The F-Pace has been spotted testing at the Nürburgring prior to its launchJaguar is 'investigating' a whole family of SUVs to follow on from its upcoming F-Pace
Jaguar has not ruled out more SUVs after the F-Pace - opening up the possibility of a baby crossover to sit under the XE in the line-up.
The firm has long been linked with a smaller model, giving it a rival for the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-Class. However, it’s thought that the burgeoning market for small SUVs makes it more likely that a smaller stablemate for the F-Pace could fulfil that role.
Steven de Ploey, Jaguar’s brand director, has said the company is looking at adding further crossovers to its line-up. “A family [of SUVs] is not confirmed but we are investigating it,” he said. “We have the architecture and capability with Land Rover to go left or right, up or down, but we’d only do it on two key attributes. The car has to be dynamically the most capable and it has to meet our design standards.”
He added: “If we want to grow, a compact model is the obvious opportunity. The arguments about this are twofold. It has to be a Jaguar in design and performance, and it would be a challenge to do this. The second is the business, both in terms of scale and competition.
"You’d not just be competing with premium brands but high-end mainstream manufacturers, too. There are lots of other things we have to do before this, but we have opportunities and permission to play there.”
An extra crossover is considered a possibility only in the longer term, though, since Jaguar would almost certainly have to develop a new platform to support it. De Ploey said: “There is also a cost challenge. We’d need a different architecture. What we have is scalable, but that low? You’d really have to investigate taking it down. You need to tick the box with the business case.”
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