Electric car driver sees brakes fail in 'terrifying' ordeal as his Jaguar EV had 'no way of stopping'

Electric car driver sees brakes fail in 'terrifying' ordeal as his Jaguar EV had 'no way of stopping'

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GB NEWS
Felix Reeves

By Felix Reeves


Published: 08/03/2024

- 12:17

'The more I pushed down, the more it forced up, and the car carried on rolling'

Another electric car driver has come forward to tell of the horror he faced when driving his Jaguar EV when his brakes failed as he approached a red light.

TV personality Craig Phillips explained how his Jaguar I-Pace, which he purchased for around £80,000, saw him stuck behind the wheel after his brakes stopped working.


Phillips, who won the first-ever series of Big Brother, said the issue occurred after he received the vehicle back from the manufacturer in December.

The 52-year-old spoke of his fears after he was unable to use his brakes as he approached a red light with two cars in front of him and traffic coming towards him in the opposite lane.

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Jaguar I-Pace

Jaguar said it was assessing the incident and takes the claims 'very seriously'

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He told MailOnline how scared he was of crashing into another vehicle given that he had his two children, aged three and five, and his wife, Laura, in the passenger seat on New Year’s Eve.

Phillips added: “I can't describe to you what a terrifying feeling that was when the two children are in the back.

“The more I pushed down, the more it forced up, and the car carried on rolling.”

Thankfully for Craig and his family, the light changed from red to green and two other cars had pulled away, otherwise, he said, they would have collided with them.

He added: “There was no way of stopping. I had no options, I either mount the curb, run into the back of them or go into the lane coming towards me.

“I've driven for 30-odd years, and I've driven many old vans where the brakes have gone.

“Now normally, if a brake fails in a car or a van, it's the hydraulics that have seized or the hydraulic pipe burst and you can still physically push down on the brake very hard, which would slow it down and stop it.”

He said he wanted Jaguar to pick the car up as he was afraid to drive the vehicle as it would have required him to travel on two motorways.

A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover told MailOnline: “We are taking these claims by Mr Phillips very seriously and are looking into his complaint.

“Our client experience as well as the safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR's highest priority.”

This comes just days after another driver, Nathan Owen, told of his fear after his I-Pace “went rogue” on the M62, forcing the police to ram the vehicle to get it to stop.

The 31-year-old said the EV malfunctioned, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and resulting in eight police cars following him down the busy motorway.

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Jaguar I-Pace charging

The I-Pace is the brand's flagship electric vehicle

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Recounting his horror journey, he said: "The police officers said they never come across this before and coming down the hard shoulder and the police being behind me, it was like something out a film.

“It was horrible, I was in the fast lane, police car right in front of me, cars alongside me, normal passengers were just staring at me.”

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