.

"I found this car hugely satisfying,” he said.

I've really enjoyed it; doing conventional cars, it drives you a certain way, I needed something different, and it's definitely inspired me in a lot of ways.”

Callum’s sentiments were echoed last week by Jaguar chief engineer Ian Hoban, who said the performance domain had become “cylinder agnostic” and that electric vehicles had provided a catalyst for change.

Hoban even left the door open to a family of electric vehicles eventually sharing the Jaguar Land Rover group’s coveted SVR performance badging in the future.

"When people talk about performance, what they're actually talking about is torque and torque delivery,” he said.

“The fact that you can deliver the torque, instantly in an electric vehicle, particularly in the mid-range, I think most people would say that is what performance is about.

"Having driven the prototypes of this car (the I-PACE), I guarantee people won’t be disappointed.

"I think people are a lot more cylinder agnostic than they were.”