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The official opening of the new flagship Jaguar Land Rover showroom in Sandyford took place last evening along with the first Irish viewing of the new all-electric Jaguar I-PACE, writes Trish Whelan . It was a memorable unveiling of both the new space and Jaguar's latest creation. Speaking on behalf of all his colleagues in Spirit Motor Group and Jaguar Land Rover, Declan McCourt (Director, OHM Group) welcomed the large attendance to the newly redeveloped state-of-the art showroom, and especially guest of honour Prof Dr Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover. Prof Speth had flown in from India, and had earlier yesterday visited the Jaguar Land Rover software engineering centre in Shannon which will develop new technologies to support electrification and self-driving features on future Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. This 1961 E-Type Jaguar, and the Land Rover Defender pictured below, provided a classic background to the state-of-the-art showroom.  The upgraded showroom in Ar...

Pic: JLR. Jaguar Land Rover is leading a car-to-car communications project which will help vehicles and their operators to 'see' what's around them even if the elements are out of line of sight, writes Brian Byrne . The 'Autoplex' project will use connectivity with other cars, and with roads infrastructure, to develop real-time maps of current traffic and obstruction situations. It will also be useful for autonomous cars, which JLR has also been working on with cars under test in the UK. To be useful, the system will require the big-bandwidth 5G mobile phone technology. JLR will also be providing up to 20,000 I-Pace electric SUVs to autonomous cars company Waymo.

When Jaguar produced its first SUV, the F-Pace, they were late to the premium crossover game, writes Brian Byrne . But that didn't stop the car becoming the best selling one in Jaguar's range. It also became my favourite. Then came the E-Pace. Smaller, but not just a reduced version of the larger car. It has a more sporty sense about it. A bit more coiled strength in the rear quarters design, perhaps. From a certain front angle, it even looks like a coupe, though this is definitely a car for full-sized people front and rear. Inside too, the style and the treatment is a tad more traditional than tech-modern. Though tech it truly is, with my review car having all the mods and cons expected in a premium brand. What I immediately liked was the relative simplicity of the dashboard and instrumentation, and the excellent integration of all their parts to true driver focus. Those big rotary knobs for climate control should be copied by all carmakers, with the seat-heating...