Jaguar’s 3 Series fighter is a ‘green’ beast
Jaguar’s BMW 3 Series fighter may still be more than a year away from our shores, but it is taking the Paris Motor Show by storm. From its (almost) all-aluminum chassis — Jaguar claims to have invented a new alloy (RC5754) specifically for the XE in its quest for lightness and increased stiffness — to an all-new range of Ingenium engines, the XE is a huge commitment from the relatively small luxury marque to finally make inroads into the fiercely-competitive entrylevel luxury segment.
RC5754 is made mostly of recycled metal, making a phenomenal contribution to Jaguar’s goal of using 75% recycled materials by 2020. Meanwhile, its light weight makes the XE the most fuel efficient Jaguar ever with a EU-rated fuel consumption of just 75 mpg (3.8 litres per 100 kilometres), getting the baby Jag below the magic 100 g/km CO2 emissions mark.
Of course, a significant portion of the credit for this new-found greenness is Jaguar Land Rover’s range of new Ingenium engines. Based on a new, modular 500 cc-per-c ylinder superstructure means anything from a 1.5-litre in- line three to a 3.0L V6 is possible and in both diesel and gasoline (or, as they say on this side of the pond, petrol) variants.
For the North America launch — delayed by a year so Jaguar can get its Ingenium engine lineup fully developed — the standard engine will be a gasoline-fed 2.0-litre turbocharged four with the existing 3.0-litre supercharged V6 (from the XF, XJ and pretty much everything else that Jaguar Land Rover makes) powering top-line models. The diesel engines will, however, eventually make their way to Canada. All will be mated to the now de rigueur eightspeed automatic transmission and will be available in both rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive formats.
Inside, the XE is equally high-tech. The powerful new InControl infotainment system will, for instance, allow you to open the XE’s door or start its engine from anywhere in the world (if you’re wondering why you’d like to start your Jaguar from Upper Slobbovia, consider yourself as confused by this technology as Yours Truly). Seven-day timed pre-sets of the XE’s climate control system seem a little more useful, though, to be truthful, I like my “climate” pretty much the same on a Tuesday as I do on a Thursday.
More useful is that InControl lets you access your Apple or Android apps inside the car and the XE can even act as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Jaguar also says its laser head-up display (HUD) is an industry-first, projecting a sharper, higher-contrast image on the windshield than previous systems. No more excuses, then, for not knowing how fast you were going, officer, or missing that “Next right hand turn” the GPS system was directing you to.