Don’t Wait Up For A Jaguar XE SVR, It’s Not Going To Happen

Last summer, Jaguar came out with an authentic BMW M and Mercedes-AMG fighter – the XE SV Project 8. The vehicle, which was a brainchild of Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations, featured a 592-hp supercharged 5.0-liter V8 and a suite of performance goodies.

While only 300 units of the XE SV Project 8 were made – all at $188,000 apiece – we hoped that Jaguar would come out with something a little more affordable. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.

In an interview with Jaguar’s senior programs manager for the brand’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division, Duncan Smith, Car and Driver got a piece of bad news – Jaguar doesn’t have any plans to build a high-performance version of the XE. Instead, the British marque is looking to make itself stand apart from Mercedes-AMG and BMW M. So it would rather tailor a project to an individual vehicle based on need.

“The Project 8 was the extreme embodiment of what the XE could do,” stated Smith. That’s not good news, especially as Jaguar could kill R-badged models to create a wider gap to SVR variants. Another V8-powered XE probably won’t happen, so you’re either stuck with the XE S, which gets a supercharged 3.0-liter V6, or will have to pony up the funds for one of the limited-edition XE SV Project 8 models.

The outlet claims that another reason for skipping on a more readily available version of the XE SV Project 8 has to do with the F-Pace SVR, which made its debut at the New York Auto Show. The SUV obviously got the go-ahead nod and priority over a V8-powered sedan, as SUVs are all of the craze at the moment.

We’d love to see Jaguar make a high-performance XE with a V8, but after seeing how well the Range Rover Sport SVR is doing, the brand probably wants in on the insanely-powerful SUV segment. Jaguar may not be interested in making a XE with eight cylinders, but we still have our hopes up for a SVR variant of the XF.