A driver who was trapped behind the wheel of an out-of-control Jaguar I-Pace has revealed to MailOnline how he cheated death as his car accelerated up to 100mph on the busy M62 motorway without brakes.
Nathan Owen, 31, was on his way back from his first day at a new job when his 2019 electric car started malfunctioning, sparking a huge police operation to bring his car to a stop after 35 minutes of hell.
But he told how his car had also gone rogue on the motorway in December, this time reaching up to 120mph. He claims Jaguar handed him his car back 24 hours after he had taken it in to be looked at.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about his latest run-in, the crisis support worker admitted: ‘In the back of my mind, I was thinking I’m going to end up crashing the car, I’m going to kill myself or I’m going to kill an innocent person on the roads.’
Mr Owen, originally from North Wales, added: ‘The car was in its own world – it just had no brakes. The worst thing about it is that it’s happened before.’
Dramatic pictures show the black Jaguar, worth up to £80,000 when new, wedged in between two Matrix patrol cruisers from Merseyside Police on the eastbound carriageway between J11 for Birchwood and J12 for Eccles.
It comes amid concerns over the safety of electric cars and follows another case in October where an EV driver was kidnapped by his runaway £30,000 MG ZS.
Nathan Owen (pictured), 31, was on his way back from his first day at a new job when his 2019 electric car started malfunctioning
Mr Owen required a police convoy to bring him to a stop on the busy M62 motorway on Wednesday afternoon
He eventually had to bang into the back of a police car so that his vehicle would stop moving
Still shaken up by the terrifying incident, Mr Owen told how he was driving home from his new job working as a crisis support worker with children in Ormskirk, Liverpool, when he tried to overtake another car at around 2.30pm.
‘The car literally just started speeding up,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t press the brakes. The speed was going towards about 100mph in the high 90s, going to 100. I thought this was a bit wrong.
‘It came up on the dashboard saying there was a battery malfunction in my car. I kept trying to press the brakes but nothing was happening. So the next thing I thought I should do was call 999 and tell them what was happening.’
Mr Owen, who now lives in Bolton, Greater Manchester, then spent the next 35 minute surrounded by at least eight vehicles from Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester Police as they escorted him down the busy motorway.
The police officer he was on the phone to told him to move into the hard shoulder with his hazards on and to try and stay away from other people and other cars. Mr Owen was terrified as he kept having to weave in and out of the hard shoulder and slow lane to avoid turn offs and junctions.
It was at this point that a convoy of police cars were formed around Mr Owen’s car, in front, behind, and alongside him. He was told to make his way to the fast lane and follow the police.
Officers closed off two lanes of the four-lane motorway so that they could bring him to a stop as safely as possible and rescue him.
Mr Owen’s car is pictured at home. He said he will never get back into the car following a spate of incidents
Dramatic pictures from the scene show the black Jaguar I-Pace wedged in between two Matrix patrol cruisers from Merseyside Police
Cop cars swarmed the motorway to save a driver after their Jaguar I-Pace suffered an ‘electrical fault’
Mr Owen continued: ‘It was just scary I was just hitting the back of this police officer. I was hitting them at about 90mphs.
‘I was still talking to the operator, and I was worried. I was thinking I could potentially kill myself hitting this police officer at 90, or I could kill him if he loses control.’
He said that every time he was hitting the police vehicle, the car was swaying side to side.
‘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,’ he added.
‘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.
‘I felt like a criminal like in a big police chase, that’s how it felt. It felt like Grand Theft Auto.’
Mr Owen’s car was finally able to be brought to a stop when the miles on his electric car started running out.
He explained: ‘I had 10 miles, 5 miles and then it said on the screen zero miles stop the car and then the car started gently slowing down and going to zero.
This is a picture of when Mr Owen’s car finally came to a stop when it lost control in December
‘The police were saying on the phone they are going to drive off a bit further and they will stop and then I can roll into the back of the police car and stop the vehicle.
‘I went into their car a few times, that was what was panicking me the most, I’ve never done that kind of before, I’ve never had a crash before. Hitting the back of the police car, I was panicking about myself and the police officer in case I hit him too hard or he loses control.’
When the car finally stopped, the police officers came to the side of his door but he said he was just ‘froze in the position of holding the steering wheel’. ‘The police were trying to talk to me but I just couldn’t do it,’ he added.
Mr Owen revealed to MailOnline that a similar incident happened to him on December 23.
He recalled: ‘I was driving at 3am in the morning after I finished one of my previous jobs, it happened exactly the same, I had no control of the vehicle. At the time, it did speed up to about 120mph, so it was going pretty quick.
The Jaguar I-Pace is set to be discontinued before the company’s relaunch in 2025. Pictured: Mr Owen’s car before the incident
‘I ended up phoning the police, the same how I did with this one. I managed to get the car into neutral after me pressing the buttons on the side of the I-Pace.
‘It didn’t work this time but last time I managed to get it in neutral so the car ended up stopping with the help of the police in front of me and behind me slowing down as well.
‘The car then got recovered to Jaguar Land Rover in Bolton and within 24 hours I got a phone call saying they looked over the car and the cars fine and I should pick it up.’
Mr Owen said he has also had another incident where his battery died while he was on the motorway last April – just a month after he bought the vehicle.
‘I was driving the vehicle and I had about 100 miles still left and I was literally just driving about 20 miles and I lost pretty much all that charge and car stopped in motorway and I got recovered – it took about 8 hours to recover the vehicle,’ he said.
‘Everything literally just shuts off. The wheels clamp up because its electric, I can’t take the handbrake off.’
Mr Owen said that he would definitely not be getting a Jaguar or an electric car again.
He added: ‘I just know I’ll never be getting into this car again. I just wish that I would have got help with it the first time I had the problems, and I didn’t just get given back the car.’
North West Motorway Police revealed what had happened on social media, writing: ‘Police currently have a lane 3 and 4 closure on M62 EB J11 to 12.
‘This is following the use of tactics to stop an electric vehicle with an electric fault where the driver was unable to brake. Motorway officers from Merseyside, Cheshire and GMP brought the vehicle to a safe stop.’
The Jaguar I-Pace is set to be discontinued before the company’s relaunch in 2025.
The Jaguar I-Pace model has also been used as a rapid response vehicle (pictured) for West Midlands Ambulance Service
The car was reportedly only sold to make sure the company met its emissions targets.
The model has also been used as a rapid response vehicle for West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Mr Owen is not alone in his experience. Just last year, a terrified electric car driver revealed he was kidnapped by his runaway £30,000 MG ZS EV after the vehicle suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ in a bizarre case which forced him to dodge red lights and roundabouts before calling police to ram it into their van.
Brian Morrison, 53, claims he was heading home from work at around 10pm on Sunday when his new Chinese-made fully electric car began driving itself at 30mph.
Unable to use the brakes, the Glaswegian – who runs his own social enterprise – called police who stopped the vehicle by allowing it to slowly crash into their van.
Brian Morrison, 53, says he was heading home from work when his new MG ZS EV suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ and began driving itself at 30mph
Electric cars have been linked with a series of safety incidents. Concerns have been raised about fires caused by lithium-ion batteries.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokeswoman said: ‘We are aware of an incident involving a Jaguar I-PACE on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6. An investigation is underway into the cause of the incident.’
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘The two Jaguar iPaces that the Trust operates have now covered over 160,000 miles without incident and have proved to be exceptionally reliable. The iPace continues to be an excellent response vehicle for us and is popular with staff.’
Jaguar Land Rover has also been contacted for comment about Mr Owen’s claims.