Jaguar plans 3-series rival

Jaguar plans to launch an upmarket 3-series saloon rival and a radical, sporty 4x4 crossover by the middle of this decade.

The two new models, being planned under project codename X760, will join with the new XE sports car to help lift Jaguar’s sales volume closer to 100,000 units per year, the company’s medium-term strategic goal.

Jaguar had a good year in 2010, boosting sales by a couple of thousand units to around 52,000. But the number is comparatively tiny and strong growth is vital to ensure future profits and satisfy owner Tata, which is investing heavily in Jaguar Land Rover.

Sports saloon in 2014

Jaguar has been considering a return to the vital ‘executive saloon’ segment with a premium-priced, high-quality, front-engined, rear-drive small car for well over 18 months.

Since being first proposed as a new entry-level Jag, project X760 has evolved from a radical hatch into a family of two cars — saloon and soft-roader — that could hike Jag’s volume by up to 40,000 units a year.

Jaguar came to the conclusion that the five-door hatch couldn’t guarantee sufficient sales and experienced new management, in the form of new boss Carl-Peter Forster, Ralf Speth and Adrian Hallmark, has crystallised the plan for a more conventional four-door, three-box design. “Saloons are where the meat in the market is,” one insider told Autocar.

Style-led crossover

This is the real departure for Jaguar, but the reality is that it cannot ignore the growing soft-roader market. Audi, for example, cannot make enough Q5s to satisfy demand of over 150,000 cars a year globally, and Volvo has had a smash hit with the XC60, now selling around 75,000 a year.

Enthusiasm for the soft-roader is very high from Jaguar’s division in the US, where the model is seen as vital to boost sales in the north-eastern Snow Belt. This ought to be Jaguar’s sales homeland, but two-wheel-drive luxury saloons are being undermined there by the growing popularity of luxury crossovers.

As a result, Jaguar is looking to sister company Range Rover for the running gear of the X760 crossover. Based on the PLA alloy underbody, the X760 has space for a front diff and ‘quill’ shaft to provide drive to the front wheels.