The latest report said that a brand-new Jaguar is on the way to take on the industry leading Porsche Boxster, Mercedes-Benz SLK, and BMW Z4.
The new Jaguar, internally dubbed as the XE, is expected to draw ideological, if not literal, inspiration from the classic E-Type. This supposed rival to the Boxster will “blow the rest of the industry away” according to the latest report.
Jaguar XE was originally expected to arrive in Frankfurt last year, but it wasn’t to be. Now, after we saw plenty of test mules on public roads for a couple of months, we know Jaguar can’t turn back. Even if the new car is not due to go on sale until late 2012, Autocar “insiders” suggest that Jaguar will unveil a concept car at the Frankfurt motor show this September.
According to the same report, the styling of the XE, follows the company’s philosophy of “expressing lightness”. This is a new Jaguar styling principle that should result in the shape of future models “visually reflecting” the fact that they are made entirely of aluminium. The company’s extensive use of aluminum has been a core part of its process since the last few years of the previous XJ.
The purposeful chassis will make use of aluminum and will be only 4.3 meters in length, much shorter than the XK, but almost as wide. It will weigh just over 1500kg, around 50kg more than today’s Boxster.
It’s still too early to talk about technical details, but we can speculate that this Jaguar will sport a V-6 engine in the 300-horsepower range and weigh in somewhere around the 3,000-pound mark.
Price: around £40,000
Specs:
– the new car is not due to go on sale until late 2012
– Autocar “insiders” suggest that Jaguar will unveil a concept car at the Frankfurt motor show this September
Source: Autocar
