The Jaguar C-X17 has been confirmed ahead of its Frankfurt motor show debut in the accepted fashion of a teaser image and brief press release peppered with words like 'highly advanced', 'innovative future of the Jaguar brand' and suchlike.
So what is it? Well, Jaguar reveals that the C-X17 is a launch pad for a new modular aluminium architecture (avoidance of the word 'platform' is likely deliberate) to underpin a new generation of cars. And the C-X17 itself? Draw your own conclusions but Jaguar does say "the concept illustrates the diversity of vehicles that could be produced using this architecture" and even from the carefully contrived sketch it's obvious it's not a) a saloon or b) a coupe. Leaving c) as what? Could this be Autocar's mythical new baby Jag?
Images in the same of XF-based mules running raised ride heights and the general flow of conversation would suggest c), in this instance, stands for crossover. And you don't need to screw your eyes up too hard to transplant the outline sketch supplied onto some big wheels and reach the same conclusion.
We'll know more next week at Frankfurt. Which gives us seven days to discuss the merits or otherwise of Jaguar going 4x4 and joining the crossover craze...