Jaguar confirms first SUV…

Jaguar has confirmed production of its first SUV, and a mould-breaking new small front-wheel drive Jaguar hatchback could also follow the brand’s upcoming F-TYPE Coupe and mid-size ‘XS’ sedan.

According to Autocar, the Indian-owned British luxury marque has signed off on what will be a direct rival for mid-size premium crossovers like the BMW X3 and Audi Q5.

Due on sale globally in 2016, the first Jaguar SUV will be introduced after the F-TYPE coupe and new mid-size rear-drive ‘XS’ sedan, both of which are expected to emerge at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

Jaguar has reportedly registered the ‘XQ’ and ‘Q-Type’ trademarks in Europe, for a vehicle that could also see daylight in concept form as soon as next month’s Frankfurt show.

The company’s first SUV will be pitched against existing mid-size German crossovers with an expected starting price of about $60,000 for the base two-wheel drive model.

It will go to market with Jag’s all-new ‘Hotfire’ four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, with upspec variants getting all-wheel drive and six-cylinder petrol and diesel options.

The SUV will hit markets including Australia after Jaguar’s second attempt at a direct competitor for the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Both all-new models represent a tilt at the relatively young, cashed-up family buyers to whom the brand remains relatively alien.

Its last foray into the premium compact sedan segment, the X-Type, sank under the weight of retro styling and customer resistance to paying a Jaguar premium for a car spun from Ford’s prosaic Mondeo.

There will be no such carry-over here. Both new vehicles are all Jag – or at least Jaguar Land Rover – from the ground up.

However, it is unknown exactly what platforms the all-new SUV and medium sedan will be based on. Jaguar Land Rover currently has two versions of its aluminium Premium Lightweight Architecture – D7A for passenger cars and D7U for SUVs, including the new Range Rover and Rangie Sport models launched this year.

UK reports say Jaguar is well advanced in the development of both models, and will be pushing hard to set new benchmarks for lightweight construction, fuel consumption, emissions and handling, and will place heavy emphasis on its extensive use of aluminium and advanced build methods.

Another option reportedly being explored by JLR’s boffins is to use the Range Rover Evoque’s LR-MS steel platform as the basis for the small Jaguar-badged crossover.

It’s not inconceivable that a variation of this architecture (which is derived from the Ford Mondeo’s EU/CD platform), could be used to underpin a range of compact hatchbacks also reported to be on the Jaguar drawing board.

Company design boss Ian Callum has spoken in the past of his desire to pen a small, sporty Jaguar hatchback, and there’s no doubt Jaguar needs a volume boost as the Brit brand sold 53,847 cars globally last year, which is obviously a fraction of the tallies of its German rivals.

While Jaguar will never threaten the Teutons in terms of outright sales (BMW sold 1,540,085 vehicles last year, while Mercedes-Benz wasn’t far behind with 1,320,097), it stands to benefit from entering the high-volume small- and compact-car segments, and, in the process, introduce a younger audience to the brand.

Using existing hardware would be cheaper than starting from scratch on a range of small front-drive models that would potentially compete against the Audi A1/A3, BMW 1 Series, Mini and Mercedes A-Class, while simultaneously enabling the leaping cat range to meet ever-tightening corporate European CO2 emissions regulations.

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