Comments from brand bosses say a grand tourer is coming.
While fans of British marque Jaguar may love the F-Type and its spiritual succession of the beguiling E-Type, there are quite a number of people who have long held high regard for Jaguar’s other sports car, the XK. Discontinued in 2014, the XK’s departure left a hole in the brands’ lineup, a hole for 2+2 high-speed cruiser to be exact, and the company didn’t say much at the time about whether or not a successor would be fielded.
It’s been four long years since we last saw an XK, and those rooting for its return may have lost interest by now. But Jaguar hasn’t lost interest. They may have moved their focus to SUVs and electrification in that time, but it seems a new XK wasn’t an impossible dream, merely a dormant one.
“The F-Type has been a huge success. We [Jaguar] love sports cars, and I use the plural quite deliberately. Whether that is delivered by a body variant or something else remains to be seen, but for now, let’s just say that the body type is very important to us.” — Hanno Kirner, Executive Director (Corporate & Strategy), Jaguar-Land Rover
People like Kirner are usually very exacting in their words, considering how they wield the influence to set media outlets alight should they misspeak even slightly. Kirner’s emphasis on the plural “sports cars” suggests that a new-generation XK might be less of a pipe dream than we previously assumed.
Further, Kirner’s commentary falls in line with earlier comments made by Jag’s design boss, Ian Callum. Callum also expressed his dream of developing a range of Jaguar sports cars, in an interview last year with UK publication Autocar:
“I want a two seater [like the F-Type], and a 2+2. We’re working on something now. There’s nothing approved, but we instigate in design.” — Ian Callum, Design Director, Jaguar-Land Rover
What’s clear is that a new XK will have to wait for the arrival of new underpinnings. The XK may have been discontinued in 2014, but a modified version of its platform sits beneath the F-Type. To achieve greater economies, Jaguar will likely wait until they renew their F-Pace SUV (its strongest seller in the lineup) for a new generation, expected to take place after 2020, before cannibalising its platform to underpin a new-generation F-Type and reborn XK.
Initially, a new XK will be powered by Jaguar’s range of Ingenium petrol mills, though electrification will feature sometime down the line (hence the importance of a new platform). Kirner has made comments in the past about the necessity of internal combustion as part of the sports car experience, which suggests that if Jaguar sports cars feature electrification in the future, they’ll be done in a way that will differentiate it from the hybrid systems presently utilised in the larger Jaguar-Land Rover lineup.
Regardless of how it appears, a new XK will be welcome news to many, with the sales of luxury sports cars maintaining a healthy pace. In addition, with more and more companies beginning to encroach on everyone elses’ turf, it’ll be critical for Jaguar to maintain and enshrine its brand values to set its cars in the marketplace.
