The Jaguar XE will arrive mid-2015, says Jaguar Land Rover
The hottest car company in the world arguably is Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover, or JLR.
Last month, JLR reported third-quarter profits more than doubled to $1-billion (U.S.). The Jaguar F-Type sports car is hot, as are Range Rover's sport-utility vehicles. Jaguar sales in Canada are up nearly 40 per cent this year, with Land Rover sales up nearly 35 per cent.
Worldwide, sales of the two British brands were up 27 per cent in the third quarter and for the first nine months, JLR global sales jumped 19 per cent to 309,535 and JLR will easily top last year's record sales (425,006).
"We like JLR's global luxury positioning and strong growth momentum," Sorabh Talwar, an analyst at HDFC Securities Ltd., wrote in a Jan. 15 note to clients, reported by Bloomberg. "We believe JLR is in an investment-led growth phase, driven by strong demand traction across geographies and products."
Investment? This month at the Geneva auto show, Jaguar said the new small saloon will be called the XE and it will be almost all aluminum. Power will come from new gasoline and diesel engines named the "Ingenium" family – all four-cylinder units, powerful and very efficient.
Jaguar says the XE will arrive in mid-2015. When it does, rest assured that no one at Jaguar will invite the inevitable comparisons to the disastrous Ford Mondeo-based X-Type introduced in 2001. That car had much to do with Ford's decision to sell JLR to India's Tata conglomerate in 2008.
The XE looks interesting but it's only part of a bigger product plan. JLR says it will invest £2.7-billion ($5-billion) in new products and factories and this year alone plans to introduce eight new or refreshed products.
Looks like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz might finally face some real competition after years and years of ruling the high-prestige, premium market.
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