diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index ecdc397e..48310eb4 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ jobs:
       - run: test/container-build.sh
       - run: test/e2e-kind.sh
       - run: test/e2e-istio.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-tests.sh
+      - run: test/e2e-istio-tests.sh
 
   e2e-kubernetes-daemonset-testing:
     machine: true
@@ -105,28 +105,6 @@ jobs:
       - run: test/e2e-kubernetes.sh
       - run: test/e2e-kubernetes-tests-deployment.sh
 
-  e2e-kubernetes-svc-testing:
-    machine: true
-    steps:
-      - checkout
-      - attach_workspace:
-          at: /tmp/bin
-      - run: test/container-build.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-kind.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-kubernetes.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-kubernetes-svc-tests.sh
-
-  e2e-smi-istio-testing:
-    machine: true
-    steps:
-      - checkout
-      - attach_workspace:
-          at: /tmp/bin
-      - run: test/container-build.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-kind.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-smi-istio.sh
-      - run: test/e2e-tests.sh canary
-
   e2e-gloo-testing:
     machine: true
     steps:
diff --git a/cmd/flagger/main.go b/cmd/flagger/main.go
index 708ab504..ec9ef41b 100644
--- a/cmd/flagger/main.go
+++ b/cmd/flagger/main.go
@@ -125,6 +125,9 @@ func main() {
 	}
 
 	// use a remote cluster for routing if a service mesh kubeconfig is specified
+	if kubeconfigServiceMesh == "" {
+		kubeconfigServiceMesh = kubeconfig
+	}
 	cfgHost, err := clientcmd.BuildConfigFromFlags(masterURL, kubeconfigServiceMesh)
 	if err != nil {
 		logger.Fatalf("Error building host kubeconfig: %v", err)
diff --git a/test/e2e-tests.sh b/test/e2e-istio-tests.sh
similarity index 85%
rename from test/e2e-tests.sh
rename to test/e2e-istio-tests.sh
index a19ef5ed..31600601 100755
--- a/test/e2e-tests.sh
+++ b/test/e2e-istio-tests.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # This script runs e2e tests for Canary, B/G and A/B initialization, analysis and promotion
-# Prerequisites: Kubernetes Kind, Helm and Istio
+# Prerequisites: Kubernetes Kind and Istio
 
 set -o errexit
 
@@ -15,9 +15,36 @@ echo '>>> Installing the load tester'
 kubectl apply -k ${REPO_ROOT}/kustomize/tester
 kubectl -n test rollout status deployment/flagger-loadtester
 
-echo '>>> Initialising canary'
+echo '>>> Deploy podinfo'
 kubectl apply -f ${REPO_ROOT}/test/e2e-workload.yaml
 
+echo '>>> Create latency metric template'
+cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
+apiVersion: flagger.app/v1beta1
+kind: MetricTemplate
+metadata:
+  name: latency
+  namespace: istio-system
+spec:
+  provider:
+    type: prometheus
+    address: http://prometheus.istio-system:9090
+  query: |
+    histogram_quantile(
+        0.99,
+        sum(
+            rate(
+                istio_request_duration_milliseconds_bucket{
+                    reporter="destination",
+                    destination_workload_namespace="{{ namespace }}",
+                    destination_workload=~"{{ target }}"
+                }[{{ interval }}]
+            )
+        ) by (le)
+    )
+EOF
+
+echo '>>> Initialising canary'
 cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
 apiVersion: flagger.app/v1beta1
 kind: Canary
@@ -46,35 +73,16 @@ spec:
     stepWeight: 10
     metrics:
     - name: request-success-rate
-      threshold: 99
+      thresholdRange:
+        min: 99
       interval: 1m
-    - name: request-duration
-      threshold: 500
-      interval: 30s
-    - name: "404s percentage"
-      threshold: 5
+    - name: latency
+      templateRef:
+        name: latency
+        namespace: istio-system
+      thresholdRange:
+        max: 500
       interval: 1m
-      query: |
-        100 - sum(
-            rate(
-                istio_requests_total{
-                  reporter="destination",
-                  destination_workload_namespace=~"test",
-                  destination_workload=~"podinfo",
-                  response_code!="404"
-                }[1m]
-            )
-        )
-        /
-        sum(
-            rate(
-                istio_requests_total{
-                  reporter="destination",
-                  destination_workload_namespace=~"test",
-                  destination_workload=~"podinfo"
-                }[1m]
-            )
-        ) * 100
     webhooks:
       - name: load-test
         url: http://flagger-loadtester.test/
@@ -167,10 +175,15 @@ spec:
     iterations: 5
     metrics:
     - name: request-success-rate
-      threshold: 99
+      thresholdRange:
+        min: 99
       interval: 1m
-    - name: request-duration
-      threshold: 500
+    - name: latency
+      templateRef:
+        name: latency
+        namespace: istio-system
+      thresholdRange:
+        max: 500
       interval: 30s
     webhooks:
       - name: http-acceptance-test
@@ -260,10 +273,15 @@ spec:
             regex: "^(.*?;)?(type=insider)(;.*)?$"
     metrics:
     - name: request-success-rate
-      threshold: 99
+      thresholdRange:
+        min: 99
       interval: 1m
-    - name: request-duration
-      threshold: 500
+    - name: latency
+      templateRef:
+        name: latency
+        namespace: istio-system
+      thresholdRange:
+        max: 500
       interval: 30s
     webhooks:
       - name: pre
diff --git a/test/e2e-istio.sh b/test/e2e-istio.sh
index 1cb04e95..576b200b 100755
--- a/test/e2e-istio.sh
+++ b/test/e2e-istio.sh
@@ -2,23 +2,17 @@
 
 set -o errexit
 
-ISTIO_VER="1.4.5"
+ISTIO_VER="1.5.0"
 REPO_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
 
+echo ">>> Downloading Istio ${ISTIO_VER}"
+cd ${REPO_ROOT}/bin && \
+curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | ISTIO_VERSION=${ISTIO_VER} sh -
+
 echo ">>> Installing Istio ${ISTIO_VER}"
-kubectl create ns istio-system
-helm repo add istio.io https://storage.googleapis.com/istio-release/releases/${ISTIO_VER}/charts
+${REPO_ROOT}/bin/istio-${ISTIO_VER}/bin/istioctl manifest apply --set profile=default
 
-echo '>>> Installing Istio CRDs'
-helm upgrade -i istio-init istio.io/istio-init --wait --namespace istio-system
-
-echo '>>> Waiting for Istio CRDs to be ready'
-kubectl -n istio-system wait --for=condition=complete job/istio-init-crd-10-${ISTIO_VER}
-kubectl -n istio-system wait --for=condition=complete job/istio-init-crd-11-${ISTIO_VER}
-kubectl -n istio-system wait --for=condition=complete job/istio-init-crd-14-${ISTIO_VER}
-
-echo '>>> Installing Istio control plane'
-helm upgrade -i istio istio.io/istio --wait --namespace istio-system -f ${REPO_ROOT}/test/e2e-istio-values.yaml
+kubectl -n istio-system rollout status deployment/prometheus
 
 kubectl -n istio-system get all