The word ‘Jaguar’ will start to be ditched from the back of production cars within two or three years, the firm’s design boss has confirmed.

Speaking in late June as he showed off the XF at a secret media briefing in London, Ian Callum confirmed the famous name would be removed from the back of the car.

It’s still on the boot lip of the XF – to be unveiled at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show – but with it is a flattened version of Jaguar’s iconic big cat ‘leaper’.

“Eventually we will take the name off and just leave the leaper,” said Callum. “When people see the XF they won’t know what it is, so they will look for a name badge.

“That’s why we’ve left it on, but put the leaper there as well, The name will go probably on production cars within two or three years,” he added.

The XF is due to replace the S-Type early next year.

“We went through 30-odd models and part of that was to look for a new face. We went through one new look with our show cars, such as the RD6, and because of that we were happy to let it go,” Callum said.

Callum said the objective on the XF’s grille was to create something that that moved on from the XJ6 in 1968. “That car was the first one to have the front grille as an air intake and we wanted to evolve that,” said the designer.

Callum explained how on some of the early XF sketches he had started off with four headlamp roundels – as on the current S-Type – but felt it wasn’t taking the design forward.

And Callum confirmed the nose of the XF wasn’t a one-off. “It’s styling that you’ll see on Jaguars more and more,” he added.