Jaguar XK To Return As Brand’s Sports Car Flagship Model

Despite the E-Pace and F-Pace SUVs dominating Jaguar’s sales worldwide, the British marque remains committed to sports cars.

A replacement of the current F-Type is now being discussed internally, and alongside the two-seater model, Jaguar might also revive the XK, and offer it as a 2+2 GT.

The information is not exactly new, as it was hinted by the brand’s design chief Ian Callum last year, but it appears to be backed up by the JLR head of product strategy, Hanno Kirner, Autocar reports.

“The F-Type has been a huge success. We love sports cars – and I use the plural quite deliberately”, he said. “Whether that is delivered by a body variant or something else remains to be seen, but for now let’s just say that the body type is very important to us.”

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It’s been understood that before pulling the plug on the XK in 2014, Jaguar already had a concept to preview its successor. However, the one hinted by big names within the company is expected to be entirely new, and it should launch later than 2021, when the next-gen F-Type will already be 2 years old, allegedly.

Both sports cars are believed to share the same underpinnings, and while the XK will be a four-seater grand tourer, the F-Type will continue to be offered with seating for two. “I love the idea of a flexible architecture that can give us anything”, added Kirner.

Powering the second-gen Jaguar F-Type will be a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, with up to 300hp, apparently. The lineup will also include some straight-six units, and all of these are believed to pump fuel into the next XK, too.

Both sports cars should also get hot XVR versions as well, and there’s internal talk about electrification, but an official decision has yet to be taken. Still, Hanno Kirner said: “I absolutely believe that there will be electric sports cars one day, but I also believe there may be a different step of combining the battery and an engine. At Jaguar, all I can say for now is that we will continue to invest in sports cars.”