Here at The Autopian, we’re big fans of depreciation. Partly because it allows awesome cars to be afforded by us mere mortals, and partly because it speaks volumes about the market’s confidence in a given make and model. Porsche 911s? They hold strong because everyone wants an older one. Large luxury sedans? Not so much. However, there’s a new challenger for the depreciation throne that most of us forgot existed, and it’s a neat one. On Tuesday, a 2019 Jaguar I-Pace sold on Cars & Bids for $16,250. That’s $71,269 in depreciation over just five years. Ouch.
With a range of 246 miles, a pragmatic midsize crossover form, and Jaguar luxury, the I-Pace was a pretty compelling product by the standards of 2018. Remember, there was no Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, BMW iX, or Tesla Model Y back then. If you wanted a larger electric crossover that wasn’t a Model X, the I-Pace was where it was at. However, the electric vehicle arms race has resembled the personal computer race of the early aughts, where everything just got so much better so quickly. These days, 246 miles of range isn’t exactly class-leading, nor is a maximum DC fast charging rate of 100 kW to recharge a 90 kWh battery pack, which makes a new I-Pace not the most competitive product on the new market.
At the same time, both luxury vehicles and electric vehicles feature higher rates of depreciation than say, a regular compact car. We’ve previously run down some insane deals on gently used EVs and write about cheap luxury cars often, but here’s some data. A 2024 iSeeCars study of five-year depreciation rates shows that electric vehicles hold their value the worst out of any major vehicle type, at 49.1 percent average depreciation over five years compared to 38.8 percent for all vehicles and 37.4 percent for hybrids. In addition, the 25 fastest-depreciating cars in this study all come from luxury brands, from the BMW 7 Series to the Range Rover. No wonder these electric Jaguars are so cheap.
Of course, since this Jaguar I-Pace is a proper luxury car, it comes with all the trimmings you’d expect despite the sensible price tag. We’re talking about LED headlights, four-zone climate control, a panoramic glass roof, a digital cluster, a Meridian sound system, stitched upper surfaces, veneers, heated rear seats, the works. It’s new enough to have Apple CarPlay, which a lot of $16,250 cars these days don’t have.
Okay, sure, this I-Pace isn’t rocking its original wheels, has seen two previous owners, and had 98,000 miles on the clock at the time of sale, but it also has a clean Carfax, and looks no worse for wear inside than most five-year-old cars. Plus, with 394 horsepower and 512 lb.-ft. of torque on tap, it moves out quick enough. In Car And Driver instrumented testing, a 2019 I-Pace ran from zero-to-60 mph in a scant 4.3 seconds, pulled 0.90 g on the skidpad, and managed a 12.8 second quarter-mile at 109 mph. Not bad figures by any means, and the magazine had praise for the way the I-Pace drove.
It’ll never be mentioned in the same breath as Miata or Cayman or Corvette, but the I-Pace whisked us away from traffic lights and through sweepers in ways that left our oil-stained palms tingling. While the EV genus is anchored to Earth by half-ton battery packs, the all-wheel-drive I-Pace builds off that stability with impressive athleticism. There’s a natural fluidity to its body motions, organic tugs and lulls in its steering weight.
An electric crossover that’s both affordable and good to drive? Now that seems like a tantalizing proposition. Plus, the I-Pace is proving surprisingly reliable for a British luxury car, with the most common problem being an appetite for 12-volt batteries. That’s not a bad downside for a rather exotic piece of European machinery, and moves this EV from a potentially questionable move to an actual contender.
While this $16,250 I-Pace is the cheapest we’ve seen recently, a quick look on the online classifieds show that early models sold by dealers are still in the realm of affordability. Here’s a 2019 model up for sale at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Nevada for $24,980, and while that is considerably more than $16,250 for a lower-spec car, this one only has 47,204 miles on its clock and may qualify for the maximum federal used EV tax rebate of $4,000.
If you want to give up some equipment to go one model year newer, this 2020 I-Pace S is up for sale at a Nissan dealership in Florida for $24,692 with 40,609 miles on the clock. I bet all that sidewall helps with ride quality, and since the price tag slides under the $25,000 mark, this, too, may qualify for up to a $4,000 federal used EV tax rebate, assuming you’re an eligible buyer.
It’s safe to say that the I-Pace is the closest a used Jaguar has ever come to being a sensible purchase. Between rock-bottom pricing for a five-year-old luxury crossover to relatively okay reliability for a five-year-old luxury crossover, this is a weird one worth shortlisting. Perhaps best of all, they’ll only continue to get cheaper, so let’s see where pricing lands in another few years.
(Photo credits: Cars & Bids, Autotrader sellers)
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I was just shopping for an EV with the help Tom McParland from the old site, and he brought up these as being a crazy good deal, together with Polestar 2s. However, after being badly burned with an unreliable and expensive Volvo XC60 T8, he and I agreed to look elsewhere… I ended with a leased Lexuz RZ 300, which had really good incentives.
Funny enough the Lexus was even cheaper to lease than its Toyota sibling because the dealers in my area were marking up the Toyota (that had also a heavy lease subsidy), thus looking to pocket part of the manufacturer incentive!
I’m happy with knowing the car will start every time I need it to – it’s the family daily, which frees up my Wrangler for me to tinker with (I have quite a few projects for it sitting in the garage!)
Relatively okay reliability? Sign me up.
Shop a Volvo XC40 Recharge as well if truly buying. I have a leased 2021 model coming due soon and for the most part, it matches up. The depreciation hasn’t hit it as hard as the Jag, but the support will be better. They’re creeping down to the $25k limit for the additional $4k tax credit.
$16K is a great deal for one of these. I just looked around my area to see what the pricing is like… and the cheapest around the Toronto area is around CAD$42K… which is about US$31K
And that means around here, a used Tesla Model S, Y or 3 is still a better deal… more range, better charging network and better support.
I took an I-Pace for a weekend road trip to Monterey Car Week in 2020, and it was a great experience. Compared to the Model S that I’d driven previously, it was much more refined, more comfortable, and better handling. The only gripes I had were the charging speed and the weird little pause it would do before accelerating.
I’d take one of these for $17k any day of the week. Great car.
These early I-Paces have…. issues. Front motor mounts, battery cell failures, software freakouts, etc. Lovely cars, probably my favorite driving EV, but there’s a reason why the mid-2021 Refresh and up cars go for significantly more money, I don’t think I’d own an earlier one unless I could pick it up CPO and tack on the extra warranty for a few grand.
This is exactly what I did. Got it from my local JLR dealer for $29k CPO with 16k on the clock and the 2 year extended warranty. It was a stealllll. Although I had one aforementioned cell failure, they gave me an FPace SVR as a loaner.
Soooo…. I’d consider one of these for $24k. There’s gotta be a serious catch though.
It is an electric car from a company not known for having reliable electrical components?
Yea… that’s kind of the conclusion that I came to…
The closest a used Jaguar has ever come to being a sensible purchase is still an old XJ6 with a 350 Chevy swap.
I’ve always been partial to the XJS, but yeah, a Chevy small block is a great idea.
Can confirm! I bought that exact setup over eight years ago (’82 XJ6 with an ’87 Camaro drivetrain) and it’s been a really fun, nice-weather (the wipers have never worked) cruiser.
The back end on these is horrible. It looks like two different cars put together.
Truly. I saw a… Toyota, I think, that suffered from the exact same wacky back end. Just why?
I like the look of this Jag, but what problem areas should people be watching for in this model?
Some early ones had battery issues but I think they were actually fairly rare. Also the infotainment was apparently quite sluggish recommendation is to go with the refreshed version. I don’t recall the exact year of the refresh, perhaps 2021
Yep you want a 2021 refresh car… Not all 2021s are refreshes. You can verify it’s a refresh car if it has a 40-20-40 split rear seat, pre-refresh cars have a 60-40 rear seat
This is the best time to buy an EV. A used EV, that is.
The ideal path if you want to test the EV waters: get a lease. Then, at the end of it, go around the block to the used car lot and buy the same car used for less than half of what the dealer was offering you to keep your lease. We did exactly that with our first EV.
I did the opposite (I guess) of your recommendations. Bought used first, then leased.
I bought a used Fiat 500e years ago for cash, but moved out of the city so the 86 mile range didn’t work for me anymore. Fast-forward four years, and I just leased a Polestar 2 using that Costco deal plus the free Polestar upgrade to dual-motors. It didn’t work out to $299/month, but I’m happy with my 27-month lease. There is NO WAY I’ll purchase the vehicle once the lease is up.
What is the Costco deal? I went to the website and it has a dual-motor at $315 but that’s with an extra 3000 down first. But with the minimum down $1445 it is $428 a month. How bad is the insurance?
Nope. We’re still in the early days of watching things like the Audi e-Tron GT, Mercedes-Benz EQS, and others absolutely fall off a cliff. More of those vehicles still need to be made and sold, which will further crowd the market. People taking the $50-70K on the hood of those things think they’re getting a great deal, but 2 years later when they’re still running away from them is when things will continue to pick up.
Servicing them long term though? Oi. I’ve not met many indies (who do BEVs!) who want to go near them, because as time goes on they’re going to be unwanted unicorns. There’s no communities around them because they’re nowhere near cheap enough yet, and even when they get cheaper, the barrier to entry (price) is still too high, and long-term parts support is expected to be awful.
Again, it’s early HDTVs. Yes, in 2010, you could get some older, DLP, tunerless 1080i or 720p set for nothing. Buyers of those sets back in 03-05 couldn’t GIVE them away.
I got one of those DLP tvs for free back then. When I arrived it “earlier that day” had some issue come up where the imagine wasn’t lining up properly but it would would work after being on for a while.
I still took it anyway since I made the drive, and kept it for a few months until I got sick if it.
Wheeled it out around the corner when a free sign and it was gone in less than an hour.
I don’t miss those things but I did buy an old plasma screen for a hundred bucks to replace a broken bedroom TV. I forgot how good plasma has held up and in some ways is still competitive with newer tech.
I remember my dad buying an HD projection TV to replace our 20 year-old Quasar that looked like a piece of furniture. It never once received an HD broadcast during its short life.
I don’t think it’s possible to know the best time, except in retrospect. However, I think it’s safe to say now is a good time to buy a used EV, since late model ones with low mileage are readily available. Plus, if it’s under $25k and you buy it from a dealer, there’s a federal tax credit available. With regard to service and parts availability, it’s not nearly as big of an issue as it seems, since EV drivetrains are proving to be quite reliable. The wear items on EVs (brakes, tires, wipers, suspension, etc.) are pretty much just like their ICE counterparts.
I agree with this take, too. Also consider using the app Caramel as a licensed dealer to take a private sale used EV and make it eligible for the $4k federal credit. That’s what I’ll probably be doing with my next one.
Yeah these things sucked at around 80k, but low mileage examples in the high 20s? Sign me up! Hell, it’s not even built by Jaguar – it’s built by Magna!
Explains the reliability
*Lack thereof
Early I-Paces are probably some of the less reliable EV’s you can get, minus maybe an early Audi E-Tron. There’s a reason why the updated I-Paces that fixed some things go for a significant amount more money
I can’t believe I bought a Kia Niro EV with FWD for $21k a few months ago and I could have had an AWD Jaguar for just $4k more.
I’m still tempted. We qualify for $9k in incentives on a BEV which means only $16k for an EV with 40k miles and fully loaded.
Someone Paid Me $3000 to Take Their Jaguar I-Pace Off Their Hands
by David Tracy
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Crazy thing is, I almost wouldn’t consider 81.5% depreciation over 5 years to be completely abnormal for a Jaguar. Absolutely higher than historically, though.
We’ll see this with most first generation BEVs. As I’ve said, it’s HDTVs all over again.