Sedans to live on, says Jaguar

Jaguar Land Rover says it has no plans to kill off sedans like the Jaguar XE, a major midlife facelift of which was launched in Australia this week.

However, in a backflip on its previous promise to import every variant of every model available elsewhere, JLR Australia has culled the 20MY Jaguar XE range from 14 variants to just two.

And it says the same ‘reform’ policy will be applied to other upcoming 20MY models, the next of which will most likely to be the large Jaguar XF sedan.

Jaguar committed to producing an all-new, all-electric replacement for its flagship XJ limousine in the UK after production of the current model ended in July.

But UK reports have circulated for some time that Jaguar will kill off either the XE or XF sedans when both models reach the end of their lives by 2023, due to the global shift towards SUVs.

The mid-size E-PACE SUV overtook the large F-PACE SUV as Jaguar Australia’s top-selling model in 2018, when traditional sedans accounted for less than a third of its sales, and so far in 2019 they represent less than 20 per cent.

And just days before JLR reported a $700 million operating loss for the June quarter last month, a World Car of the Year press release said that along with replacements for the F-TYPE, XJ and XE, plus an all-new J-PACE full-size electric SUV, Jaguar was considering at least one small SUV potentially called A-PACE or B-PACE, leading to more speculation the XE or XF could be axed.

Speaking at the 20MY Jaguar XE launch in Byron Bay this week, Martin Limpert, the director of JLR’s overseas region, said the born-again 2020 Land Rover Defender will bring the number of JLR models to 14 and that no model cull is planned.

“We are adding nameplates at the moment with Defender, which will bring Jaguar Land Rover to 14 nameplates, and there’s more development in the pipeline that I can’t talk more about,” he said.

“But at the moment there’s no plan to shorten that product portfolio.

“We have a clear strategy to have 14 nameplates once Defender is launched and we continue to look into which segments are attractive in terms of increasing Jaguar’s bandwidth and profitable growth in various markets.”

JLR Australia managing director Mark Cameron said that while the SUV boom will continue globally and in Australia, where traditional cars have shrunk from 60 to 30 per cent of the luxury market over the past decade, sedans have a long life ahead.

“Sedans are still going to be around. I have a feeling it’s going to plateau and you’re not going to see that decline to continue,” he said.

“For many, many customers the sedan is still the best car.
Yes, people love SUVs and the benefits of SUVs but the aerodynamics aren’t as good and the drive experience in many cases isn’t as good, so we’re certainly not abandoning segments.

“The same applies to powertrains, especially in Australia, where we feel that for some decades there will be a dual powertrain strategy, and that’s the challenge for many manufacturers.”

However, Cameron confirmed that Jaguar and Land Rover will continue to rationalise its model range beyond the 20MY XE line-up, which now comprises just two model variants powered by one four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine following the axing of diesel and V6 models.

“We are no absolutely focused on reforming our offer, making our line-up simpler,” he said.

“You’ve seen that now with XE – two models, one powertrain – so the customer only has to choose between SE and HSE.

“You haven’t yet seen the full 20MY line-up. It’s still not fully announced but you will see drastic simplification in specifications.

“We understand the customer likes choice, but not too much choice, and we’ve put our hand up and said that in the past our range has been too wide and we’ve offered too much choice in the past.

“It’s still a work in progress. The first physical result of that is XE. There’s other stuff already in the pipeline that we’ve already made decisions on.

“Model year changes take a little while to come through so we can’t just say tomorrow we’re going to cut the range by two thirds or three quarters, which in some cases we will.”

Limpert, who until a year ago was Porsche’s Asia Pacific chief, said JLR’s Australian model cull was part of a global policy to reduce cost and complexity.

“What we are looking into is to make sure we make the right derivatives, the right trim levels, the right engine offerings in the individual markets,” he said.

“We don’t have to have all versions available in every market. We have to look at what the markets are actually asking for. Where is the petrol market, where is the diesel market, where is the electric market in which we will deliver our PHEV strategy.

“You see the first step here in the Australian markets and more is to come but we can’t do it all at once. We are going to refine and strip down all our products.”

“One thing is clear: we focus on our core products but we reduce our development costs by reducing complexity, removing variants where they are not necessary.”

To that effect, for the 2020 model year, the Jaguar XE, which was launched in 2015 and Limpert confirmed remains a ‘core’ product, will be confined to two variants – R-Dynamic SE and R-Dynamic HSE.

Both are powered by the same ‘P300’ 221kW/400Nm Ingenium turbo-petrol four-cylinder matched to an eight-speed automatic transmission, consuming 6.7L/100km, emitting 153g/km of CO2 and hitting 100km/h in a claimed 5.9 seconds.

That spells the end of V6, diesel and entry-level four-cylinder 147kW petrol variants, as well as the Prestige, Portfolio, R-Sport and S variant names, which are replaced by SE and HSE labels from Land Rover.

Therefore base pricing for the rear-wheel drive mid-size sedan increases to $65,670 for the new entry-level model, the R-Dynamic SE variant, while the R-Dynamic HSE is priced at $71,940.

Jaguar’s answer to the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class also brings new bumpers, all-LED headlights, tail-lights and J-Blade daytime running lights, and a host of new technologies.

Standard equipment for the entry-level 20MY Jaguar XE R-Dynamic SE extend to Emergency Braking (AEB), Lane Keep Assist, Driver Condition Monitor, Rear Traffic Monitor, Traffic Sign Recognition, Adaptive Speed Limiter, auto high-beam and a reversing camera.

At base level there’s also a 10-inch Touch Pro touch-screen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 12.3-inch Interactive Driver Display, Connected Navigation Pro, DAB digital radio, 125W sic-speaker audio, 12-way powered and leather-trimmed front seats, 360-degree parking monitor, ambient interior lighting, dual-zone climate control and 18-inch alloy wheels.

In addition, HSE models gain the twin-screen Touch Pro Duo set-up including climate control, Blind Spot Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, High-speed Emergency Braking, 18-way powered front seats with driver’s memory, electric steering column adjustment, 380W 11-speaker Meridian sound, auto-dimming wing mirrors and 19-inch alloys.

Jaguar’s tradition of options galore continues but has also been trimmed. On the extras list is a sliding panoramic roof ($1900), Active Dynamics variable damping ($1850), digital TV ($1620), head-up display ($1300), 20-inch wheels (at least $1300), powered rear sunshade ($770), red brake callipers ($620), privacy glass ($650) and 40/20/40-splt folding rear seat ($460).

There are new technologies including wireless device charging ($180) and the ClearSight digital interior rear-view mirror ($405), plus a host of leather, headlining and interior trim options.

Black and white are the only standard solid colours, with Caldera Red costing $700 extra, seven metallic hues costing $1400 each and grey and silver premium metallic adding $2700.

Watch this space for our first Australian drive soon.

How much does the 2020 Jaguar XE cost?
P300 R-Dynamic SE -- $65,670
P300 R-Dynamic HSE -- $71,940
* Prices exclude on-road costs