Jaguar F-Pace Sets SUV Design Standard

Upon its release in 1961, Enzo Ferrari called the Jaguar E-type “the most beautiful car ever made.” While the F-Pace, the brand's first SUV, has yet to garner such accolades, it is the main reason British-owned Jaguar is by far the fastest growing car brand in the U.S.

Inside the lightweight aluminum architecture with generous windows and panoramic sunroof, director of __design Ian Callum blessed the 14-way adjustment, heating and cooling seats with Windsor soft-grain leather featuring twin-needle stitching and an embossed houndstooth pattern, all illuminated by the cave’s 10-color ambient LED lighting.

Finish options include meshed aluminum and ash veneer while the cockpit’s floor itself is reversible: one side is carpeted and the other rubber. The roomy back seat fits three adults comfortably and, because the height of the beltline and the positioning of the seats, even small children enjoy expansive views out. Further back, the trunk is a hospitable 23 cubic feet—think four large suitcases. “The architecture is as simple as we can make it so it has room to breathe,” Callum says. “We’re not great fans of overly complicated interiors.”

The in-house designed InControl Touch Pro, billed as the word’s most advanced “infotainment” system and tested at exterior temperatures from 40 below in northern Sweden to 122 degrees in Dubai, lends sharp graphics to the 10.2 inch tablet-style center touchscreen and a virtual 12.3 inch HD instrument cluster, which, along with Wi-Fi hotspots for up to eight devices, allows for its use as a mobile office. A laser head-up display projects key information including vehicle speed and speed limits in high-contrast colors into the driver’s line of sight—even in bright sunlight. “We just had to make sure it functioned,” Callum concludes. “That’s what the priority for SUVs has to be.”