New Jaguar E-Pace prototype first ride

The roads we’re flashing across are not made for SUVs. They’re tight, twisty and challenging. But it seems no challenge for the new Jaguar E-Pace – despite it being an SUV, a vehicle not normally in its element on deserted Welsh mountain roads. Such is the confidence exuded by the firm’s smallest SUV yet.

Jaguar’s development ace, Mike Cross, is behind the wheel. He loves it here, and brings all the prototype Jaguars here – yes, even the SUVs. That’s perhaps why all Jaguars handle so well, and almost certainly why this E-Pace feels compact, nimble and agile despite the nasty roads beneath its squat wheels.

It’s hard to imagine rivals such as the Audi Q3 and BMW X1 faring so well. Mind you, for a while, it was hard to imagine a Jaguar rival to them at all – but, such is the ever-spiraling sales volumes of the compact SUV sector, Jaguar had no choice but to enter it. Not for the firm just making any old machine, though. It had to be a truly Jaguar SUV.

So although it’s derived from the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque, it’s been thoroughly developed as a genuine Jaguar, even down to the expensive decision to give it a unique wheelbase length and new aluminium rear suspension bits. It’s all to give the E-Pace a decidedly more sporting character than the Land Rovers.

Under the bonnet of our development hack is a 296bhp 2.0-litre turbo engine, and it’s running on grippy 20-inch tyres, but the adaptive suspension that top-spec production cars will have is lacking here. Even so, despite being a virtually hand-built prototype, it’s still impressive inside, mainly for two reasons: design simplicity, and quality. This bodes well for production.

Naturally as we get underway with Cross behind the wheel, we have to temper our expectations. There’s only so much you can tell from the passenger seat. Even so, the good vibes continue. It’s easy to feel the mini F-Pace SUV’s agility, refinement seems impressive in town and although the ride can be lumpy at times, it’s nicely flat and controlled at speed. It feels pretty quick, too – with a nice exhaust rasp at higher revs.