Although adjacent alphabetically in lists of major automakers, Jaguar and Jeep are polar opposites, but that isn’t keeping Jaguar from following in Jeep’s footsteps. Jeep is a pioneer in minting money with overlapping crossover offerings: Its Renegade, Compass, and Cherokee span less than 16 inches of overall length and are all available with the same 2.4-liter Tigershark four-cylinder, and each somehow pulls its weight on the sales charts without stealing (too many) customers from the others.
As it wades into the crossover arena, Jaguar is taking note. The F-Pace—a name contrived from F as in -type, that super-sexy roadster, and Pace as in . . . well, how much time do you have to delve into some heroically contrived marketing bullshit?—launched just last year, and already it nearly matches the combined sales of every other Jaguar model. So, for its second SUV, Jaguar introduces the E-Pace, which is just over 13 inches shorter and also falls between the Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport, which means JLR is out-crowding even Jeep.
The biggest distinction between the F and the E, though, is the latter’s front-drive roots. Like the Evoque on which it’s based, the E-Pace’s chassis consists of struts up front and a multilink rear suspension, with a turbocharged inline-four hitched to ZF’s nine-speed automatic transmission. European markets will get both front-drive and diesel options, but U.S. buyers will choose only between two strengths of gasoline four. There’s standard all-wheel drive or an optional version dubbed Active Driveline that offers front- and all-wheel-drive functions. New Car 2018 Review
Forced Fours
For this first encounter, we were limited to the uprated engine, producing 296 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. With output figures of 246 and 269, the entry-level engine promises to be capable of a fair, uh, pace as well. We’re told the sole difference between the two engines is in how much turbo boost they swallow. But these being members of Jaguar’s new Ingenium engine family, even the higher-output 2.0-liter is far more civilized than the Ford EcoBoost–derived unit that preceded it in the JLR portfolio. It’s vastly more linear at partial throttle, and the nine-speed is calibrated here for quicker, smoother action than we’ve noted in recent encounters with this transmission in Land Rovers. We found few opportunities for full-throttle acceleration on the narrow country lanes between London and Brighton, England, but with nearly 300 horsepower in a 4200-pound wrapper, the E-Pace should have no trouble keeping up with compatriots in the subcompact-luxury segment.
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