Jaguar XF 2.2 litre diesel: Has Adrian Hallmark confirmed it?

The Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel - April reveal?

We’re convinced that Jaguar’s Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark revealed the Jaguar XF will get a 2.2 diesel engine this year at Jaguar’s Geneva Press Conference

We’ve been discussing the likelihood of Jaguar putting the 2.2 diesel lump JLR currently use in the Freelander (and not just JLR in the Freelander – it’s rather ubiquitous at PSA too) in to the XF to take on BMW’s 5 Series fleet sales for a while now.

We made the effort to ask Jaguar about this back in April last year. We asked ‘Are there any plans to put a 2.2 diesel engine in the Jaguar XF?’. The response was clear and unequivocal:  ‘…speculation I’m afraid. No plans to announce a new engine in XF.’ Which we took at face value.

However, six months later we did have to ask if Jaguar had been a little ‘Economical with the actualité’ when we discovered a Jaguar XF, complete with b&w swirly camouflage, stomping round the Midlands and sporting a 2.2 diesel engine.

We ultimately concluded that Jaguar were indeed planning a smaller diesel engine for the XF to take on BMW 5 Series fleet sales, and we half expected it to turn up at Geneva, together with a mid-cycle facelift for the XF. But neither has materialised. However…

We listened to Adrian Hallmark at Jaguar’s Press Conference in Geneva yesterday. And we made notes – as you do – which include a note that Adrian fleetingly mentioned that the XF would be getting the 2.2 diesel lump later this year.

Oddly, we can’t find any mention of this in any Jaguar Geneva blurb. And it seems to have been edited out of the recording of the press conference at Geneva we’ve got. Either that, or we misheard, or can’t read our own notes. All of which are possible.

But whether we heard Adrian rightly or not, a couple of phone calls to well placed sources suggest that Jaguar are planning on revealing the 2.2 diesel XF next month, along with the mid-cycle facelift. Which could neatly point to a reveal at Shanghai.

And maybe the announcement of a Chinese partner for JLR at the same time?