Jaguar SUV spotted - latest pictures

These are the best pictures yet of the new Jaguar SUV, due in 2016.

The SUV will be Jaguar’s first, and was previewed by the C-X17 concept car from the Frankfurt motor show.

Under the adapted Jaguar XF bodywork on this early engineering mule is Jaguar’s new architecture, whose title iQ[Al] stands for ‘intelligent aluminium architecture’. It underpinned the C-X17 and will first be used on a BMW 3-series-rivalling saloon due in 2015.

Jaguar bosses say the architecture is both modular and scalable and enables flexible, high-volume production that can produce competitive interior packaging and allows a great deal of design freedom.

As well as a saloon and an SUV, estate and coupé models are also set to be spun off the architecture, which can accommodate different wheelbase lengths, track widths and heights.

The production SUV is set to be smaller than the 4.72metre-long C-X17, something backed up by how big the XF body looks in proportion to the chassis.

Rear-wheel drive is set to be standard, with four-wheel drive optional. Four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines will be offered alongside more potent V6 petrol and diesels and possibly a supercharged V8 at the top of the range.

The new family of models will be built in a huge factory currently under construction at JLR’s Solihull plant, already its centre of excellence for aluminium manufacturing but previously exclusively used for Land Rovers.