Jaguar's recent announcements of an all-new aluminum vehicle architecture and next-generation Ingenium engines are good, product-driven steps toward expanding the brand's sales—look no further than the much-needed 2016 XE compact sports sedan and the equally fresh 2016 XF. The thing is, Jaguar's platform and engine discussions lack any mention of the company's ultra-hot F-type sports car or the full-size XJ luxury sedan. Thankfully, Jaguar-Land Rover North America's CEO, Joe Eberhardt, and the brand's Vehicle Line Director, Ian Hoban, filled in some of the blanks for us at the 2015 New York auto show.
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So what will come of the F-type and the XJ? Well, they'll soldier on, but don't expect them to move to the XE and XF's modular architecture in the future. When asked whether the F-type and the XJ will stay on separate platforms, Hoban replied: "Certainly, and the F-type for sure." Regarding the scalability (or lack therof) of the XE and XF modular architecture up to full-size XJ territory, Hoban states: "we sized the architecture around four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines," adding "the thing you would not want to do is design a car or a body structure to have the V-8 be the sweet spot." Thus, much like how Cadillac designed the latest CTS around four- and six-cylinder engines, the Jags are as light as they can be, lacking what Hoban refers to as "redundancies" in their designs that are only there to support a big-engine option in a select number of cars. In fact, Cadillac needed to modify the CTS fairly extensively so that it could handle the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8; when asked whether Jaguar at least considered the notion of fitting a V-8 in the XE or XF, Hoban responded: "Do we know how to fit a V-8? Absolutely, of course." We already knew Jag was planning on dropping a V-8 into the XE, but based on what the platform was designed for—in terms of its mainstream mission—expect some additional bracing to be required for that V-8. Oh, and while we're on the topic of V-8s, CEO Joe Eberhardt separately confirmed to us that Jag's epic V-8 isn't going anywhere.
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So what about the F-type? Hoban answers plainly that "you can't deliver a full-blown sports car sharing parts with a sedan. It doesn't work, and there's a company in Stuttgart that would agree with me as well." We take that to mean that, like the XJ, the F-type will sit apart from the XE, the XF, and the upcoming F-Pace crossover. So there you have it.
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