Can the New Jaguar XE-R Take Market Share from the BMW M3?

If Jaguar plans on making a splash in the performance sedan segment that has been dominated by BMW and has stiff competition coming from Mercedes and Cadillac, they’ll need to make the XE-R even better than the upcoming 2017 model. That’s they’re plan and they’re trying to pull out nearly 500HP out of the engine that currently pushes the F-Type roadster. What will that mean in a bigger car? If they can get their 0-60 time under five seconds, they may have something going for them.

As AutoWeek tells us:

The civilian-spec versions of Jaguar’s sport sedan will debut before the XE-R sees light, and will land stateside next spring as 2017 models. The base version in the range will actually be the XE 20d, using the Ingenium aluminum-block four-cylinder diesel engine good for 180 hp and 318 lb-ft of torque. The other model will be called the XE 35t, and will feature a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 engine tuned for 340 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. The XE 35t will itself boast a 4.9-second sprint to 60 mph, so the XE-R model will have no choice but to best that number by a good margin.