Here’s the Jaguar XE in all its glory [Gallery]

The good people at Jaguar are probably nursing some monumental hangovers right now, following the launch of the XE, a muscular saloon aimed squarely at the best Germany has to offer. If early indications are anything to by, those hangovers are pretty well-deserved too.

The XE comes packaged with a supercharged 3.0-litre V6 apparently capable of getting from 0 to 100km/h in around five seconds. Linked to that engine is an eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shift controls, something that’s not nearly as off-putting as it once was.

In terms of its future plans, the XE is actually pretty important to Jaguar Land Rover. The aluminium-intensive car is, you see, the first to use the company’s new modular vehicle architecture.

Given that this is a Jag, and that it’s aiming to take on the likes of the BMW 3 Series, there’s obviously got to be a fair amount of tech too.

Among the stuff you won’t really see, but which matters a lot, is a All Surface Progress Control (ASPC) — a sort of cruise control aimed at giving you maximum grip in slippery conditions. There’s also an autonomous emergency braking system, which uses the XE’s stereo cameras as its “eyes”.

The stereo camera performs traffic sign recognition and lane departure warning functions too. The XE also offers systems such as adaptive cruise control, closing vehicle sensing, blind spot monitoring, semi-automated parallel and bay parking, and reverse traffic detection.

When it comes to the stuff you can see and play with, there’s the increasingly standard Head up Display (HUD) (although Jag claims its is about a third lighter than competing systems on the market. On the infotainment front, there’s an eight-inch touch screen as well as voice control, Wi-Fi and remote functionality through iOS and Android apps.

Oh and if you’re worried that buying an XE could condemn another polar bear, you might want to bear in mind that the XE is the most fuel efficient Jaguar ever made, with CO2 emissions as low as 99g/km.