diff --git a/src/Composer/Downloader/XzDownloader.php b/src/Composer/Downloader/XzDownloader.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..edebf2f67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Composer/Downloader/XzDownloader.php
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of Composer.
+ *
+ * (c) Nils Adermann <naderman@naderman.de>
+ *     Jordi Boggiano <j.boggiano@seld.be>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Composer\Downloader;
+
+use Composer\Config;
+use Composer\Cache;
+use Composer\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcher;
+use Composer\Package\PackageInterface;
+use Composer\Util\ProcessExecutor;
+use Composer\IO\IOInterface;
+
+/**
+ * Xz archive downloader.
+ *
+ * @author Pavel Puchkin <i@neoascetic.me>
+ * @author Pierre Rudloff <contact@rudloff.pro>
+ */
+class XzDownloader extends ArchiveDownloader
+{
+    protected $process;
+
+    public function __construct(IOInterface $io, Config $config, EventDispatcher $eventDispatcher = null, Cache $cache = null, ProcessExecutor $process = null)
+    {
+        $this->process = $process ?: new ProcessExecutor($io);
+        parent::__construct($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache);
+    }
+
+    protected function extract($file, $path)
+    {
+
+        $command = 'tar -xJf ' . ProcessExecutor::escape($file) . ' -C ' . ProcessExecutor::escape($path);
+
+        if (0 === $this->process->execute($command, $ignoredOutput)) {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        $processError = 'Failed to execute ' . $command . "\n\n" . $this->process->getErrorOutput();
+        throw new \RuntimeException($processError);
+
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritdoc}
+     */
+    protected function getFileName(PackageInterface $package, $path)
+    {
+        return $path.'/'.pathinfo(parse_url($package->getDistUrl(), PHP_URL_PATH), PATHINFO_BASENAME);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Composer/Factory.php b/src/Composer/Factory.php
index 65cd8e3ed..49c31601d 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Factory.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Factory.php
@@ -403,6 +403,7 @@ class Factory
         $dm->setDownloader('rar', new Downloader\RarDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
         $dm->setDownloader('tar', new Downloader\TarDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
         $dm->setDownloader('gzip', new Downloader\GzipDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
+        $dm->setDownloader('xz', new Downloader\XzDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
         $dm->setDownloader('phar', new Downloader\PharDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
         $dm->setDownloader('file', new Downloader\FileDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));
         $dm->setDownloader('path', new Downloader\PathDownloader($io, $config, $eventDispatcher, $cache));