The five-seat F-Pace was inspired by the brand's F-Type two-seat sports car. "The F-Pace is our family sports car," Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum said in a statement.
The F-Pace will take design cues the C-X17 concept that was first shown at the 2013 Frankfurt auto show. "Every surface will change, but it will still resemble the CX17," Callum said on Sunday.
Jaguar Land Rover global sales director Andy Goss said the F-Pace is "squarely aimed at the North American market."
The F-Pace will not appear at the Detroit show but will be fully unveiled later this year, Jaguar said, without providing more details. The crossover has now begun its engineering and development testing program ahead of its sales launch in global markets in 2016, the company said.
The F-Pace will be built on Jaguar's new lightweight aluminum platform that also underpins the XE midsize sedan, its cheapest model, which will go on sale in Europe in May and in the U.S. a year later. The XE is a critical test of Jaguar’s ability to compete for entry-level luxury buyers after halting production of the X-Type last decade because of disappointing sales.
In addition, the platform will underpin a replacement for the XF large premium model due later this year. When the three vehicles are on the road, four out of five cars in Jaguar's range will be less than 3 years old.