The British automaker continues to slowly trickle out information on the upcoming Jaguar XE, its smaller entry luxury car, which will hit the United States market in 2016. After introducing a rendering of the vehicle’s chassis and nose at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the automaker today hinted at the look of the real car by draping a wrap over its aluminum chassis. As expected, the XE looks quite similar to the last prototype we spied testing in UK. As the rendering release in Geneva showed, its rounded nose features a trio of air intakes at the lower edge of the front fascia, large rectangular grille with rounded edges and angular headlamps.
The roofline forms a nearly perfect arc, reaching its peak above the vehicle’s B-pillar before dropping down to the trunk. Though, Jaguar issued only one view of the wrapped XE, it’s clear from the chassis cutaway images that the decklid will be shirt and the vehicle’s rear will have a flatter design unlike the dramatically rounded nose.
The Jaguar XE will be more affordable unlike the XF, and is engineered to take on German sedans including the Mercedes Benz C-Class and BMW 3 Series. The automaker didn’t had much to say about the vehicle; however it will ride on the new iQ platform and will feature a variety of Ingenium 4-cylinder powerplants, which will be available in a wide range of outputs and capacities. It will be motivated by a 3.0 liter supercharged V6 engine, which is likely to pump out 340 horsepower or 380 horsepower.
The XE will be equipped with both rear wheel and all wheel drive systems and is likely to debut in production guise at the Paris Motor Show this fall. It goes on sale in Europe next year. Because, the XE will be similar in size to XF, the next-gen XF will grow larger. After the launch of XE sedan, the automaker will also adapt its aluminum chassis to create a crossover based on C-X17 concept.
Expect more Jaguar XE details to slowly trickle out in the months leading up to the vehicle’s official introduction later in the year.
