Smaller 3.0 litre V6 engine Jaguar XJ debuted at Shanghai Motor Show
As the world’s largest automobile market, China is home to a burgeoning luxury car industry, as wealthy Chinese splurge on elite and high-end autos. Indeed, the rising sales of luxury vehicles in China stand in sharp contrast to much of the Western world, where many of these brands are exhibiting declines. Now Jaguar, which sold 3,500 vehicles in China last year, is looking to vastly increase its presence in China by introducing a Jaguar XJ model sporting a smaller 3.0 V6 engine at the Shanghai 2011 Motor Show.
Avoiding the import tax
In China, cars with smaller engines make up roughly 90% of the luxury market and for good reason: there’s a hefty 85% import tax on any vehicle with a larger than 3.0 litre engine. This effectively doubles the price of a Jaguar XJ V8, for instance. The new XJ V6, on the other hand, cleverly avoids this impossibly large tariff and is therefore available for nearly half the price at around £100,000 on the Chinese market.
Enhanced interior with more leg room
The Jaguar XJ V6 also caters to the Chinese market in a few other ways. For starters, many luxury car buyers in China prefer to be chauffeured around in their elite vehicles, rather than drive, and accordingly the XJ V6 has had extra leg room added in the rear seat area, along with a more luxurious car interior. Even the suspension of the car has been optimised to the local conditions and the 3.0 V6 model also uses an automatic six speed transmission system.
With this V6 car model, Jaguar hope to make major inroads in the Chinese market and such a strategy is critical to Jaguar’s success, as the company’s global product marketing director explains in the video above. Of course, before you think the Jaguar V6 XJ is only catered towards Chinese buyers, the engine will also be sold in the Middle East and Russia as well.
Tags for this article: china, jaguar