When Jaguar Land Rover announced in 2009 that it would stop making the X-Type, its underwhelming executive car developed during the Ford years and centred around a modified Ford Mondeo chassis, few thought it would return to a sector that had done little to revive its fortunes (and indeed in the view of some had tarnished the brand).

Five years on, however, Jaguar has returned to that very sector with the Jaguar XE, a car it hopes will stand its ground against the formidable competition out there (the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, and Mercedes-Benz C Class) and open up the brand to an entirely new customer base globally – young and female.

Set to go on sale in the UK and Europe early next year with an indicative price of 27,000 pounds in the UK (the full range will be announced at the Paris Auto Show in early October) the car is intended, in the words of Design Director Ian Callum, to be “an attainable Jaguar.” Not only the cheapest Jaguar out there, it is particularly fuel-efficient, being the Jaguar to premier the brand’s new 2-litre “Ingenium” engine whose diesel version will have a fuel efficiency of 75 miles to the gallon. For those focused on a powerful drive, the top-of-the-range XE-S – the car that debuted in London this week – will have the 3-litre super charged V6, capable of going from – to 60 miles an hour in 4.9 seconds.

In a first for the category the XE’s chassis is three quarters aluminium – a combination of a high-strength 6000- series alloy and recycled aluminum – which the company says accords the car with strength and stiffness that enables it to meet the most stringent of global safety requirements.

Features Physically the car draws on elements of many Jaguars that have gone before it: its long sculpted bonnet, low front seating position, and rising waistline all add to its sporty, fast feel (it is also meant to be the most aerodynamic Jag with a drag coefficient of 0.26). Though as Ian Fletcher of IHS Global Insight notes, it will be when the lower gauge vehicles are released that the design can best be gauged. “It does encapsulate a lot of the positives around the brand’s design history.”

Though the cheapest Jaguar, as Fletcher points out the car is at the upper end of pricing within the sector (The BMW 3 Series, for example, starts at 23,500 pounds in the UK). Helping justify this premium, they’ve used the car to debut new technologies, including their first venture into Electric Power Steering – which they say has not only fuel efficiency advantages but tuning potential too.

They have also introduced what they are calling their All Surface Progress Control that draws on Land Rovers’ off-road expertise. At low speeds (up to 30 mph) cruise control will be available even in slippery conditions.

Other highlights including a unique heads-up system that projects bright, colour images of speed and navigation instructions, and a new stereo-camera that can perform a huge range of functions – from recognizing traffic signs and warning you if you leave your lane to an autonomous braking system. While we were left wondering how useful these would be in the chaotic traffic in some of its markets, they’re all touches that add clout.

There is also set to be a requisite top-notch infotainment system, replete with touch screen, voice control, and Bluetooth and USB capabilities, and crucially, with its embedded SIM, it can serve as a WiFi hub, which several devices can be connected to. Users will also be able to access smart phone apps through the touch screen.

As with past Jaguars – the interior offers the user much opportunity to personalize and luxuriate: leather interiors, the option of wood and textured aluminum interior materials, ambient lighting in up to 10 colours, and of course legroom.

Overall, and despite the hype that surrounded it in the build up to the launch, the car that drove out onto the stage in Earls Court in London on Monday didn’t disappoint, leaving very little doubt that this was a complete break from Jaguar’s past experience in the sector. While its full significance and potential will only become more apparent next month, when the range is unveiled in Paris, it seems to stand a good chance of bringing in those crucial new audiences it may have missed in the past.

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