Moving forward, JLR has to make way for newer engines which their Ingenium range dictate and eschewing of their V-sixes.
Talk is building around Jaguar-Land Rover and the roadmap of their line of next generation engines dubbed Ingenium, with chatter surrounding a return to the straight-six. Developed in-house to replace the current crop of Ford-sourced (usually supercharged) 3.0-litre V6 engines that currently sit under the bonnets of many of JLR’s mid-tier offerings.
A report by UK’s Autocar says that the engines will accompany the smaller petrol and diesel four-cylinders that are currently rolling out of the firm’s engine plant in Wolverhampton, England. If true, this would double the facility’s output.
Because of the Ingenium line of engines was designed with modularity in mind, the transition from four to six cylinders isn’t a drastic one, requiring minimal amounts of retooling and will in fact be very similar to the smaller four-cylinder versions – but with the addition of two more cylinders, raising displacement to 3.0-litres from 2.0-litres.
JLR seems to be following BMW’s philosophy when it comes to cylinder capacity, in which each cylinder stroke displacing 500cc. Should they not choose to deviate, it could mean that a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine could see the light of day in an entry-level XE much like BMW offers in their base 3 Series.
The report continues by saying that the move toward an inline six makes the job of efficiently packaging more difficult, but would likely translate to a decrease in fuel economy and manufacturing costs due to its inherent lightness compared V-engines and having fewer moving parts.
This development of Ingenium engines toward an exclusively inline design seemingly spells the abandonment Jaguar Land Rover V8s, that, while charismatic have long begun to show their age. A straight-eight engine would prove very difficult to fit into a modern engine bay and would probably not justify the cost to engineer.
To that end, it is a possibility that JLR would seek V8s from BMW or Mercedes-Benz instead of devoting resources toward a designing an entirely new unit to power its higher end luxury and sports models.
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