Jaguar F-Pace: A New Luxury SUV
Jaguar’s newest model, the F-Pace, represents much more than the company’s first foray into the SUV market in its 80-year history: it represents Jaguar’s ambitions to assert its presence globally in the luxury vehicle market throughout the next two decades.
The British manufacturer have been planning the production of a ‘performance crossover’ ever since the debut of their C-X17 concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013. Now nearly ready for production, the F-Pace, whose name acknowledges its close kinship to the F-Type and adds a nod to the company’s old slogan from the 50s and 60s, “Grace, Pace, Space,” is set to potentially takeover as Jag’s best-selling model. The sector volume for luxury SUVs has “tripled in [the past] five years and all predictions say it’ll expand by another 30% in the next five,” according to Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover global operations director.
With the introduction of the Jaguar F-PACE for sale and new XE sedan, Jaguar – who sold 80,000 total units last year globally – are planning to eventually eclipse total sales of 200,000 units per year. The F-Pace and XE are both built using Jaguar’s modular aluminum-intensive iQ[AL] architecture, which they will also share with the company’s upcoming 2016 XF model. The West Midlands based manufacturer are using the launch of the F-Pace to spearhead a massive assault on the luxury vehicle market with a planned twelve new product actions this year; Jaguar Land Rover recently spent $855 million to build a new engine manufacturing facility in Wolverhampton and are allotting $5.4 billion dollars for product development spread across the next few years.
JLR’s dedicated engine plant in Wolverhampton will be producing the company’s new line of Ingenium engines, a family of highly efficient and scalable four-cylinder, turbocharged power plants available in both diesel and gas configurations. Jaguar highlights flexibility and configurability as two of the key elements which will keep its engines future-proofed for years to come. Notable characteristics include computer controlled oil and water pumps, high quality camshaft roller bearings and variable geometry turbochargers. The Ingenium line of engines will be available in the F-Pace to North American customers likely as a 2.0-liter diesel at launch, with a 2.0-liter gas variant possibly to follow. Aside from the four-cylinder engine option(s), Jaguar is also expected to offer the F-Pace with the manufacturer’s familiar 340-hp, 3.0-liter supercharged V6.
The F-Pace is expected to arrive late 2016 as a 2017 model and will give potential BMW X4 and Porsche Macan buyers another luxury badge to consider. Pricing is expected to begin at $40,000 for the four-cylinder version with the supercharged V6 starting north of $50,000. Depending on the success of the F-Pace, Jaguar is rumored to be looking at producing an entire range of SUVs, with its entry-level offering serving as direct competitor to the BMW X1.
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