Jaguar XE to be launched today

There has been a lot of excitement about Jaguar bringing its BMW 3 Series rivaling XE which will launch today at 11:45 pm. The mid-size premium sports sedan has garnered significant levels of interest when it was first unveiled in concept form at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. This is due to the fact that the XE will be Jaguar’s first car to feature their advanced aluminium architecture which will also be the base for all future Jags. This is the first car in the segment to feature an alloy monocoque structure. This means that newer cars will not only be lighter but will also provide benefits like increased performance and fuel efficiency.

Talking about the sporty compact luxury sedan’s ride and handling prowess, the rear suspension has an ‘Integral Link’ set-up which provides more lateral and longitudinal stiffness compared to conventional multi-link designs. The front suspension is based on the Jaguar F-type and borrows components from the XFR, as such, it sports double wishbones at the front which should make the XE and agile handler and deliver a good amount of feedback from the steering. Both the rear and front suspensions are made up of forged or hollow-cast in aluminium, lending stiffness without increasing weight.

Powering the XE will be JLR’s new family of modular, compact, lightweight, low-emission diesel and petrol turbocharged engines which are designed to deliver better fuel efficiency and performance. Called the Ingenium family, the engines, irrespective of petrol or diesel, will share the same bore, stroke and 500cc cylinder capacity. The range-topping XER-S variant will be powered by F-type’s 5.0-litre V8 putting out 542bhp.

The Jaguar XE certainly seems like a strong contender in the segment seeing as it has to go up against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, BMW’s 3 Series, and the Volvo S60.

The live telecast can be followed at http://iframe.ggwebcast.com/tvc/jaguar/feelxe/