By: Jason Woosey
Whitley, UK - It's a little more than a month to go before Jaguar officially lets its new cat out the bag, with the full reveal of the new XE sedan set to take place in London on September 8.
Yet we must wonder how many surprises really are in store for the full unveiling as Jaguar has been revealing its new 'compact' sedan in dribs and drabs for the past few months.
The latest piece of the puzzle is a full frontal shot, which Jaguar used to announce a collaboration with songwriter Emeli Sandé. But forget the marketing hype, this is our clearest view yet of the new Jag's front end. While remaining faithful to the XF's basic design language, which is certainly not a bad thing, the smaller sedan takes a more muscular approach.
ULTRA-LIGHT STRUCTURE
That's as much as we can say about its looks for now. Much of the XE's beauty lies beneath the skin and earlier this week Jaguar went into more detail about some its technical feats.
Uniquely in its segment, the new sports sedan is built around an aluminium-intensive monocoque, with the aforementioned material accounting for 75 percent of the structure. In fact, Jaguar is using a brand new grade of aluminium (RC 5754) that was developed specifically for this car and which makes extensive use of recycled material.
This lightweight structure doesn't only boost performance and efficiency - Jaguar is also claiming “benchmark levels” of ride and handling and even goes as far as asserting that it'll be “the true driver's car in the segment.” Bold claim indeed.
SMART ‘INGENIUM’ ENGINES
The aforementioned structure and a new range of cutting-edge engines will ensure that eco conscious buyers feel equally at home in the new XE, with the most efficient version boasting an NEDC combined consumption figure of less than 4.0 litres per 100km and CO2 emissions of under 100g/km.
The 'Ingenium' engine family consists of high-output turbocharged petrol and diesel four-cylinder engines.
Brand new from the ground up and weighing up to 80kg less than today's equivalent engines, the Ingenium units use patented technologies to reduce friction and enhance performance and efficiency.
MODULAR DESIGN
Its modular design allows the engine to be easily upsized or downsized for different variants, with the lightweight blocks sharing the same bore, stroke, cylinder spacing and 500cc cylinder capacity. The first engine off the staring block will be a 2-litre turbodiesel.
As for the top-end engines, Jaguar is mum on the details but states that the most powerful XE will be capable of more than 300km/h. We’ll take that version.