Photo: SB-Medien
With Jaguar having secured a hefty slice of the sportscar maket courtesy of its F-Type, the carmaker is now working to develop something a bit more practical. Some like to call it the baby sedan, others fancy using its official Jaguar XE designation and we are here to show you the prototype battling the stopwatch on the Nurburgring.
First of all we have to explain that Jaguar’s XE has anything but an easy task. You have to admit it takes quite a lot of assets to stand up against the German mid-size sedan dominance. The BMW 3-Series is the main rival here, but the all-new Mercedes C-Class will prove quite a challenge too. And yes, Audi’s A4 may be aging, but the new generation, expected in 2015, will not bring good news for the XE.
To go though all this, the British mid-size sports sedan, as it probably wants to call itself, relies on an all-new aluminum space frame. Think something like the Jaguar XJ, only scaled down. iQ[Al] is the name here and we’ve all seen the “body” of the XE when Jaguar teased the structure late last week.
As you could’ve expected, this is a modular platform and, for instance, we shall also see it dressed as the production version of the Jaguar C-X17 crossover in 2016.
The prototype we see above is still wearing bad weather apparel, but Jaguar has something to say. We’ve been warned that, visually speaking, the XE will be more than just a baby XF. Literally looking forward to that.
Under the bonnet and hopefully as further down and back as possible, the XE will get an engine family as fresh as itself. Jaguar is currently working to develop the Ingenium powerplant family of four-cylinder petrols and diesels.
The details are scarce at the moment, but we have been promised two rather interesting ends for this scale. It will all start with a unit emitting less than 100 grams of CO2 per km (London congestion charge approved), while the range will be topped by a version able to take its speedometer needle to 186 mph (300 km/h).
Speaking of the latter, Jaguar has already started its teasing machine, previously confirming the XE will also receive the F-Type’s supercharged V6. Pushed past its current output, probably somewhere around the 400 hp+ mark, this seems like a good candidate for the engine compartment of a potential XER. God that name sound odd...
By the way, you don’t have to hold your breath until the Paris Motor Show in October, when the car is expected, at least in concept form - Jaguar is set to tease us some more meanwhile.
To go though all this, the British mid-size sports sedan, as it probably wants to call itself, relies on an all-new aluminum space frame. Think something like the Jaguar XJ, only scaled down. iQ[Al] is the name here and we’ve all seen the “body” of the XE when Jaguar teased the structure late last week.
As you could’ve expected, this is a modular platform and, for instance, we shall also see it dressed as the production version of the Jaguar C-X17 crossover in 2016.
The prototype we see above is still wearing bad weather apparel, but Jaguar has something to say. We’ve been warned that, visually speaking, the XE will be more than just a baby XF. Literally looking forward to that.
Under the bonnet and hopefully as further down and back as possible, the XE will get an engine family as fresh as itself. Jaguar is currently working to develop the Ingenium powerplant family of four-cylinder petrols and diesels.
The details are scarce at the moment, but we have been promised two rather interesting ends for this scale. It will all start with a unit emitting less than 100 grams of CO2 per km (London congestion charge approved), while the range will be topped by a version able to take its speedometer needle to 186 mph (300 km/h).
Speaking of the latter, Jaguar has already started its teasing machine, previously confirming the XE will also receive the F-Type’s supercharged V6. Pushed past its current output, probably somewhere around the 400 hp+ mark, this seems like a good candidate for the engine compartment of a potential XER. God that name sound odd...
By the way, you don’t have to hold your breath until the Paris Motor Show in October, when the car is expected, at least in concept form - Jaguar is set to tease us some more meanwhile.
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