Jaguar’s small saloon is coming in September

Jaguar has confirmed that its rival to the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes C-Class saloon will land in the UK in September.

We're promised a ‘star-studded' event in London, but ahead of the world premiere, Jag has teased out a few more details of its new baby saloon.

The XE will be built around an 'aluminium-intensive architecture', with integral link rear suspension forged or hollow-cast from aluminium too. We're told this rear setup will deliver ‘sharp response and handling while retaining a refined, luxurious ride.'

The front suspension design is based on the Jaguar F-Type - it's a double wishbone setup - with ‘XFR levels of stiffness' thanks to changes in a few components. Again, Jaguar promises ‘agility and connected steering feel'.

In fact, this new XE will become the first Jaguar to come equipped with the latest generation of electric power steering. It'll also come with ‘all surface progress control' that gets the rear-drive Jag XE off the line in slippery conditions without any drama.

We already know that the XE will get Jaguar-Land Rover's shiny new family of lightweight, turbocharged four cylinder petrol and diesel engines - the ‘Ingenium' range - which are some 80kg lighter than today's JLR units and include a 2.0-litre diesel.

The building block of this engine is a modular 500cc capacity that allows Jag to scale up or down, meaning a 1.5-litre three-pot and indeed a 3.0-litre straight-six are both possible.

"The XE is the culmination of everything the company has learned over the years," explains Mike Cross, Jag's chief engineer. "We are on target to deliver a vehicle that dynamically outperforms our rivals."

The global premiere is on 8 September. Put it in the diary now.