Jaguar to enter SUV segment with F-Pace

Tata owned luxury car maker Jaguar is entering the SUV segment with the launch of F-Pace.

The F-Pace, the production version of the C-X17 concept car, was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013. The five-seater uses the same aluminium structure as the company's new XE saloon.

Jaguar had also borrowed expertise from sister company Land Rover for the car's all-wheel drive system as also an electronics package called All-Surface Progress Control technology.

The car would be made at Solihull, alongside larger Land Rover products and the Jaguar XE.

According to Jaguar, the F-Pace coupled class-leading interior space with exceptional on-road dynamics, and encapsulated Jaguar strengths of design, handling, ride comfort, interior luxury, and technology.

According to Ian Callum, Jaguar's director of design, the company received "such an overwhelmingly positive response to the C-X17 concept car last year that it just had to be made a reality", The Telegraph reported.

He added, the Jaguar F-Pace, inspired by the F-type, represented a perfectly judged balance of performance, style and practicality and offered a unique combination of Jaguar sports car inspired exterior design, fused beautifully with a thoroughly practical and spacious luxury interior. He said the F-Pace was Jaguar's family sports car.

Jaguar Land Rover currently employs 30,500 people in the UK.

The new model will go on sale in 2016, BBC reported.

According to Jaguar Land Rover's UK executive director, Mike Wright, told BBC the new vehicle would not be a "gas guzzler".

He added, the company spent about £3.5 billion on product investment each year and one aspect that it truly focused on was making sure that its future cars were both economic in terms of fuel economy and emissions.