2019 Jaguar XJ: "Stunning outside, luxurious inside" - Ian Callum

Jaguar XJ will be replaced, confirms design boss

Autocar understands that debate over the XJ’s future went right up the chain of command to Ratan Tata, father of the Indian brand that owns Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). As recently as summer last year, an XJ replacement wasn’t even on the official model cycle plan.

In the past few weeks, Jaguar design boss Ian Callum obliquely referred to the future of the XJ while taking about the Jaguar F-Pace. When asked by Autocar if the F-Pace SUV would, like Volvo’s XC90, become Jaguar’s de facto flagship, he disagreed.

“Proper luxury brands have to have an indulgent car in there somewhere,” he said. “We’ve got two: the XJ and the Jaguar F-Type. If you want the room of an XJ, you might as well buy an XF — there’s not much in it — but the whole point of luxury is indulgence, so you need a car like that, something that acts as the bookend for the brand. I think we will always have that.”

Autocar understands from various other sources that the decision to replace the XJ and the form it should take was made in the light of a number of market developments.

The first was the huge success of the current S-Class, which confounded analysts’ forecasts that conventional luxury saloons were being undermined by SUVs and perceived as upmarket taxis.

Indeed, at the Geneva show, BMW board member Ian Robertson underlined the primacy of the super-luxury saloon when he insisted the new Rolls-Royce Phantom would be the brand’s flagship rather than the Cullinan SUV.

The second development was the arrival of the new BMW 7 Series, which introduced a hybrid bodyshell using carbonfibre, steel and aluminium. The lavish interiors and craftsmanship of the BMW and Mercedes cabins also made Jaguar planners realise how far the bar in the premium market has been raised.

Jaguar bosses also know their brand needs to catch up in terms of serious drivetrain electrification and autonomous driving technologies.

Finally, a new XJ saloon will provide an opportunity for Jaguar to develop a new generation of design language, both inside and out, especially now the XE/XF/F-Pace family has been launched.

Autocar understands the new XJ will be based on the same basic D7a aluminium architecture, with sections of the structure replaced by lightweight carbonfibre.

Because the JLR aluminium platform is constructed using rivets and adhesive, it is remarkably straightforward to incorporate carbonfibre panels and structures. The upshot is a structure that will be lighter and stiffer, which is especially important if the XJ is sold mainly as a V6 plug-in hybrid.

The new XJ’s drivetrain is rumoured to be built around an all-new V6 Ingenium engine. A spin-off from the threecylinder Ingenuim engine being prepared for a Range Rover Evoque hybrid, the new six-pot will replace the current AJ-V6 engine, sister unit of the AJ-V8, which dates from 2000.

The new V6 will be offered in petrol and diesel forms, but there’s no news yet about whether the new XJ hybrid transmission will be coupled to one or both fuel types.

The company’s design team is said to be determined to completely reboot the idea of a Jaguar interior and significantly upgrade the interior quality and treatment.

The styling is expected to be much more luxurious and lavish than the Jaguar XE’s and Jaguar XF’s and will feature a more radical digital screen treatment for the instruments and even touchscreens for both the infotainment and transmission control on the centre console.

It’s encouraging for Jaguar — which, ahead of the start of F-Pace sales, remains a relatively small company — that the investment in the new XJ will go mainly into the interior, because the common platform and transmission strategy across JLR is now paying dividends.

Executing a reinvention of the XJ — a model widely regarded as the best car in the world when it was launched in 1968 — will not be easy, but Jaguar needs to stay in contention with its German opposition.However, the good news is that a new XJ will rely more on sheer creativity than the need for massive capital investments.