Jaguar has a range of scandalously luxurious cars in India, but now the carmaker wants to bring something less expensive (relatively speaking) in the Indian market to compete with the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class. The Tata Motors owned British brand has finally announced its plans to bring a super stylish compact saloon in India by 2012.
The luxury car segment in India is growing at a rapid pace, and Tata Motors want to slice into the market share of the other luxury car makers in India, like BMW, Mercedes and Audi. The company has finally realised the importance of having an entry-level luxury saloon in the Indian market. The new baby Jaguar will be positioned below current Jaguar XF range and will be replacing current X type.
Our friends at Auto Express claim that the pleasant news has been confirmed by none other but the Tata Motors chief executive Carl-Peter Forster himself. He was quoted saying, “for Jaguar to take on its German competitors globally, a smaller, higher sales volume saloon was a necessity, and so work has begun on the new car”.
The non-performing current X Type, which is based on Ford Mondeo, will pave way for the new saloon. The new Jaguar X Type will retain the cutting edge design and curve quotient of its older sibling, but will look significantly downplayed from biggies like Jaguar XF and XJ.
We expect the front cluster to be derived from Jaguar XF sedan and will retain the mesh type front grille and swept back headlights. The rear may be curvier than the current line up in Jaguar portfolio. The new saloon is expected to have an all aluminium body that will make it superlight. That certainly would translate into increased fuel economy, which is an added advantage in any luxury car.
Tata is likely to equip the new saloon with down-sized four cylinder petrol and diesel engines. The diesel engine would be replacing Ford’s 2.2ltr diesel engine that also powers the Land Rover Freelander. We may also have 3.0ltr V6 Turbodiesel engine joining the gang later on. And by 2015, we can expect to see a hybrid variant in the Jaguar X Type line-up.
Finally, Talking about engines, Tata Motors recently revealed that the Jaguar and Land Rover engines might soon be manufactured in India. Mr. Forster said last week that Indian engineering will probably design a new range of engines for the Tata owned luxury brands.
Along with the X-Type replacement and the new, smaller coupe, which is rumoured to arrive in 2012, Forster said that the company has already started working on the long-wheelbase version of the XF for the Chinese market and a wagon version of Jag’s mid-size sedan is slated for sale in Europe.
Land Rover recently revealed the Range Rover Evoque, which is the first of three new products to be launched in the next five years. Also on the cards are an all new Freelander that will have a seating capacity of seven and a revised Defender which is set to arrive in 2015.
