As you probably are aware, Jag is planning to launch company’s estate version of the XF sometime later this year, but just before that we found some spy shots for you that show the camouflaged prototype model. The vehicle in question was caught on public roads of North Wales in plain sight, over the Bank Holiday weekend to be precise.
You probably expected images of the vehicle driving and testing, but the truth is that it was caught in a pub car park sitting still and revealing some of its features. The first thing you will see is a different kind of camouflage on it, which is supposed to hide more than it shows, but with a color like that, it certainly draws more eyes to it than it actually should.
Next thing is a big “XFSportbrake” sticker on the side of the car which saved everyone a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly are they looking at. Thanks to the prototype being caught “testing” we finally have confirmation that the XF Sportbrake is coming because you were probably rattled by the statement from designer Ian Callum in which he said it isn’t going to happen and that Jaguar is focusing on SUVs which are at the moment more popular. Callum shortly after released a tweet saying he was misquoted and defended himself by saying “I said there would be no XE Sportbrake. Nothing more!”
When the 2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake starts selling, which is scheduled to happen late 2017, it will most likely use the same engine options as the sedan does, meaning a 2.0-liter Ingenium diesel engine in 163 HP and 180 HP output options, as well as a more potent 3.0 L V6 with 300 HP. The range topper here will also use a monster 380 HP V6 petrol unit that will be enough even for the speed freaks out there.
As far as everything else is concerned we do not think that Jaguar will fiddle much with it, the only thing that is logical to expect is some tweaking to the suspension in order for it to cope with the added weight. The outside look and feel also should not change much, and it will most likely follow the sedan’s way of not going far from its predecessor, but it seems that the rear lights might have a somewhat slimmer profile similar to the F-Type and F-Pace models.
The one thing that we need to mention the fact that it will have bigger trunk capacity than the sedan, but there is something that Callum said which makes us wonder, and that is that they will prioritize appearance over outright luggage capacity. Nevertheless, expect the 2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake to offer you more than 600 liters with the rear seats up and increasing to as much as 1.700 liters with the seats down. There were some rumors that it will manage to arrive at this year’s Geneva Motor Show but since that failed we believe that it might hit another show closer to the end of 2017, and when it does it will carry a small bump up in the price over the sedan version.
