LONDON -- Jaguar says its new XF sedan has taken a big leap in levels of refinement, low weight and fuel efficiency.
The UK luxury sports car brand today unveiled the second generation of its best-seller with a high-wire stunt drive across the Royal Dock in London’s Canary Wharf.
The XF competes against the BMW 5 series, Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E class. The redesigned model is underpinned by Jaguar Land Rover’s aluminum-intensive architecture.
The platform helped Jaguar to reduce the XF’s weight by nearly 420 pounds, the automaker said in a statement.
The latest XF is slightly shorter than the current model but its wheelbase is just over 2 inches longer to increase cabin space. The sedan has class-leading rear seat room, Jaguar said in a statement.
It will have a world debut next week at the New York Auto Show.
The XF is key to Jaguar achieving its goal of increasing annual global sales to more than 200,000 by the end of the decade from a little more than 80,000 last year.
"I believe the all-new XF will be the best-looking car in its class,” Jaguar design chief Ian Callum said in the statement.
The XF gets a new 10-inch touchscreen for the infotainment center, as well as configurable digital dials behind the steering wheel.
The sedan will go on sale in Europe in August and in the U.S. in the fall.
The all-new XE will be the first car to use JLR’s new lightweight platform, which is 75 percent aluminum, when it goes on sale in Europe in May. The XE will launch in the U.S. next year.
Station wagon versions of the XE and XF are likely. Jaguar will also build the F-Pace crossover on the aluminum platform starting next year.
