Jaguar relies on the new XE to increase sales

Jaguar XEJaguar Land Rover relies on the new compact sedan XE, as well as the upcoming crossover to increase global sales to 750,000 vehicles by the end of this decade, from a record 425,000 units reached last year. The company presented a picture of the XE at the Geneva Motor Show last month, reports Automotive News.

Its competitor, the Audi A4, will debut in October at the Paris Motor Show and will go on sale globally next year.

Jaguar XE is the first medium-size premium sedan that will be produced by Jaguar, since the company stopped in 2009 manufacturing the X-Type, based on the Ford Mondeo platform.

The XE will be the first Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) model based on an aluminum structure. This architecture will be also used for the crossover model that will be inspired by the X17 concept presented by Jaguar last fall.

The sales manager of Jaguar Land Rover Group, Andy Goss refused to reveal the production target of XE and crossover model. He said, however, that the recently announced expansion plans of the company suggest that by the end of the decade Jaguar Land Rover would reach a capacity of about 600,000 vehicles.

Next year, JLR plans to start production at a new factory in China, which has a capacity of 130,000 vehicles with an investment that amounts to 1.3 billion euros. Within two years, JLR will begin to manufacture vehicles and at Itatiaia Brazil for the South American market. Initially, production will be about 24,000 cars per year, but it will rapidly increase to 40,000 units a year.

Goss said that JLR’s UK plants are working at full capacity in three shifts per week, and the new plants abroad will allow the company to focus on the production of new models for the global market.

Jaguar and Land Rover were sold in 2008 by the Ford Motor to Indian group Tata Motors for $2.3 billion.

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