As auto writers, for some time now we’ve been trying to figure out what exactly a crossover is.
Somewhere between car and SUV (definitely not a station wagon, right?), the crossover is a new model type that literally everyone who knows how to put four wheels and a gearbox together is currently releasing or developing. We bet even NASA has a lunar crossover somewhere in the budget.
So it is that Jaguar’s announcement at the Detroit Auto Show this week of the F-Pace, a new performance crossover, clears up this vague category entirely. Jaguar already has a related division that handles all its SUVs, a little mom’n’pop shop called Land Rover. Jaguar has previously said that it will not build an SUV because that’s the domain of its better half. Specialization of labor and all that.
The F-Pace, of which we don’t have a single image or video of because it’s still being designed, is being made by Jaguar and therefore means that crossovers cannot be SUVs. Simple!
What we do have is the above picture of the badge and a very F-Type looking taillight, which makes sense. The F-Pace is based off the C-X17 Concept, seen below, and will share the new XE sedan’s primarily aluminum body and design language.
In addition, Jaguar Land Rover announced that all Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will now offer a diesel drivetrain, with the exception of the F-Type because racing reasons. This new era of diesel is something we wrote about almost a solid three months ago.
The F-Pace will differ from other crossovers in that it will be especially performance-centered. Jaguar has its sights set squarely on the Porsche Macan, according to chief designer Ian Callum. The F-Pace will also feature the All Surface Progress Control technology developed for the new XE sedan. ASPC is for situations where traction is hard to come by such as ice, snow, mud and even just rain.
Expect the F-Pace to arrive in 2016 along with the Discovery Sport, XE sedan and manual transmission/all-wheel drive version of the F-Type.