F-Type V6 locked in for Jaguar XE

JAGUAR has confirmed it will fit its 3.0-litre V6 engine from its F-Type performance hero to its BMW 3 Series-rivaling XE mid-sizer, perhaps spawning a hardcore performance variant down the track.

The Indian-owned British marque revealed snippets of its powertrain plans for the sub-XF model on its UK consumer website, saying that the XE will feature “a range of engine capacities and outputs for different drivers, including the F-Type’s roaring V6, all built at our new facility in the UK”.

In V6 guise, the F-Type is powered by a 3.0-litre supercharged petrol unit in two different states of tune, with the base variant offering 250kW/450Nm and the more powerful version gets 280kW/460Nm.

Both could end up in the XE, with the flagship version possibly using the R or R-S moniker found on the XF and XJ and pitched against the likes of the BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and Audi’s S4/RS4 sports variants.

Under the bonnet of the F-Type, the 250kW V6 pushes the convertible from a standing start to 100km/h in 5.3 seconds, while the 280kW F-Type S covers the 0-100km/h sprint in 4.9 seconds.

The XE will be underpinned by Jaguar’s new all-aluminium platform that will also spawn the British car-maker’s first SUV – the C-X17 – that was revealed in concept form at the Frankfurt motor show last year.

Base XEs will be powered by a new family of high-output, fuel-efficient petrol and diesel four-cylinder engines dubbed Ingenium.

Jaguar says the engine will have the flexibility for various states of tune, to reach top speeds of 300km/h or emit less than 100g/km of CO2.

The XE is set to be revealed in full later this year, possibly at the Paris motor show, and will launch globally in mid-2015, pointing to a possible Australian debut later in that year.

With Jaguar pitching XE as a rival to European models including the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class as well as Japanese luxury contenders the Lexus IS and Infiniti Q50, pricing should start somewhere about $50-60,000