Idris Elba may be the self-appointed King of Speed but it seems he's about to focus more on fuel economy. Jaguar just tapped the British actor and musician to handle driving duties behind the wheel of a diesel-powered Jaguar XE. The small sports sedan needs to get to Berlin for its German launch, and Elba will be piloting it from a London starting point as a bit of a promotional stunt.
Jaguar and Elba will create a series of short films to chronicle the trip, and they'll hit the Internet on February 10 via the automaker's social media sites. This trip will take Elba, who has appeared in films such as Thor, Prometheus, Pacific Rim and American Gangster, and the car through four countries over the course of three days and 750 miles. He should see strong fuel economy numbers thanks to the promise of over 62 mpg from the XE's available turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine.
Mind you, that figure is based on European fuel economy testing, which is a bit a more liberal than our EPA tests, which should see the car's mileage move close to 40 mpg by our calculations. That's still extremely impressive, and we'd have to imagine it's, of course, due in part to the engine but also to that aluminum body construction.
Regardless, we're still in wait-and-see mode on that front as the car doesn't arrive here until 2016. And fingers crossed we get this diesel variant too. At the moment we only know of gasoline-powered 2.0-liter turbo fours and supercharged 3.0-liter V-6s heading our way.
Note, this isn't the first time Jaguar Land Rover has enlisted the help of celebrities to help promote its wares. Singer Lana Del Rey was enlisted to help promote the F-Type and actor Daniel Craig helped with promotion of Land Rover's Range Rover Sport.
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