Full details of Jag’s small SUV
Jaguar targets BMW X1 and Audi Q3 with new SUV that’s set to become its top seller
These are the first official pictures of the new Jaguar E-pace, which will go on sale later this year. The second SUV to come from Jaguar in as many years will be followed by a third, the allelectric I-pace, within months.
Poised to rival the BMW X1 and the Audi Q3, the E-pace is expected to become Jaguar’s biggest-selling model and result in the fast-growing firm selling more SUVS than saloon and sports cars combined.
The E-pace is smaller and more keenly priced than the F-pace. Its design, one of the most expressive in its class, is distinct from that of Jaguar’s larger F-pace and will be, along with its dynamic ability, one of the car’s key selling points.
Despite pushing the styling and dynamics of the E-pace, Jaguar insisted the model gives nothing away to its competitors in terms of practicality and usability. Jaguar design chief Ian Callum said: “At Jaguar, we have to do more than anyone else to prove that we’re good on the attributes that we weren’t in the past.”
The small SUV is derived from the D8 architecture that is also used to underpin the Land Rover Discovery Sport. However, updates to the on-road capabilities and dynamics have created what Graham Wilkins, the E-pace’s chief engineer, described as a “Jaguar version” of the Discovery Sport.
The five-door five-seater will be built under licence by Magna Steyr in Austria, rather than alongside the other transverseengined cars in the Jaguar
Land Rover ranges, namely the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque. The plant at Halewood that builds the Land Rover pair is at capacity, with no room to produce the expected six-figure annual production run of the E-pace.
Magna Steyr will bring a steel-bodied, transverseengined, front-wheel-drive car back to the Jaguar range for the first time since the X-type. However, front-wheel drive will only be offered on the entry-level 148bhp 2.0-litre diesel model with a six-speed manual gearbox. The midrange 178bhp diesel is available in front- or all-wheel drive and with a manual or nine-speed automatic. The rest of the range will come only with allwheel drive and the auto ’box.
“The front-wheel drive model is still fun to drive, as the access model to the car and the Jaguar brand,” said Wilkins.
JLR’S range of turbocharged four-cylinder petrol and diesel Ingenium engines will be offered in the E-pace, including a range-topping 296bhp 2.0-litre petrol version. Equipped with this engine, the E-pace will be capable of covering 0-62mph in 6.4sec and have a 151mph top speed.
Audi’s 362bhp RS Q3 Performance is the most potent in a class of cars generally not focused on dynamic ability. Although the top E-pace does not match the German car’s outputs, Jaguar is talking up the dynamic ability of the range as a whole.
Wilkins said that being natively front-wheel drive was no barrier to the E-pace handling how Jaguar thinks its cars should: “If we do a car like this, it needs to drive how it looks. We chose an architecture that could do the looks and the drive with all the changes we’ve made, and there’s a 296bhp petrol version.”
The E-pace has Macpherson strut front and multi-link
The E-pace’s design, along with its dynamic ability, will be among the car’s key selling features
rear suspension, and Jaguar has tuned the chassis, along with the four-wheel-drive control system and adaptive dampers, for a sporty on-road drive. To that end, the camber has also been changed on the front axle and there is a semi-solid mounting for the front sub-frame for a more connected steering feel.
“It has a high driving position and all-wheel-drive capability, but it drives like a Jaguar,” said Wilkins. In addition to the standard all-wheel-drive system offered on most variants, top-of-the range diesel and petrol models have Active Driveline all-wheeldrive. The system disengages drive to the rear axle in steady driving conditions to save fuel, but apportions drive rearwards when called upon.
“Active Driveline and the torque bias make the E-pace feel rear-wheel drive. It’s tuned to feel fun,” said Wilkins.
The E-pace weighs 1700kg, which is much heavier than its main competitors. Jaguar counters this by saying that its D8 architecture has more authentic SUV capability that its road-biased rivals. The use of high-strength steel in the structure helps to reduce the weight, says Wilkins, while aluminium is used for the boot lid, bonnet and bumpers.
The E-pace is 4345mm long, 1984mm wide and 1649mm high, with a wheelbase of 2681mm. This makes it one of the shortest cars in its class (the X1 is 4439mm long and the Q5 4388mm), but boot space is above average among its peers at 577 litres. The X1, by comparison, has 505 litres and the Q3 has 420 litres.
The extent of the front overhang is disguised by clever design tricks such as the chamfering of the front corners and the long horizontal front headlights. The E-pace has a roofline and a side swage inspired by that of the F-type. “It’s sporty and tough looking,” said Callum.
The F-type influence is also felt in some of the styling details, particularly at the front, where Callum describes the E-pace as “unashamedly F-type”. At the rear, there are large LED lights with a ‘chicane’ graphic. Alloy wheels up to 21in in diameter are offered; the standard wheel size is 17in.
For the interior of the car, Jaguar has made the front cabin driver-focused. The low grab rail featured in the F-type has made it in, along with a stick selector for the automatic gearbox rather than a rotary controller featured in many other Jaguar models . “We wanted a sporty feel, so we took inspiration from the F-type,” said Callum. “We also worked hard on the interior’s perceived quality, with the right use of metals and materials.”
E-pace’s architecture has authentic SUV capability, unlike that of its road-biased rivals
There is the staple SUV raised driving position up front. In the back, Jaguar is claiming kneeroom for passengers that is closer to that of an Audi Q5 than a Q3. There are also plenty of storage areas and cubby holes, with practicality a selling point Jaguar wants to push. The rear seats fold to create a load capacity of 1234 litres.
“The important thing – the raison d’être – is practicality,” said Callum. “We worked hard on storage like never before. We’ve embraced it, because it was something that we were not known for before. Now it’s class-leading. There’s lots of space in the car and it has a stylish exterior. It’s a very usable car.”
In an attempt to attract younger buyers, a large number of infotainment and connectivity functions have been fitted to the E-pace.
A 10in touchscreen housing the firm’s Incontrol Touch Pro system is offered as standard, while the driver’s instrument binnacle can be equipped with an optional widescreen TFT display to house information including a navigation map.
There is a 4G wi-fi hotspot to which up to eight devices can be connected, five USB charging ports and the option of a wearable key, which was also a feature on the F-pace.
“The car is fully connected,” said Wilkins. “It’s important to offer this because the car will be on sale for a while, and this technology is all necessary.”
Callum has ruled out Jaguar creating an even more rakish three-door version of the E-pace, claiming that there is no market demand for it. There is a three-door version of the Evoque, made by sister brand Land Rover, but sales of it are tiny compared with the more practical five-door body style.
The E-pace will go on sale in the UK in late 2017, with the first deliveries due around the end of the year. Prices are set to start from £28,500, making it the lowest-priced Jaguar on sale, and will reach £45,660.
The UK and Europe will get the car first, with production starting in China a year later. Cars made in China will be for the home market.