An article from Autocar about the SUV. Nice to see manufacturing jobs being created in the UK.
Jaguar's first production SUV will arrive in 2016, badged F-Pace, with C-X17-inspired looks and Ingenium enginesJaguar’s*new SUV will be badged F-Pace when it arrives this time next year, it has been revealed.
The launch of the new model marks the first time the 80-year-old manufacturer has entered the SUV market.
The F-Pace name is understood to have been chosen to emphasise both its relationship in style and character with the F-type sports car and to recall Jaguar’s famous 'Grace, Pace, Space' slogan of the 1950s and 1960s.
The new SUV squarely targets Porsche’s Macan and BMW’s X4 models. It should command a starting price of about £35,000, reaching upwards as far as £50,000.
The new car, nearly identical in size and looks to the C-X17 concept revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in 2013, is expected to become one of Jaguar’s two best-selling models, performing strongly in major markets such as China and the US and rivalling the volume of the forthcoming XE compact saloon.
Once established in the market, the two debutantes should push total Jaguar volume beyond 200,000 units a year, up from last year’s figure of about 80,000.
JLR’s global operations director, Andy Goss, says the emergence of the F-Pace is a direct result of the company’s plan to spend more than £3.5 billion a year on product development over the next few years.
The F-Pace’s styling was created in-house by design boss Ian Callum and his team at the beginning of 2013. It is a relatively long car for its compact billing, nearly 40cm longer than a Range Rover Evoque and about the same height.
These generous dimensions allow the car its curvaceous exterior (“If you want form,” says Callum, “you need space”), which includes muscular haunches, classic Jaguar bonnet lines and strongly raked front and rear windscreens.
Callum admits it took time to shape a convincing SUV in the image of the F-type. “This was our first crossover design,” he says, “and, yes, it was hard. We found the initial results quite difficult and disappointing. The profile, the 200-metre view, was the hardest bit, and that’s what sells cars. But I reckon we cracked it in the end.”
Jaguar isn’t yet saying what engines the car will use, but the range seems certain to start with models powered by the soon-to-land Ingenium four-cylinder line-up and is likely to include engines up to the 3.0-litre supercharged petrol V6 used in the F-type, with power potential beyond 250bhp.
The F-Pace will be built in Jaguar’s new Solihull plant and should be on dealers’ forecourts early in 2016.
“We’ve been talking about a product onslaught for a quite while,” says Goss, “and now it’s beginning.”
Q&A with Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover global operations director
F-Pace is an unusual name. Why did you choose it?
"There was plenty of discussion about it. We wanted to emphasise the car’s relationship with F-type, which we view as our emotional fulcrum. And 'pace' implies performance, which the car certainly has. Besides that, it’s a word we own; we started using it in the famous 'Grace, Pace, Space' slogan many years ago."
How important is the F-Pace to your range?
"It could be the biggest seller we’re going to have, similar in size to the XE. The sector volume has tripled in five years, and all predictions say it’ll expand by another 30 per cent in the next five. These cars sell well in all the big markets: China, the US and Europe. It’s really important for us." *
Are you worried about a clash with Land Rover?
"Not at all. The F-Pace’s exterior design and its obvious reference to the F-type is one huge point of differentiation. And whereas Land Rovers are focused on off-road performance, this car is very definitely aimed at highway use. Frankly, the real surprise is that we haven’t done it before."
Even without the F-Pace or XE, you’ve had a good year at JLR, right?
"Yes. Total sales were up nine per cent to 462,678 units and Jaguar had its best year for a decade. We have 12 new product actions planned this year and anticipate retailing 500,000 cars for the first time in the company’s history."