1990 Jaguar on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Jaguar gives us our best look yet at the XF Sportbrake wagon

Not quite a month after the first official teaser, Jaguar has provided a much clearer look at the new XF Sportbrake. Instead of the overhead shot, we get to see front and sides almost completely unobscured. Almost. The official reveal isn't until June 14, so the car is still covered in camouflage. Since Jaguar will be the vehicle supplier for Wimbledon, and Andy Murray will reveal the car, Jaguar fitted a tennis-ball vinyl wrap. Despite the vinyl wrap, we can still get a pretty clear look at the car. Unsurprisingly, from the B-pillar forward, the XF Sportbrake is identical to its sedan counterpart. From the rear-door back, the roof is obviously extended, and the rear window's rounded corners lead us to believe the previous model's blacked-out D-Pillar has been ditched. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Jaguar also released a video about driving the XF to a remote Scottish tennis court. We don't particularly care about that, but the video does provide some brief glimpses of the Sportbrake's backside. From the looks of it, the taillights are the same between the sedan and the wagon. The rear bumper and exhaust treatment look very similar, too. As previously mentioned, the Sportbrake will be completely revealed on June 14, and the car will be available later this year – and in the US, as a Jaguar representative confirmed to Autoblog. So if you've been eying an F-Pace, maybe wait just a little longer to try out an XF wagon. Related Video:

Jaguar XJ electric sedan debut pushed to late 2021

Jaguar's been testing prototypes of the coming all-electric XJ sedan for a while now, an example we saw earlier this year testing in the cold having reached an advanced stage. The plan had been to launch the battery-powered flagship fastback this year, with sales to commence early 2021. A report in The Sunday Times says that plan has changed, Jaguar pushing the XJ back to the third quarter of next year while the automaker focuses on its finances and its most profitable models. The site FormaCar reports, "The presentation date on the official website now reads, 'October 2021,'" but we haven't found that XJ-specific page. In response to questions about the Jaguar canceling the XJ, a spokesperson responded, "Our engineers continue to work on the next-generation all-electric Jaguar XJ. We remain committed to our long-term strategy and our product portfolio remains the same, but the unprecedented situation will inevitably have an impact on our immediate plans." The Jaguar Land Rover group, coming off a string of deep losses during 2018 and 2019, was working through a cost-cutting and turnaround plan when Covid-19 hammered the global economy. The whispered concern among outsiders is that Jaguar will drop the XJ entirely, but that doesn't appear to be the case for now. The automaker cut thousand of jobs while investing more than a billion pounds into its Castle Bromwich factory to prepare for electric-car assembly. At the moment, Castle Bromwich normally builds the XE and XF sedans, those offerings also in flux while Jaguar reportedly considers turning one or both of them into a small hatchback or a compact plug-in hybrid sedan. We write "normally" because the factory was put on pause to deal with Covid lockdowns, and isn't scheduled to restart until August 14. And above all of this, JLR is on the hunt for a new CEO to replace Ralf Speth. We've been expecting the new sedan to open the book on mainstream luxury EVs, the same way the I-Pace did for SUVs, but it appears that won't happen. The electric XJ will come on the Modular Longitudinal Architecture, and we've understood the specs include a 90.2-kWh battery pack, the same size as the I-Pace pack. There have been rumors about a four-motor setup, but odds favor a twin-motor arrangement. The motors in the I-Pace produce 394 horsepower and 512 pound-feet of torque. For an XJ flagship, we'd expect an even more powerful option in the range.

Not just 'our logo on a sail': Automakers gain technology from America's Cup

HAMILTON, Bermuda - From water taxis that "fly" on hydrofoils to aircraft wings and cutting-edge car steering wheels, the America's Cup has produced technology with potential far beyond its "foiling" catamarans. With their focus on carbon fiber and aerodynamics, the teams that fought for the America's Cup attracted partners including planemaker Airbus and automotive groups BMW and Land Rover, who were keen to learn from them. One area where this is likely to have an impact is in harnessing "foiling" technology, where the America's Cup boats "fly" above the water on foils, cutting water resistance. "Foiling in small electric boats will most likely appear on rivers in major cities. We are just at the beginning of the foiling adventure," Pierre Marie Belleau, head of Airbus Business Development, who managed its partnership with Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA, told Reuters. The space-age catamarans used in the 35th America's Cup, which ended in victory for Emirates Team New Zealand this week, can sail at maximum speeds of 50 knots (57 mph) and have more in common with flying than sailing."CARBON FIBER RELATIONSHIP" For Jaguar Land Rover, which sponsored British sailor Ben Ainslie's attempt to win the cup, the relationship is a strategic one with a focus on technology and innovation. "We don't just get our logo onto a sail," Mark Cameron, JLR's Experiential Marketing Director, said by telephone, adding that the carmaker would be providing more designers to help Land Rover BAR with technology for their next campaign. "This is a dynamic sport that is developing fast. ... It's moving quickly just like the car industry is moving quickly. It's all changing," Land Rover produced a special steering wheel for Ainslie to use in the America's Cup, with in-built gear shift paddles that allowed him to adjust the catamaran's "flight" levels. The relationship is similar between BMW and Oracle Team USA, with the German automaker focused on areas including the electronics in the wheel used by skipper Jimmy Spithill, the development of carbon fiber used to make the boat and its components, and the aerodynamic testing. "We like to think of ourselves more as a partner than a sponsor. We have a very strong carbon fiber relationship," Ian Robertson, who is the BMW management board member responsible for sales and brand, told Reuters between races. "This is a dynamic sport that is developing fast. ... It's moving quickly just like the car industry is moving quickly.