The X-Type, Jaguar's entry into the highly competitive and fast growing compact sedan market, has made its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show. It will go head to head with the Mercedes-Benz C class, Audi A4 and BMW 3 series. Jaguar officials believe the X-Type is the most significant product launch in the company's history. The X-Type goes on sale from the summer of 2001. Jaguar Sports Cars Selling at Record Levels The X-Type establishes Jaguar as a four-model line company, accelerating its rapid transformation from a niche player into a major competitor in the luxury car market and further emphasizing its current status of both one of the fastest growing manufacturers in the world and a U.K. automotive manufacturing success story. In the year 2000, Jaguar sold more than 90,000 cars worldwide. The company's XJ Series and S-Type sedans and XK Series sports cars are currently selling at record levels around the globe. Yet, when the X-Type range is in full production, Jaguar expects to more than double its total worldwide sales. Designed and developed in record time, in about two years at Jaguar's Whitley Engineering Centre in Coventry (U.K.), the new Jaguar X-Type will be produced at Jaguar's Halewood facility on Merseyside (U.K.). Halewood Plant and Facilities The Halewood plant's 3000-strong workforce has received more than a million hours of training, including 700,000 hours "on-the-job", to ensure the X-Type models are being built to the highest quality standards from day one, according to Jaguar. Although the physical renewal of the Halewood plant had to wait for the end of Ford Escort production in mid-2000, the transformation of the working processes, environment and culture began two and a half years earlier. Company officials say this provided the vital time to raise levels of workforce skill, to introduce improved manufacturing techniques and created a new, quality-focused culture suitable for Jaguar's premium vehicles. The X-Type Jaguar believes the more affordable compact sports sedan will attract a new generation of customers to the Jaguar marque. Jaguar predicts that X-Type buyers will typically be younger than traditional Jaguar owners and include a greater number of women and young professionals, many with young families. The X-Type is designed to combine practical functions with the features unmistakably associated with the Jaguar range. For the first time on a Jaguar, the X-TYPE features all-wheel drive as standard, making it a car for driving enthusiasts. Improved driving performance comes from the V6 2.5 or 3.0 litre engines, both derived from the AJ-V6 power train already proven to be successful in the larger Jaguar S.