The Jaguar F-Pace is now as clean as a supermini

Thought 2017 had barely begun? Jaguar’s already moved on to 2018. At least in model-year naming, anyway; the XE, XF and F-Pace have all been refreshed under the ‘18MY’ tag. Whatever you think of Jag’s hurried calendar flicking, though, there’s some nice stuff introduced.

Namely, new engines. There are new 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engines, possessing 197bhp and 247bhp, which are slotted into all three. There's a ballsier 375bhp V6 for the top-spec XE (but still no news of an XE RS). And no doubt outselling all three, a thriftier 2.0-litre diesel for the F-Pace. It has 161bhp (boo) but emits just 126g/km of CO2 (hooray), though only with a manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive. Most SUV buyers probably want an auto and AWD…

Wallet fat enough not to worry? The 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel’s flexibility is proven with a new 237bhp tune, which emits a bit more carbon, but gives the F-Pace a 0-62mph time beginning with a seven. If that’s important to you. The new engine also appears in the XF saloon, which is quicker still.

As well as new powertrains, Jag’s introduced new technology. The XE and XF get a gesture operated bootlid (mime a kick at the rear bumper and the boot should open for you), XE, XF and F-Pace get Jaguar Land Rover’s fancy twin-screen display (the driver sees nav, the passenger can watch TV or fiddle with the stereo), while you can now pay for Shell fuel from an on-screen app as you fill up, if face-to-face contact is too much to bear. There’s also some new safety tech that helps avoid frontal accidents.

The XE, XF and F-Pace haven’t had any cosmetic work done, however. Which given they’re pretty much the best looking cars in the respective classes, is no bad thing whatsoever. Perhaps there’ll be a facelift for the 2019 model year. Due, presumably, any week now…