Jaguar F-TYPE Roadster has
Go-Ahead

May be manufactured in U.S.

The Jaguar F-TYPE roadster has been given the production go-ahead, the company announced today. The all-new, compact Jaguar roadster becomes the fifth model in the company’s expanding product range and marks Jaguar’s return to the true sports car market, which it helped to create in the 1950s and 1960s.

Announcing the decision at the Los Angeles International auto show today, Jaguar’s Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, said, “Jaguar is one of the most evocative brands in the world and there is a renewed commitment at Jaguar to create cars that stir people’s emotions. The overwhelmingly positive reaction across the globe to last year’s concept has convinced Jaguar to build the F-TYPE roadster.”

“Due to the unprecedented growth and intensity of new product development at Jaguar today, it will take us approximately three years to deliver the F-TYPE roadster program to market. While F-TYPE will embody all the passion and excitement of past Jaguar roadsters such as XK 120 and E-type, it clearly signals a fresh direction for Jaguar sports cars in the future.”

The F-TYPE has been the subject of a detailed 12-month study to determine both the business implications and potential launch timing. A crucial issue for the study team was to determine the relative priority of F-TYPE in the context of the company’s ambitious long-term product plan.

Today, Jaguar as a business is in the process of a major product-led transformation. The introduction of the S-TYPE sedan in 1999 is driving record sales around the world. The new X-TYPE compact sports sedan which goes on sale later this year establishes Jaguar as a four-model line company, accelerating the company’s development from a niche player into a major competitor in the premium car segment.

The smaller, more affordable F-TYPE roadster compliments the XK Series range of sports cars and will extend Jaguar’s product portfolio to five distinct model ranges— three sedans and two sports car models. F-TYPE will therefore continue Jaguar’s drive to make the brand more accessible and aspirational to a wider customer audience. Within each model range, innovative derivatives will provide greater customer choice.

Spring, 2001