Jaguar wants to be 'Mainly a Sportscar Manufacturer'

Jaguar has made it clear about the future direction that the brand is taking, company insiders have revealed. There is a desire within the company to move the focus more towards sports cars and away from smaller executive saloons, that as been harboured for some time within the brand by both engineers and directors.

This new thinking fits in with Jaguars "Premium Niche" policy, that new owners Tata Motors have embraced wholehartedy, and a raft of new models which have been kept under wraps are shortly to be announced. The only question lies in the positioning of these new sports models, as now Aston Martin has been sold to Prodrive, and Ford no longer owns either company, there is no limitation on how far up the scale Jaguar can push.

It is expected that Jaguar is to remodel itself along the lines of Porsche, currently the worlds most profitable car manufacturer, and move away from traditional executive car competitors like Mercedes and BMW - a decision that will further reinforced when production of the X-Type finishes at Halewood in late 2009. Jaguar has already removed the X-Type from some markets, notably the US, but it still sells in smaller numbers throughout Europe.

This would dictate a smaller 2 seat sports car, in the mould of the F-Type concept car, to compete head on with the Boxster, and this would allow the XKR to stretch further upmarket towards the Aston DB9.

The first model in this new philosiphy will be the All new XJ, being completely restyled and has been described by insiders as along the lines of the Aston Martin Rapide 4 door coupe, with the C-XF concept nose and tail, again giving Jaguar a direct rival to the forthcoming Porsche Panamera.

More models are expected to follow these, with an XF coupe with a swoopy roofline more closely resembling the Jaguar C-XF concept due early 2010, and expected to be shown at the 2009 Frankfurt show, and even the possibility of a more track focused supercar placed as a halo model above the current XK range.

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