The recently launched Jaguar F-Pace might be the first Jaguar SUV ever, but it won’t be the last, with spy shots of a baby Jaguar SUV hitting the web this week.
JAGUAR IS FINALLY on the SUV bandwagon. After never having produced an SUV the boom in SUV sales around the world and the launch of the F-Pace has given the company a glimpse at what it’s like to play in the mainstream. Indeed, local Jaguar Land Rover Australia boss, Mathew Weisner, told Practical Motoring that the F-Pace would be the vehicle that made the brand “relevant”.
And while he tried to dodge around questions of a baby Jaguar SUV, suggesting only that “you’d have to expect that with the global boom in sales, everything would be on the cards,” images of a baby F-Pace have hit the internet.
UK-based automotive publication, Auto Express, published a handful of spy images showing what appears to be a shortened version of the F-Pace running around on UK roads. Apparently, Jaguar can’t shorten the platform that underpins the F-Pace and XE and is therefore expected to make use of the platform that underpins the Range Rover Evoque.
Checks on the registration of the test mule in the photo, by Auto Express, suggest it’s a diesel-electric hybrid. And it’s been suggested in interviews with Ian Callum that a smaller SUV than the F-Pace would need to be front-drive. “We’ve done front-wheel-drive studies, because everybody knows that if you go smaller than XE or F-Pace, you’ve no choice but to go that way,” he said. “The only way you’re going to get the look of the car is to turn the engine sideways. It is challenging, and we’ve clearly looked at how we could do it. You get that long snout otherwise, which looks out of proportion.”
So, what do you think? Would a baby Jaguar SUV float your boat? And, if you were considering an Evoque would you be more likely to choose the Jaguar?
