News : Jaguar XE breaks cover… sort of

Keith Adams

Jaguar XE

Camouflaged Jaguar XE mules have been doing the rounds for a few months now, but this official image released by the company strips away a little bit more of the disguise, revealing more the new car’s shrunken XF-styling. The new aluminium car – a class first – which will be built at Solihull and powered by the new range of Ingenium engines made at the new engine plant near Wolverhampton, will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show, and is expected to cost from less than £30,000 when it goes on sale in 2015.

Jaguar Land Rover is following the established procedure of drip-feeding information of its upcoming car and ramping up interest via a new bespoke Twitter campaign. Showing it with a light cladding means that the upcoming scoop agenda will be led by Jaguar – just as was the case with the Range Rover Evoque. However, for all those with an allergy for Twitter hashtags, we’ll be keeping the story updated here.

What we already know about the car is that is intended to bring proper volume to the Jaguar marque, and will re-tread the path already taken by the underrated X-TYPE, which went out of production in 2009. Unlike the old car, the XE continues Jaguar’s move away from harking back to the past, incorporating many design elements first established in the XF. And although the mule image (above) hints at a miniaturised XF, an insider has confirmed to us that it will be ‘bristling with delightful little surprises.’

The car will be rear-wheel driven, with the option of four-wheel drive, and the new engine line-up will span a 99g/km company car special to rival the BMW 320Ed to a 400bhp-plus version which will take the fight to the M3/M4 and Audi S4/S5. Jaguar will need to present a full range of cars within months of the XE’s launch as the D-Segment executive market is currently a bloodbath, with Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz all offering multiple variations across the range.

The Jaguar XE won’t be built at the million-plus per year volumes of the sector’s big three, but at the same time, the company will want to rapidly establish the XE as an important niche model in the sector – hopefully, with more appeal than simple ‘badge-denier’ kudos. It will go against some pretty talented cars in that end of the market, too – the Lexus IS and Volvo S60 come to mind – but, if the XE makes a similar impact to the Range Rover Evoque, it’s going to do very well indeed.

Stay tuned as the story unfolds…

If the Jaguar XE fails, it 'could be the end of the brand'

Keith Adams

15 Comments

  1. Looking forward to more info on this one. It’s just a shame that a saloon car built in Solihull won’t have a viking badge on it.

    • Well said! JLR/Tata should really start at this stage reviving the Rover Marque Its a far stronger brand name than MG

  2. They really need to get the ‘company car specials’ under the 99CO2s limit for tax, guaranteed residuals to bring the HP/PCP and company car costs down to really compete against the Germans.

    Then, in a few years time, when I’m ready to trade the Saab in…. 🙂

  3. Is that supposed to be a small executive car? Bit too much bonnet overhang?

    Seems a bit back to front that Landies are built at Halewood and Jags planned for Solihull – shame they can’t reinvigorate what’s left of Browns Lane more than just being a specialist division…

  4. You got your pricing wrong, it will be less than £30k, or are you suggesting that the XE will cost more than the XF ? expect a start price around £25k, with a hint from one dealer of £23k for the bog standard stripped out version.

  5. Not the most flattering image of the car Jaguar could have produced. It looks as though it has the proportions of the 1998 Mk4 Astra to me – although I’m sure it wont look anything like one in the flesh. The launches of both the X Type and XF where marred by the lack of low CO2 fleet variants, the sort of cars that make up around 90% of 3/5 series, C/E class and A4/A6 volumes. 2 litre Diesels only arrived late in the model cycles when they had limited opportunity to make an impact. By the sound of it the XE will span the full spectrum from day one. In that respect its hard to see how it can fail.

  6. I assume the roofline is still disguised at the rear edge otherwise Jaguar are heading for a disaster. I assume it will have a flowing roofline and could it be that “haunches” are making a comeback? Hard to tell with the paint job the car has.

  7. A massive turnaround for Solihull, I imagine the forthcoming Jaguar SUV (which shares its mechanicals with the XE rather than the Evoque) will also be made there.

    It’s ironic that Ford gave Halewood to Jaguar to build the X type, then moved the Freelander 2 there from Solihull, as there was plenty of capacity after the X type’s sluggish sales (and Solihull build quality was worse), the Evoque replaced the X type at Halewood, and became a massive success, thus needed JLR to expand at Solihull again to build the XE!

  8. @8. If you want to see the true roof line, go to jaguar.co.uk and look at the “quick look” video. Pause it at 28 seconds…

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