LONDON: Jaguar has confirmed that its New Jaguar F-Pace SUV will enter production in 2016 and eshew Jaguar’s normal badging structure with a radical new name Jaguar F-Pace.
Prices are expected to open around the £30,000 mark putting the F-Pace up against the Audi Q5 and BMW X3 as well as its stable mates the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque
Jaguar is referring to the new F-Pace model as a “performance crossover” as opposed to an SUV. The name is designed to align it with the F-Type sports car and distance it from those more rugged products offered by sister-company Land Rover.
The teaser image below, showing the new Jaguar F-Pace badge and the production-ready rear light clusters, is our first glimpse at the showroom model but fortunately the 2013 Jaguar C-X17 concept left little to the imagination. Our exclusive images are based on that concept and use information gleamed from the teaser pic to give the best idea yet of how the 2016 production model will look.
“We received such an overwhelmingly positive response to the C-X17 concept car last year that we just had to make it a reality,” said Ian Callum, Jaguar’s Director of Design. “The Jaguar F-PACE, inspired by the F-TYPE, represents a perfectly judged balance of style, performance and practicality. It offers a unique combination of Jaguar sports car inspired exterior design, fused beautifully with a thoroughly practical and spacious luxury interior. The F-PACE is our family sports car.”
Fans have seen test mules, concepts and teaser pics, but this was the first time we saw the production Jaguar F-Pace SUV in the flesh. The SUV is relatively unchanged from the CX-17 concept and very close in design to our exclusive renderings of the car.
The trademark rectangular grile remains, flanked by large air intakes and headlights similar in style to the XF saloon. The sloping roof and steeply rising rear shoulder line maintain that sporty look, while the letterbox rear window and sharp profile has hints of Range Rover Evoque.
Full technical details for the Jaguat F-Pace won’t be released until later this year, but certain specifications have been confirmed. It will be available with a five-seater layout only, and assuming it sticks closely to the concept’s 4,718mm length, will be a few centimetres bigger than its main rivals – the Audi Q5 and BMW X3. For that reason, Jaguar claims it will have class-leading interior space as well as a “beautiful design, precise handling, a supple ride, luxurious interior finishes and cutting-edge technology.”
The F-Pace will be based on the same aluminium-intensive IQ [AL] platform as the new XE saloon and built in the same revamped Solihull plant in Birmingham. The similarities between the SUV and saloon will extend to the suspension geometry (the XE uses advanced double wishbones at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear), the interior switchgear and In Control infotainment system and the engine line-up. The four-wheel drive system will be governed by Jag’s All-Surface Progress Control technology to maximise grip in all road conditions.
Expect 2.0-litre turbodiesel and 2.0 turbocharged petrol engines both from the new Ingenium engine family to be offered in various states of tune, along with a supercharged 3.0-litre V6 at the top of the range. A more-powerful supercharged V8 model could come later in the lifecycle to power an F-Pace R performance model. Prices are likely to start from around £30,000.
Jaguar created shockwaves by announcing that the name of its forthcoming SUV would be F-Pace. In a candid interview with Auto Express at the Detroit Motor Show, Jaguar’s design director, Ian Callum, explained his role in the choosing of the F-Pace name, the challenges he has faced in creating Jaguar’s first ever SUV and how the daring crossover was nearly called X-Type.
“Creatively speaking, I had little role in the choice of the F-Pace name, but I was clear on saying it needed to have a reference to sportiness,” he told us. “Both Ralf [Speth – Jaguar Land Rover CEO] and I agreed it needed character. Alphanumeric was not an option and we toyed with many names. We played with the letter X a lot – XQ was one option but we felt Q is too much of an Audi thing, and of course Aston Martin uses Q.
Callum explained around eight names were in the running before being dwindled down to three, with F-Pace being one of them. “I picked F-Pace,” he said. “I like it because I think it’s got a bit of texture and character to it and I think after time people will get used to it.”
The Scot was more than aware of the pressure on his and his team’s shoulders in creating a type of car Jaguar had never built before – and admits it has been a demanding process.
“It has been difficult because it goes against every muscle of your body in some ways,” he says. “Once I realised that a crossover makes good business sense and that for a lot of young people, they don’t know anything else other than crossovers, I said to our team we’ve got to embrace this car.
“It has to be sexy; it has to have voluptuousness to it. If it means compromising some of the packaging then we’ll do it – that’s what Jaguars do and we will push back on this obsession of getting the biggest volume inside, the biggest capacity and the largest tailgate opening. I wasn’t going to buy into that. I am very pleased with the end result. We have done a good job – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
The Jaguar C-X17 4×4 concept was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013 before taking centre stage at the 2014 Brussels Motor Show.
At the time, Jaguar design director Ian Callum hinted at how close to the production car the C-X17 was, saying: “We were caught out with the C-XF concept and under delivered; we now need to show things we know we can deliver.”
The C-X17 is 4,718mm long, 1,959mm wide and 1,649mm high, with a wheelbase of 2,905mm (30mm longer than Jag’s new XE 3 Series rival). So it’s clearly targeting the Audi Q5 and BMW X3, even though it’s slightly longer, wider and lower.
Jaguar F-Pace: where does it fit in the JLR range?
Jaguar’s sister company Land Rover has, of course, a longer heritage and greater brand awareness as a maker of 4×4 cars than Jaguar, so where will the new C-X17 fit in the JLR range?