Photo: Jaguar
When the XE was introduced at the 2014 Paris Motor Show, everyone was waxing lyrical about the smallest Leaping Cat in the lineup. But iffy plastics, reliability problems, and the German regulars were too much, leaving the XE in the background of the compact executive segment.
The sales figures for 2018 reveal that Jaguar moved fewer than 11,000 examples of the breed in Europe, down from 19,000 in 2017 and 24,500 in 2016. Mid-size brother XF isn’t doing great either, struggling to sell 10,375 examples of the breed throughout 2018 in the Old Continent.
This gets us to the Jaguar Land Rover group’s £3.4 billion loss in the final quarter of 2018, described as “a difficult time for the industry” by chief executive Ralf Speth. Even worse for the XE and XF, the I-Pace electric crossover is gaining momentum with every month that passes in Europe and the United States as well.
Given these circumstances, Autocar.co.uk understands from “sources” that Jaguar “is starting with a blank sheet of paper for the project” that could see the “XE and XF being merged into a single model.” Following the lessons learned from the I-Pace, the replacement for the compact- and mid-sized sedans “could be either an electric model or a plug-in hybrid.”
Taking this information with a grain of salt, there’s no arguing the next stage for Jaguar as far as sedans are concerned is determined by the Modular Longitudinal Platform. The MLA has been presented alongside the PTA back in August 2018, plus details regarding three newcomers. One of them is the “dual-purpose Defender” (as in short- and long-wheelbase) while the other two are “additional nameplates to come.”
The slide with this information depicts two sedans covered by red veils, but our guess is that Jaguar Land Rover used these pictures for illustrative purposes. There’s been talk Land Rover could introduce the Road Rover electric vehicle in the nearest of futures, and the car-crossover thingy would be perfect for the MLA.
As a brief refresher, the MLA is capable of complete electrification, as well as plug-in, hybrid, and mild-hybrid applications. The Premium Transverse Architecture debuted in the 2020 Range Rover Evoque, combining regular and high-strength steel with aluminum. Of course, multiple electrification solutions can be integrated into the PTA.
This gets us to the Jaguar Land Rover group’s £3.4 billion loss in the final quarter of 2018, described as “a difficult time for the industry” by chief executive Ralf Speth. Even worse for the XE and XF, the I-Pace electric crossover is gaining momentum with every month that passes in Europe and the United States as well.
Given these circumstances, Autocar.co.uk understands from “sources” that Jaguar “is starting with a blank sheet of paper for the project” that could see the “XE and XF being merged into a single model.” Following the lessons learned from the I-Pace, the replacement for the compact- and mid-sized sedans “could be either an electric model or a plug-in hybrid.”
Taking this information with a grain of salt, there’s no arguing the next stage for Jaguar as far as sedans are concerned is determined by the Modular Longitudinal Platform. The MLA has been presented alongside the PTA back in August 2018, plus details regarding three newcomers. One of them is the “dual-purpose Defender” (as in short- and long-wheelbase) while the other two are “additional nameplates to come.”
The slide with this information depicts two sedans covered by red veils, but our guess is that Jaguar Land Rover used these pictures for illustrative purposes. There’s been talk Land Rover could introduce the Road Rover electric vehicle in the nearest of futures, and the car-crossover thingy would be perfect for the MLA.
As a brief refresher, the MLA is capable of complete electrification, as well as plug-in, hybrid, and mild-hybrid applications. The Premium Transverse Architecture debuted in the 2020 Range Rover Evoque, combining regular and high-strength steel with aluminum. Of course, multiple electrification solutions can be integrated into the PTA.
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