Jaguar World Magazine NEW XJ: An Icon Reborn Aug 2009 Back Issue

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.”