Jaguar has the chance to become the "Ferrari of JLR's business" through a greater number of high-performance cars and advanced body and powertrain technologies, the company said.

"We are trying to achieve in five years what it took Audi 20 years to achieve," a spokesman said at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which starts today.

"But we will only ever produce cars which are relevant and profitable, and we cannot grow faster than our suppliers and recruitment allow.

"Today, brand is more important than ever before. If you think back to the period between 1950 and 1975, Jaguar was on the same buyer shortlists as Ferrari and Maserati. We believe we have the opportunity to do that again."

The confidence comes with the recent introduction of the XJR and XFR-S, bringing the number of special performance derivatives in the range to six, with more to come.

At Frankfurt the company is showing an SUV concept, the C-X17, which is based on all-new aluminium architecture that will underpin the next generation of Jaguars, starting with a compact saloon in 2015.

Jaguar also has new four-cylinder engines under development, to be produced in a new factory in Wolverhampton from 2015, while within the JLR group there are now hybrid powertrains, revealed at Frankfurt in the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

"Frankfurt is where Jaguar will re-establish itself as an engineering force as part of the plan to become profitable and more relevant," the company said. "The new architecture is an enabler which will allow a huge number of different itinerations. It's much more than just a production system."

Jaguar is spending £3 billion on product development this year - the same as last year and the same as it plans to spend in 2014.