The original plan to develop a new small saloon and a sports utility spin-off registered in to the product plan under the codename X760 was supposed to come to fruition in 2014, a full year ahead of the new XF in 2015.
However, those in charge of the big cat must have decided they can’t risk it, as Autocar reports the order has been switched. Consequently, the replacement for the XF gets the green light first, ensuring the baby Jag will not steal away either the premium feel of the brand or to pinch sales from the car that saved Jaguar.
“We definitely won’t kill today’s XF with a new small car,” Hallmark said. “We’ll kill it with the new XF.” Given that the new F10 BMW 5-Series and Merc E-Class models have moved up in size, so will the next XF.
However, the two German model’s smaller siblings, the 2012 F30 3-series and the new C-class, have also grown in size, so the small Jaguar saloon will actually be closer in size to today’s XF - hence the need to switch the models in the cycle plan.
Jag’s engineering chief Bob Joyce said: “The small car has to be designed and engineered to be exactly right for its market.”
“We’ve got to be careful and not be too British and think that just because we didn’t hit the bullseye first time, we can’t hit it a second time,” Hallmark said, adding that the failure of the X-type should not influence the coming model.
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