IAA 2011: Jaguar’s Stunning C-X16 Concept live from the floor

New E-type? Forget it, the Jaguar C-X16 is more than car enough to step out of the shadow cast by Jaguar’s classic sports car. There’s absolutely nothing retro about this beauty either. Bucking several trends it’s, for a start, very compact. At 175in long it’s two inches shorter than the new 911 and just 51in tall. In fact it’s the smallest car Jaguar has made since 1954’s XK120.

The most exciting thing about the dinky Jag is the power plant – a 3.0-liter supercharged V6 with 380hp and 332lb ft of torque. However, the C-X16’s party piece is a 92bhp 1.6kWh battery pack that can be used, like the KERS tech on F1 cars, for a burst of extra power.

You can drive under electric power only at up to 50mph, too. 0-62mph comes in 4.4 seconds and it’ll top out at 186mph. The tech is only half the story though. This is a truly sexy, desirable car. In that sense, yes, like the E-type. But with its eyes very much on the future, not the past.