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All Jaguars and Land Rovers to get diesel engines... almost

Virtually all Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles – except the F-Type sports car – will get a diesel engine option in the next three years, the company confirmed Sunday night at an event before the Detroit Auto Show. The aggressive blitz begins this fall, when the 2016 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport will launch with available turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 diesel engines. They will push out 254 horsepower and 440 pound-feet of torque, while returning fuel economy of up to 28 miles per gallon on the highway. The combined rating in city and highway driving will be 25 mpg. The Rovers will be followed in 2016 by the XE sedan and F-Pace crossover, which will offer the 2.0-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder engines, in addition to gasoline units. The diesel-powered XE is expected to get at least 40 mpg on the highway, Jaguar Land Rover North America CEO Joe Eberhardt said. The oil-burners are expected to offer 20-to-30 percent improvements in fuel economy compared with gasoline engines, depending on the vehicle. JLR's announcement comes as gasoline prices have plummeted in the United States, and regular fuel costs about $1 less than a gallon of diesel, according to AAA research. Still, the company is taking the long view, and Eberhardt said diesel engines offer greater performance and range than other options. JLR expects about 20 percent of its customers will opt for diesel engines. "We strongly believe this is what our customers will want, regardless of the fluctuations in gas prices," he said. JAGUAR LAND ROVER DEBUTS DIESEL POWER OFFERINGS, JAGUAR XE AND ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR PRODUCTION OF AN ALL-NEW JAGUAR PERFORMANCE CROSSOVER AT 2015 NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW • Jaguar Land Rover to introduceadvanced, highly fuel-efficient, clean-diesel powertrain options on virtually every Jaguar and Land Rover model sold in North America • The Jaguar F-PACE performance crossover to join Jaguar lineup in 2016 • Land Rover Range Rover HSE Td6 and Range Rover Sport HSE Td6 debut in U.S.; on sale in 2015 • North American debut of the Jaguar XE at NAIAS 2015 • Jaguar Land Rover announces global sales up 9% in 2014 (MAHWAH, N.J.) – January 11, 2015 – Jaguar Land Rover confirms several new vehicle announcements today including an all-new model to the Jaguar lineup, the Jaguar F-PACE, and diesel power options for most of its luxury line up, beginning with the 2016 MY Range Rover and Range Rover Sport luxury SUVs.

Jaguar may join the FWD, small-car parade

Was it right for Chevrolet to detune the 1975 Corvette's base engine to 165 horsepower? Was Aston Martin wrong to make the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet? Is BMW crazy to be testing the new 1 Series with three-cylinder engines and front-wheel drive? It seems now, just as in the 1970s and 1980s, that emissions regulations and social considerations are driving some automakers to adopt unbefitting practices to maintain acceptance in the eyes of governments and consumers. Jaguar has jumped on the bandwagon, and is considering development of small, frugal, front-wheel-drive cars to help lower Jaguar Land Rover's average vehicle CO2 levels in light of tightening European emissions regulations, Autocar reports.
By 2020, the European Union expects the model range of every manufacturer to average 95 grams per kilometer, which is a new law passed by the European Parliament in April. Manufacturers who make more than 300,000 vehicles per year must meet these targets, and JLR is expected to be producing up to 700,000 vehicles per year by then. CO2 regulations after 2020 will only get stricter, as EU politicians already are talking about lowering CO2 levels to between 68 g/km and 78 g/km. (To put that in perspective, Autocar posits that driving a fully charged electric vehicle in Europe produces about 75 g/km when factoring in the power-generation infrastructure.)
Jaguar has some choices here, but so far they all have drawbacks. It could develop a new, compact chassis architecture for a line of compact vehicles, but the investment required for such a project could be prohibitively expensive. Jaguar has been looking into using the Land Rover Evoque platform for a small SUV, Autocar reports, but Land Rover brand manager John Edwards raises issue with such a plan, saying it may not be financially feasible.

Jaguar XJ220 owners will finally be able to get new tires

Bridgestone announced today that the underserved Jaguar XJ220 used-car market would finally have access to new tires. Apparently a number of years ago, companies stopped supplying road tires for the XJ220 altogether. Don Law, owner and operator of XJ220 parts and restoration company Don Law Racing, brought the issue to the attention of Bridgestone. Now, Bridgestone and Don Law have assembled a team that includes the vehicle's original chief development engineer and test driver to create a modern tire for the 213-mph supercar. Bridgestone was also able to get access to pre-production car 004 for testing purposes. The company plans to have the new tire ready for the car's twenty-fifth anniversary next year. From the sound of it, the tire will likely outperform the original one, as Bridgestone's vice president of consumer OE tires cited the advancement of tire technology over the years when talking about the project. This whole project also raises an interesting question. Are there any other supercars that don't have original equipment tire options anymore? The XJ220 certainly wasn't the only supercar of the '90s with fat tires on relatively small-diameter wheels. Also, what will happen to the tire market for modern supercars? The Bugatti Veyron famously has special tires designed to handle its extremely high top speed. It certainly is an interesting first-world conundrum, and one we're going to keep tabs on. Related Video: