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NEWS
New small sedan is do-or-die for Jaguar
Jaguar needs a genuine game changer in its tilt at the German-dominated premium compact marketJaguar officials in the UK have revealed the extent of the brand's ambitions for its upcoming small saloon, due to market in 2015. The brand is promising a genuine watershed moment for the compact sedan market currently dominated by Audi's A4, BMW's 3 and Mercedes-Benz's C Class.
Adrian Hallmark, formerly Jaguar's global brand director and now group head of strategy for Jaguar Land Rover, told UK magazine Autocar to expect "the most advanced, most efficient, most refined car in that segment. Not almost as good as, but better than the best in the world."
"It will look and drive like a Jaguar, be filled with the highest technology that anyone has ever brought to that segment, and have the most efficient engines and the most refined feel in its class," he said.
If remarks by one exec to analyst Bernstein Research are anything to go by, it needs a product of that calibre. "This is the only choice as Jaguar is not viable at 60,000 units [per year]. If the X760 fails, it will be probably be the end for the brand."
While Jaguar Land Rover sales have grown at a rate Bernstein's report describes as "spectacular" over the last two years, Land Rover accounted for the lion's share of last year's total group 358K sales.
However, with group sales up 16 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, Jaguar is beginning to pull its weight. In the year to September, Automotive News Europe reports, the brand's sales have risen 38 per cent, while Land Rover's are up 12 per cent.
The newcomer is being pitched not just into one of the global market's most competitive segments, but one owned by the German trio to the tune of nearly 90 per cent. UK analyst ISI Auto predicts the three will capture 1.15 million of 1.3 million projected sales next year.
Industry pundits see the company as up to the challenge. Jaguar arrives in the segment with a brand stature denied to Japanese contenders Lexus and Infiniti by their relative youth.
It also brings the technological gravitas to confront the Germans – the weight advantage of all-aluminium construction, uncompromising RWD dynamics and the upcoming range of all-new, Jag-designed "Hotfire" four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, promised by the brand to set new benchmarks in performance and efficiency.
It will help, too, that the new platform is hugely versatile. Beyond the saloon, it's likely to spawn wagon and coupe variants, a small SUV to fit in beneath the C-X17 concept revealed at last month's Frankfurt show, and possibly a five-door to pitch against BMW's GT and Audi's Sportback models. Getting in practice for this future niche assault, the company's design division has spun around two dozen different concepts off it on paper.
"We want lots and lots of products and we want all the incremental products as well," advanced design boss Julian Thomson told Automotive News Europe. "At present our cars are large and high-end. We need cars that are more relevant to younger customers, more relevant in an urban environment."
Artist's impression courtesy of Carparazzi
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Written byJeremy Bass
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