New photos reveal this Coventry cat has been doing laps.
Ahead of its reveal next week, Jaguar has released more details and photos of its upcoming compact luxury SUV, the E-Pace. The E-Pace will slot beneath the bigger F-Pace SUV, and like its bigger brother, will compete in a market that’s brand-new for the Coventry brand.
The E-Pace will be Jaguar’s answer to the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, in the highly competitive compact SUV segment. It’s expected that the E-Pace will continue Jaguar’s sales upswing, triggered by the arrival of the F-Pace, and will likely carry the same traits as the bigger car that will set it apart from the competition.
To that end, Jaguar has spent quite a lot of time testing the E-Pace ahead of launch, with no less than 150 prototype cars roaming around during a 25-month testing period, clocking in a total north of 120,000 hours of testing across four continents. For dynamic refinement, the E-Pace has done more than 400 laps around the hallowed Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, while high-speed testing was done at the Nardo Ring in Italy. All-weather testing in China, the Middle East, and the Arctic Circle was also completed, along with some off-road testing in the south of Wales.
Interestingly, Jaguar hasn’t skimped on the off-road ability of the E-Pace, and has put it through its paces both ability-wise as well as in terms of reliability and dependability. Aside from the off-road runs at the Walter Arena complex in Wales, they also left an E-Pace in half a meter of water with the doors wide open. Despite the obvious ingress of water over the course of an hour, the E-Pace was restarted promptly afterwards, and driven out of the pool.
Our previous reports on the E-Pace has confirmed some details, like the range of petrol and diesel Ingenium engines, and the possibility of a mild-hybrid variant that’s been in development to be shared with the Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport. The E-Pace, notably, shares its underpinnings with the latter. Should a mild-hybrid see the light of day, expect to find a three-cylinder 1.5-litre Ingenium petrol under the bonnet, paired to an electric motor.
On the E-Pace’s styling, Jaguar’s design director Ian Callum said,
“The combination of sports car looks with Jaguar performance will ensure that the E-Pace stands out. Every Jaguar is designed to excite the senses, and we think E-Pace will do just that.”
The Jaguar E-Pace will be unveiled on the 13th of July, so stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you updates as they come.
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