Currently reading: JLR to launch Ingenium straight-six engines
The Midlands-based car maker is understood to be ditching its V6s in favour of straight-six units; engines are expected to be 3.0-litre in capacity

The six-cylinder engines in Jaguar Land Rover’s future expanded Ingenium family will be straight-six units rather than V6s.

The petrol and diesel inline six engines will replace the current Ford-sourced V6s in JLR’s model range, and will be built at the firm’s Ingenium engine plant in Wolverhampton, a doubling in size of which was confirmed by JLR last year.

Switching to in-line six engines rather than using V6s will mean JLR’s six-cylinder engine strategy will mirror that of rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The Ingenium engine family is of modular design, allowing the design, parts and manufacturer of different engine sizes to be shared. The six-cylinder engines will be, in effect, a version of the four-cylinder Ingenium with two extra cylinders. The engines will have a capacity of 3.0 litres, as with JLR’s current V6 engines.

The Ingenium engine strategy is similar to that of BMW with a 500cc per cylinder capacity. Three-cylinder engines are also planned, with a 1.5-litre capacity. A four-cylinder Ingenium 2.0-litre petrol engine is due later this year.

The use of straight-six engines has already been packaged into the engine bay of models from the lightweight D7a architecture used on the Jaguar XE, Jaguar XF, and Jaguar F-Pace, an architecture which is also destined for future Land Rovers.

Inline six-cylinder engines are traditionally trickier to package, but use fewer moving parts and are lighter than V6s, which translates to improved fuel economy and lower manufacturing costs. 

The Ingenium engine range is geared up for different configurations with transverse or longitudinal installation, front-, rear- and all-wheel drive transmissions, and, in the future, hybridisation.

V8s do have a future in JLR’s lineup, even though they're unlikely to be built by JLR or be part of the Ingenium family. There is speculation that JLR could switch to BMW or Mercedes-sourced V8s in the future, rather than develop its own. 

 

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Mark Tisshaw

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Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

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jagdavey 23 April 2016

Straight Six, back to their roots

Straight Sixes were always Jaguars "true" engine arrangement, so sucessful that the "XK" unit remained in production from 1949 until 1992. It was only under "Henry's" regime that they were forced to abandon it & go down the V8 route, & even getting it made in Ford's bridgend plant!!!
koyaanisqatsi 23 April 2016

…...

It's more likely a turbo petrol straight 6 would replace the supercharged V6 and a hybrid version the current V8s. Lets hope we're on the verge of dumping diesels on mass!!
Mikey C 20 April 2016

A straight six

Does fit in better with Jaguar's heritage as well. The XK6 engine is still the definitive Jaguar engine. In terms of the current V8, the RR and RR Sport (in export markets) are probably the main users now, I can't imagine a petrol RR with a 6 cylinder engine!
Ski Kid 21 April 2016

I think that they use 6 cylinder petrol

petrol 6 cylinders supercharged, Used in RR and RR Sport plus
Jaguars in export markets.