New Jaguar XJ coming to India early next year

Jaguar unveiled its all-new XJ saloon in the UK on July 9 and plans to start selling this flagship model in that market from early 2010. The company also plans to launch the XJ in India sometime next year and will display the car at the Auto Expo 2010 in New Delhi. The XJ will be positioned at the top end of the luxury car market in India. The new XJ features light weight aluminium construction and is a radical departure in styling for Jaguar, compared to previous generations of the XJ and takes some cues from the new XF model. The new car was revealed at a celebrity-packed ceremony at London’s Saatchi Gallery, a venue chosen to emphasise the extent of this new Jaguar’s break with the past. This new model’s key mission is to shore up Jaguar’s crumbling foothold in the luxury saloon market, a presence which, despite the well recognised road ability and technical excellence of the outgoing model, has been in decline for years. There are three engines on offer including a supercharged 5.0-litre all-alloy petrol V8; a normally aspirated version of the same engine, and a 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel. Each drives the rear wheels through a six-speed, electronically controlled ZF automatic gearbox, which has paddle-shift manual controls as well. The new XJ’s airy cabin has a new virtual instrumentation display – what airline pilots call a “glass cockpit” – which calls a variety of virtual dials on to an all-black display, depending on need. Production of the XJ starts at the end of September in the UK and the company wants to have the first cars in UK owners' hands early in 2010, followed by Indian buyers.