Jaguar teases with glimpse of new model

The Jaguar E-PACE, which will combine sports car design with sports utility vehicle practicality, will have its world premiere on July 13.

The engine for the E-PACE is being made at Jaguar Land Rover's engine manufacturing centre at the i54 to the north of Wolverhampton.

The new car is part of Jaguar's PACE family of performance SUVs and is a smaller version of the F-PACE - Jaguar's biggest selling car in its history.

It helped boost Jaguar’s sales by 83 per cent last year.

An all-electric I-PACE Concept car will also go into production in 2018.

Ian Callum, director of design at Jaguar, said: “The combination of sports car looks with Jaguar performance will ensure that the E-PACE stands out. Every Jaguar is designed to excite the senses, and we think E-PACE will do just that, albeit with its own individual character.”

The E-PACE features sports car-derived all-wheel drive technology and four-cylinder Ingenium petrol and diesel engines, as well as a suite of connected technology and safety features.

Jaguar, which has been producing cars for more than 80 years, also makes the award-winning XE, XF and XJ saloons. The F-PACE was the 2017 World Car of The Year.

Jaguar sales between January and May this year were up 65 per cent to 79,895 worldwide.

It has also just unveiled the latest car off the Jaguar production line at Castle Bromwich, the XF Sportsbrake, which also has engines from the £1 billion Wolverhampton factory.

A new £7 million Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works has also recently opened at Ryton-on Dunsmore, near Coventry dedicated to offering a range of products and services for owners and enthusiasts of classic Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

Jaguar Land Rover this week also revealed plans to hire an extra 5,000 engineers and technical staff in the next 12 months which would increase its domestic workforce by almost 15 per cent to 42,000, including more than 1,400 at its engine manufacturing centre.

JLR produced 544,000 cars at its three UK manufacturing plants of Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull last year.

The company had profits of £1.6 billion on record revenue of £24.3bn for its last financial year in which it sold 604,000 cars.

The company, owned by India's Tats group, has invested £12bn in its sites and research and development over the past five years.