Photo: Jaguar
First of all, let’s start with a question. Which Jaguar in production today is the oldest of the bunch? That would be the XJ, which premiered in 2009. The best year for the current-generation XJ was 2013, when the British automaker sold 19,677 examples of the full-size luxury sedan. By comparison, 2016 saw the XJ slump to merely 11,315 sales, which is less than almost all rivaling models.
The future of the XJ is a difficult subject to agree upon, especially when you consider that Jaguar’s F-Pace is the best-selling model in the lineup. In 2016 alone, the F-Pace moved 45,973 units, representing almost a third of Jaguar’s global sales (148,730 vehicles). Given this matter, it’s rumored that the British company might be tempted to position the future J-Pace as its all-new flagship.
That won’t happen, though, as explained by none other than Ian Callum. Speaking to Autocar on the sidelines of the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, the head of design said: “An SUV was discussed but it’s not the mainstay of the brand. There’s more sophistication for a flagship sedan than a flagship SUV. Only one brand can have an SUV as its flagship due to its origins and that’s Land Rover.” And when you think about it, Callum does make perfect sense.
Not much is known about the next-generation XJ, but Callum intends to graft the coupe profile onto the newcomer to differentiate the leaping cat from all of the other three-box sedans in the full-size segment. Electrification, however, will play a huge role in the makeup of the XJ in the ever-changing car market.
Fresh from the rumor mill, Range Rover considers launching the Road Rover EV sometime during the 2020 model year. And from the report, it’s understood that Land Rover will borrow the platform from the next-generation Jaguar XJ. It remains to be seen if more conventional powertrains are also in the offing, with Jaguar promising to hybridize its entire model lineup by 2020.
That won’t happen, though, as explained by none other than Ian Callum. Speaking to Autocar on the sidelines of the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, the head of design said: “An SUV was discussed but it’s not the mainstay of the brand. There’s more sophistication for a flagship sedan than a flagship SUV. Only one brand can have an SUV as its flagship due to its origins and that’s Land Rover.” And when you think about it, Callum does make perfect sense.
Not much is known about the next-generation XJ, but Callum intends to graft the coupe profile onto the newcomer to differentiate the leaping cat from all of the other three-box sedans in the full-size segment. Electrification, however, will play a huge role in the makeup of the XJ in the ever-changing car market.
Fresh from the rumor mill, Range Rover considers launching the Road Rover EV sometime during the 2020 model year. And from the report, it’s understood that Land Rover will borrow the platform from the next-generation Jaguar XJ. It remains to be seen if more conventional powertrains are also in the offing, with Jaguar promising to hybridize its entire model lineup by 2020.
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