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NEWS
Jaguar's XF to migrate to aluminium
A lay-down misere for the next generation of mid-size Jaguar sedan to be an aluminium monocoque?Jaguar is believed to be saddling up for a successor to the XF – Jaguar's rival to the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class – built on a scaled-up version of the iq[AI] platform developed for a new 'C/D segment' prestige sedan and the C-X17 SUV concept.
What's more, the platform – or 'architecture' as Jaguar's management team prefers to call it – is also likely to yield a 'Sportbrake' version of the small sedan, along with other variants, based on hints dropped by the company's global brand director, Adrian Hallmark.
Addressing Aussie journalists at the Frankfurt motor show, the Jaguar exec flatly stated that the sedan wouldn't be the only body style to join the compact prestige passenger car segment, but he would not reveal any further details. The new small sedan won't be the end of the line for development of the platform, he said.
"No, it's the start... and we can't tell you any more."
The new sedan will be entering a market segment already populated by 3 Series, C-Class and A4/5 with wagon and coupe/convertible variants offered. Particularly in markets like Europe a wagon would seem like a strong prospect to join the sedan, but in the shorter term, Jaguar doesn't appear ready to emulate moves downmarket by Mercedes-Benz (A-Class) and BMW (1-Series).
"If you take the segment that we've targeted," Hallmark explained, "this combination of material [aluminium], engines and architecture is the sweet spot.
"When you come down to the next price band, and knock 20 per cent off the price, it doesn't work."
But that doesn't preclude the new platform from being co-opted into engineering for a larger passenger car, such as the XF. The XJ flagship wouldn't move to the new architecture however, as Hallmark explained to motoring.com.au.
"I can't comment on every single car we build from this architecture; I can say that XJ is probably also beyond the limits of the architecture, because you start to get to weight and crash load factors. The minute you touch a couple of components, you get a ripple effect – and you have to start everything again. So you end up back where you start with the current XJ architecture."
So that sums up the limits of the new architecture's scope for scaleability.
"It's got flexibility between two segments, but not three or four," Hallmark concluded.
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Written byKen Gratton
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