All-new Jaguar F-Pace to debut at 2015 Tour de France

Members of the public will be afforded their first view of upcoming Jaguar F-Pace crossover at the 2015 Tour de France, set to begin on July 4 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Unfortunately, it will not be an official debut in its truest sense – that’ll take place in Frankfurt later this year – as Jaguar has stated that a lightly-disguised prototype of its new crossover will serve as a support vehicle for Team Sky.

The Jaguar F-Pace prototype, like its F-Type stablemate, will be masked in a specially-developed wrap that resembles a “unique carbon texture” along with rubber and chain motifs that mimic a road racing bicycle. The overall dark hue gets offset by turquoise accents, mimicking the team’s colours.

As a support vehicle, the Jaguar F-Pace will be responsible for ferrying four key members of the team – Team Sky’s sports director, a team physician, mechanic and another senior team member. Aside from the human cargo, the Jaguar F-Pace will also carry the team’s equipment which includes sports drinks, energy gels and supplements, clothing and spare parts for rider Chris Froome’s bicycle.

“We are delighted to be supporting Team Sky again at such a prestigious sporting event and are excited at the prospect of the F-Pace being seen in action in public for the first time,” commented Kevin Stride, line director of the Jaguar F-Pace. “The Jaguar F-Pace is a striking balance of performance, style and practicality and what better way to showcase the vehicle’s attributes than on this crucial first leg of the Tour de France.”

The Jaguar F-Pace is slated to go on sale in 2016 following its debut in September at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. Jaguar’s first crossover will sit on a lightweight aluminium-intensive iQ[Al] platform and is expected to be powered by a range of petrol and diesel engines from the Ingenium umbrella. Also, a hotter F-Pace R has been rumoured to follow on, powered by the Jaguar F-Type R‘s supercharged 5.0 litre V8 engine.