Jaguar's first SUV firms

When has a car company already committed to producing a car when it says it hasn’t?

When it builds three SUVs -- the automotive world’s most flourishing vehicle type -- as ‘concepts’ and flies them around the world to show just how close to production reality they are.

Jaguar has not officially given its first SUV, the C-X17 Concept, the production go-ahead, yet unofficially it has given every indication that it will roll copies out the factory door starting in about two years.

There are three C-X17 Concepts in existence, the blue vehicle that made its premiere at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show, which was then painted metallic silver and appeared at the 2013 Dubai and Los Angeles shows.

A metallic gold car was built and sent to China for the Guangzhou Exhibition 2013, (showing a five-seat alternative to the previous car's four-seat arrangement) and finally a red four-seater was produced for the 2014 Brussels show.

The latter was then flown to Sydney for this week’s Australian debut at The Art Hunter pop-up art exhibition in the inner-city suburb of Alexandria, where it will be on display for three weeks before being flown to Milan for another engagement.

Jaguar’s exterior design boss, Matt Beaven, was present at the event and told motoring.com.au that Jaguar’s designers work closely with engineers to ensure design concepts such as the C-X17 are capable of being easily copied on a production line.

“Whatever we bring out in Advanced Design, we want to be realistic about it,” he said. “If we ever make this car, we are very certain we can make it look exactly like this, because of all the upfront work we do now.

“We’re very keen that we don’t over-promise when we deliver such concepts, so we make sure that we get a lot more upfront engineering support.

“We have a whole team of engineers now, working with us in Advanced Design, to help us get the proportions that satisfy their needs as far as interior space is concerned, but that we get to deliver our proportions as well.”

Beaven evidently was not briefed to announce that production of C-X17 had been signed off, but he acknowledged that it “does seem to be a car that everybody really wants”.

He said that while any production version would be unlikely to roll on the concept’s 23-inch rims, to focus on the show car’s large rim diameter would miss the point.

“The 23-inch rims, maybe that’s pushing it a little bit, but the overall tyre diameter, it’s absolutely key. You can have less rim [diameter]; It’s the tyre size that sets the scale of the car. That’s 761mm here -- the overall tyre diameter -- where, say, the Evoke is like 740mm.”

Even the pedestrian safety legislation requirements for the C-X17 -- if it ever goes into production, mind -- have been squared away, according to Mr Beaven.

“Pedestrian laws are something we have to be really hot on. We have to make sure we deliver what’s necessary for that. We call this a crossover, but it fits in as far as the legislation goes as a SUV.”

Jaguar has confirmed it will launch an all-new mid-size luxury sedan called the XE globally next year and the same new aluminium chassis that underpins it is expected to form the basis of its first SUV in 2016.

If Jaguar establishes a credible business case for building a premium SUV such as its C-X17 Concept, it will be the last mainstream premium brand to include such a model in its stable.

So it appears certain that it is not a matter of if, but when, the C-X17 -- whatever it is christened in production -- not only is built en masse but also turns up in Australia’s sprawling SUV landscape. Watch this space.

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