Jaguar XF Sportbrake goes official

The slick station wagon version of the Jaguar XF saloon has been unveiled in Britain.

Tata owned Jaguar has taken the wraps off its latest offering, the XF Sportbrake. The station wagon, or estate, as some may like to call it, is basically a Jaguar XF saloon with a different rear end, allowing for a much bigger boot and enhanced flexibility.

Unlike the recently unveiled BMW 6 Series GT, the new car from the British manufacturer takes the traditional design approach, and thus is less likely to attract polarizing opinions. The aesthetics of the XF Sportbrake are in fact, spot on.

The added bulk at the rear allows Jaguar’s new station wagon to have 565 litres of boot space as standard. Folding the 40/20/40 splitting rear seats reveal a voluminous 1,700 litres of cargo area, which can comfortably rival an average sized minivan.

Adding to the versatility of the XF Sportbrake, tech assisted goodies like gesture-based tailgate operation with selectable opening height are also available. Jaguar has also shown some love to its golf playing potential customers.  A full golf bag can be accommodated in the car's boot, parallel to the rear bumper, even with rear seats folded up.

The luxury part isn’t compromised on the new XF Sportbrake either. The car will get a host of all the latest gadgetry already available on the XF saloon. This includes, but is not limited to, adaptive cruise control, driver fatigue alert, parking assist and built in 4G LTE connectivity. Also on offer is a massive fixed panoramic sunroof, that has a sun blind which operates based on gestures.

The engines powering the XF Sportbrake will be region specific. In the US, the sole option will a 3.0L supercharged V6 petrol developing 380 horses. This engine, through a ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox, will feed power to all the four wheels.

The Europeans will get to choose from a range of five engines, but will miss out on this power packed petrol. Instead, the top of the line engine for Europe is a 3.0L six-cylinder diesel churning out a monstrous 700Nm of torque.

While the station wagon market in the US is on a downfall, it is still quite prevalent in Europe, where the new Jaguar XF Sportbrke will face fierce rivalry from the Audi A6 Avant, the BMW 5 Series Touring and even the Volvo V90.

The XF Sportbrake is never expected to see the light of day in India as the demand for station wagons in the country is very weak.