CANBERRA: Jaguar has announced that it is going to launch it new SUV segment family F-Pace in September at Frankfurt motor show to big a hard competition to Range Rover SVAutobiography and forthcoming SUVs from Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
Officially confirmed for public unveiling at the 2015 Frankfurt motor show in September, the F-Pace will be the start of a new family of crossovers for the British luxury brand.
Steven De Ploey, Jaguar’s global brand director, told Drive at the 2015 New York motor show that the success of the SUV market around the world made it too big for Jaguar to ignore, despite its performance car heritage.
“I can’t comment on what we’re going to be bringing on that side, but it’s clear that the fastest growing segment, including in the Australia market, are SUVs, mid-size SUVs, compact SUVs. I think the only thing I can say is that the F-Pace will be the core model in that range,” De Ploey said.
“We have very big hopes, especially in your market, that it will be the car that will set us on the map as a car that is more practical and more accessible to more customer groups.”
He added Jaguar’s ties with sister brand Land Rover makes the possibility of an expanded SUV range easier, either above or below the mid-sized F-Pace.
“But with the Land Rover brand in the portfolio, with the platforms we’ve got we have the freedom to play up and down,” he explained. “I’m not going to confirm left or right [but] it is all there. We’ve got the design, we’ve got the technology, we’ve got the architecture, if there is a demand for [more SUVs], let’s first see what F-Pace does, we can look at the rest.”
Jaguar design director Ian Callum added to De Ploey’s comments and ruled out the possibility of the brand trying to compete in the large SUV segment against the likes of the new Range Rover SVAutobiography and forthcoming SUVs from Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
