Jaguar hasn’t officially confirmed the I-Pace SVR, but a recent interview with Autocar shows that the brand isn’t only considering it but is contemplating what type of performance it should deliver and just how much would be safe. In other words, 0-to-60 and top speed performance of the I-Pace SVR and future electric cars will be important, but they won’t necessarily be engineered with a supreme focus on these things.

Why Not Make the I-Pace SVR as Fast as Possible.

Electric cars are on the brink of taking over and pushing fuel-powered vehicles to the side. More and more EVs are showing face and technology is improving what seems like a daily basis. On the performance side of things, electric motors open the door for insane amounts of power and neck-breaking acceleration. With near instant torque being a real reality, all-electric performance cars could easily snap to 60 mph in less than two seconds and hit phenomenally high speeds, but it raises the question of what’s safe, what’s too much, and where limits should be drawn.

Jaguar’s Product Planning Boss, Hanno Kirner, talked about just that in an interview with Autocar about the I-Pace SVR and future electric and hybrid vehicles. “We have asked ourselves how you would ‘SVR’ an electric car. Yes, we can make it do 0-60mph in 1.8sec. It’s a good headline, but once you’ve done it once or twice, and lost your eyes in the back of their sockets, you might not want to do it again.”

Furthermore, it comes down to safety of not only drivers but other people on the road. Kirner has suggested that the instant torque and sheer power provided by high-performance electric motors could be too much for a lot of drivers. He even has the idea in mind to limit performance until certain training has been completed:

“It may be that we have to impose some kind of restriction so that the performance is limited until they have gone on a driving course or something.”

Of course, the I-Pace SVR still hasn’t been confirmed, and Kirner apparently stopped short in confirming it, but these talks certainly open the door a bit more. He even mentioned that there could be an off-road oriented SVX model and a luxury-based SVA model, among others. He did say that there is plenty of space for performance cars, though, so we can probably expect some pretty cool things to come out of Jag in the next few years.

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I have to tip my hat to Hanno Kirner. It’s important to take general safety in mind considering just how raw and crazy electric cars have the potential to be. Even your “everyday” cars like the Tesla Model 3, for example, hit 60 mph faster than some sports cars could 15 years ago. Top speed is another issue as it’s highly possible that Bugatti-like top speeds could be available in even mildly-priced cars. Not to joke around really, but we see how irresponsible people can be – just look at how popular Mustangs have become for crashing into crowds and near-weekly reports of supercar crashes. Top speed regulation and training-based restrictions aren’t new. There’s a reason most German cars are limited to 155 mph. They can certainly go faster, and some can even have the speed limited raised when purchasing a specific option.

Truth be told, it could become commonplace for automakers to require driver training before delivering high-performance vehicles. When you can sprint to 60 mph in two seconds and 120 mph in less than five seconds, you’re opening the door for disaster if you don’t know when or how to use it. Too many people like to showboat and play around, and 99.9-percent of them don’t know how to properly handle a vehicle or even have the sense to know better than to do it on the street. Required training will probably become a thing of the future for most high-performance cars and, with car connectivity coming in a big way, it will be much easier for automakers and law enforcement to effectively shut you down if you try to exceed safe limits.

It will be interesting to see how the next decade unfolds as electric cars continue to swarm the market. One thing is for sure, though, and that’s the unadulterated fact that things, and performance cars as we know them, are going to change. We need to accept change, and automakers need to embrace it as they follow through with the promise to keep roads safe.

Final Thoughts

Read our full review on the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace.

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Jaguar I-Pace SVR.

Read our full review on the 2016 Jaguar I-Pace Concept.

Read more Jaguar news.