SECTOR: Premium saloon  PRICE: From €37,230–€58,900   FUEL: 4.0–8.3l/100km   CO2: 104-198g/km

  Uncompetitive CO2 emissions from the outgoing Jaguar XF did not help fleet sales. The 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel was an afterthought; aimed at making it more fleet-friendly for a car bought mostly by retail buyers, but its rivals offered lower CO2 emissions and the XF struggled to make an impression in fleet circles against its Audi A6, Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5 Series competitors.

Jaguar hopes this is about to change with the new model, now going on sale. It’s shorter (-7mm) and lower (-3mm) on the outside, but a longer wheelbase (+51mm) and attention to detail offers more head (+27mm) and rear seat legroom (+15mm), with knee room in the back a generous 24mm more than its predecessor.

Jaguar Land Rover’s new 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel is available from the start, initially in 163hp and 180hp forms, but with more power to come. There will also be variants of the Ingenium petrol engine based on the same architecture, but these are not available yet. The XF’s XE sibling suggests that there will be around 200hp on tap from the 2.0-litre petrol engine. As befits a car aimed at competing with its premium rivals, more powerful 380hp 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol and 3.0-litre 300hp Diesel engines are available. The supercharged V6 is shared with the F-type sports car and XE, but take-up is likely to be small in fleet circles. The V6 diesel is based on the same engine that also powered its predecessor, but with 25hp more and 700Nm of torque.

Jaguar’s mostly aluminium construction (75%), partly using recycled material, cuts the weight of 2.0-litre diesel manual models by 190kg. This and an aerodynamic drag factor of 0.26 help to bring emissions for the same manual diesel down to 104g/km with combined fuel consumption of 4.0l/100km. These figures alone should be enough for many fleets that would not have looked at the XF before to consider it as an option. That steps up to 114g/km CO2 for the 180hp version and 4.3l/100km fuel consumption. CO2 emissions for the V6 petrol are 198g/km with combined consumption of 8.3l/100km.

Comparable figures for the V6 diesel are 144g/km CO2 and 5.5l/100km combined.

Inside, Jaguar offers a 10.2-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard and a 12.3-inch virtual instrument cluster. In Jaguar language, this is called InControl Touch Pro. All control is from the screen which features gesture commands as on a tablet computer. There’s a 60GB solid-state drive to give rapid access to navigation and other apps. The virtual instrument cluster is configurable to suite the driver and the graphics give excellent definition. It’s easy to forget that these are not real instruments.

There’s much more too including LED headlamps and electric power steering, but in short, the Ingenium diesel has the refinement that the 2.2-litre diesel lacked. The V6 diesel is a model of refinement and performance whose effortless torque makes it preferable to the supercharged petrol engine. And the chassis has impeccable behaviour, a fine ride/handling compromise.

What we think:

With fleet-friendly 2.0-litre diesels, smooth V6 petrols and an excellent chassis, the new XF impresses on all fronts. A genuine alternative to German rivals.