Are JLR about to announce the new small Jaguar?

Jaguar has reached agreement with unions at Castle Bromwich to increase productivity and look set to announce a new Jaguar.

Back in May we reported that Jaguar had failed to reach agreement with Unions at castle Bromwich over working practices aimed to increase production, but today agreement has been reached and we’re expecting an announcement shortly from JLR.

We know that the new working practices – which involved compulsory Saturday shifts – were vital to Jaguar to get the new F-Type out of the door when it launches in 2013, but this morning both BBC and ITV are reporting that Jaguar are about to announce the production of two new models at Castle Bromwich.

That could of course be the announcement that both the F-Type Roadster and the F-Type Coupe are to be built there, but that would be stretching the definition of ‘Two Models’ a fair bit.

We wonder if Jaguar has been spurred in to pushing forward with the new small Jaguar – an X-Type successor, if you like – much more quickly than planned after the success the small Evoque has had in increasing Land Rover’s sales?

If the announcement is the new small Jaguar, it seems unlikely it could arrive any time before 2015, but that would perhaps still mean we will get a clue of where it’s heading sometime soon and see a concept car in 2013.

All that said, the reports say that Castle Bromwich will increase capacity from 30,000 to 100,000 cars which is perhaps too small a gain to include both the F-Type and a new small Jaguar.

But it looks like we’re about to find out.