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Well, the wait is over, the new XJ is here – unveiled just a week before you read these words – and it’s undoubtedly very diff erent from any XJ that has gone before it. And not just in terms of its appearance. Styling, comfort, performance and value for money are all attributes that buyers of previous XJs will have considered. But today it‘s also highly likely that those same buyers would be looking at fuel effi ciency and environmental considerations to a far greater degree than they would have done even at the launch of the X350 XJ in 2003. Of course, that outgoing XJ picked up several plaudits for its fuel-effi ciency in diesel form thanks in no small part to its lightweight aluminium construction, but the new car, also aluminium and equipped with Jaguar’s latest Gen III petrol V8 and diesel V6 engines, should raise the bar again. And that is why in addition to pushing the new XJ’s strengths in all its ‘traditional’ attribute areas, Jaguar is also keen to get across the sustainability message. Said Mark White, Jaguar’s chief technical specialist for body and engineering, “Obviously the environmental pressures that we face now mean that we are thinking about not only better fuel consumption and lower CO2 during the use of the car, but we are actually thinking about the end of life of the car. The fact that we use a lot less energy in the production, both in the joining, construction and in the making of the material, means that we are making a real diff erence to the environmental performance of the XJ.”