20 May 2025 | General News
This Jaguar I-Pace 'fleet' will be converted in Arizona by manufacturer Magna as part of autonomous vehicle firm Waymo’s ambition to dramatically expand its services.
The I-Pace was built under contract by Austria-based Magna Steyr until late last year, but is no longer on sale in most markets. However, a ‘final delivery’ of around 2000 cars was made to Waymo before production officially ceased, enabling the firm to carry out further conversions. The work includes retrofitting hi-tech hardware, including a roof-mounted lidar, host radar sensors and 29 cameras. The conversion also incorporates the company’s own computing software – Waymo Driver – in its latest sixth-generation guise.
Waymo’s existing fleet comprises 1500 I-Paces, which are said to complete more than 250,000 autonomous taxi trips each week in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. The latest plans will see Waymo expanding to Atlanta, Miami and Washington DC from next year.
In a statement issued by Ryan McNamara, Waymo’s vice-president of operations, the company confirmed its expansion: “The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans. With our partners at Magna, we’ve opened a manufacturing site that enables the cost efficiency, flexibility and capacity to scale our fleet to new heights.”
Once its in-stock supplies of I-Pace have run out, the factory will switch to converting other new cars for autonomous taxi use, with future offerings likely to include the Chinese-made Zeekr Mix – a battery-electric MPV (or minivan, as they’re referred to in the US) that went into production with Geely Auto just over a year ago.
Once at full capacity, the new Waymo-Magna factory should be capable of converting tens of thousands of vehicles per year.
Meanwhile, although brand new examples of the I-Pace are no longer available from stock in the UK, there are several dealerships with pre-registered cars in stock, many with delivery mileage only, offering substantial savings over the model’s final list price.
