The Jaguar XK has been awarded the Engineering and Technology Award at the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards in London this week.

The awards judge on any ‘outstanding innovation or achievement which is considered to have significant merit’ and the XK’s ‘pedestrian deployable bonnet’ was the winning feature.

Jonathan Mabey and Bill McLundie, on behalf of the Jaguar XK pedestrian safety team, received the award at the Savoy Hotel from Prince Michael of Kent.

In the event of a pedestrian impact, the deployable bonnet on the new XK automatically 'pops' up a few inches, to increase space between the engine and the bonnet.

This helps to isolate the pedestrian from hard points in the engine compartment – and takes place in less than a tenth of the time it takes to blink an eye. A sensing system is mounted in the front bumper to help discriminate between a pedestrian collision and any other possible front-end collisions.

The all-new aluminium Jaguar XK will be launched early next year.