These are the posh EVs the Jaguar I-Pace must beat

Jaguar’s new electric SUV, the I-Pace, was revealed in close-to-production concept form at the LA motor show last week. And it will have given any car manufacturer that doesn’t count a plug-in family crossover among its ranks a heart attack.

The I-Pace looks handsome and cleverly uses its electric powertrain’s packaging to maximise cabin space. Its claimed 394bhp, 4.0sec to 62mph and 310-mile range should tick most folks’ usability boxes. So, it succeeds in isolation.

But the I-Pace won’t have the posho-badge zero-emission game all to itself. Not by a long shot. There’s an established player from California to take on, and a glut of German newcomers heading for production that are all targeting the same generously walleted customers. Who’s your money on to lead the ‘leccy revolution?

You can tell this is an emerging part of the car game because everything else the Jaguar I-Pace needs to see off only exists as a concept car at the moment. Audi is likely to be quick out of the blocks with the showroom version of this, the e-tron.

Unlike today’s Q7 e-tron, there’s no hybrid drivetrain combining fossil fuels with volts here – it’s pure electric, offering a purported 496bhp, 510lb ft and 0-62mph in 4.6sec. A 30-min charge time crams in enough range to travel up to 249 miles. And you just know it’s going to have a delectable interior…

Like BMW’s ‘i’ brand, Mercedes is launching a whole new subset of badges and styling for its range of plug-in cars. Meet the EQ range, introduced at the 2016 Paris motor show in the thoroughly conventional-looking form of the EQ concept.

Looks like a GLC, right? And that’s the idea – not to scare off famously traditionalist Benz customers with something that looks like a prop from Transformers. The numbers are predictably strong too: Mercedes reckons on 402bhp of AWD go, a 310-mile range (you’ll be seeing that number a lot, as it equates to a nice, round 500km) and 0-62mph in under five seconds. They’re going to be nippy, this posh EV set. Could they signal the death of the hot hatch..?

A slightly different offering than the other tall-toes SUVs we’ve seen so far, the Mission E is a project Jaguar will have to watch with a beady eye.

Why? Because like Jaguar, Porsche’s brand bedrock is that its cars are good to drive. Superb, in fact. And once they saddle one with lardy batteries and no engine noise, it’ll still need to be exciting, or we’ll all buy something else…

Luckily, the Mission E’s stats are reassuringly eye-watering. How does 600bhp, 0-62mph in under 3.5sec and a 15min recharge grab you?

So far, BMW’s electric ‘i’ offshoot has brought us the i3 city car and i8 sports car. Those of you able to count will spot there are many gaps there with potential iCars waiting to be filled. An i5 or i7 could well morph into an SUV to fit that brief...

More than that, however, if BMW’s ambition for what it’s codenamed project iNext: to bring a fully connected, internet-of-things savvy autonomous car to market – as part of the i brand – by the year 2021. That’s something Jaguar – and all the posh-badge EVs – will be working feverishly on in the meantime as well…