Definitely we should start with what Jaguar’s new concept is before we arrive at what it isn’t. For starters, as you might have seen, it’s pink - Miami Pink, in fact. And though we should park that fact too, it’s probably worth acknowledging before some people burst with pent-up indignation from the leak earlier today. Yes, the (actual, physical) car PH has seen in the flesh ahead of its unveiling at Miami Art Week was pink, though apparently there is a London Blue example, too. The team did not make a big fuss about it when discussing Type 00 (for that is what the concept is called) but you hardly need to be standing next to the ghost of Sir William Lyons to know that its choice of colour is wrapped up in the idea that with the concept Jaguar is making ‘a fearless statement’. Let’s come back to that, too.
The other thing the Type 00 is - or, at least, what it represents for its maker - is the physical manifestation of the new creative language we’ve heard so much about: Exuberant Modernism. The car’s name combines Jaguar familiar preoccupation with the word ‘Type’ (it references the E-Type specifically) and ’00’ because it is considered to be ‘zero’ in the new electric-powered lineage. But the underlying philosophy is said to be based on three characteristics: Exuberant (in the sense of being vibrant and uninhibited); Modernist (future-facing, obviously); and Compelling (i.e. interesting enough that a customer would willingly engage with it).
Needless to say, those terms are as loose fitting as a Hawaiian muumuu and don’t really explain how Jaguar arrived at a concept with an extravagantly long bonnet or a sweeping, cab-rear profile or that dramatic boat-tail rear-end - but Gerry McGovern, JLR’s uncompromising Chief Creative Officer, was adamant that the project was among the most design-led that the firm had ever attempted, and the underlying JEA platform was developed partly to accommodate Type 00’s mould-breaking look. A look which, rear doors and extensive road-legal paraphernalia aside (and minus the show car interior), is set to translate to the forthcoming grand tourer virtually wholesale.
Or at least that’s the plan as it was conveyed to PH in the bowels of Gaydon last month. There was some slight variance in just how closely Jaguar’s assembled execs thought the production car would resemble the Type 00 - and with the reveal not due to happen until ‘late 2025’, there is presumably time for it to change slightly under the weight of sufficient pressure. But its prow-heavy proportions and the fastback silhouette are here to stay (as evidenced by pictures of the first development prototypes); as is Jaguar’s new preoccupation with its new ‘strikethrough’ motif and the upright surfaces that prominently frame it on the front and rear end.
The result, as Jaguar plainly intended, is confrontational in the flesh. “It has an unmistakeable presence,” reckons McGovern. “This is the result of brave, unconstrained creative thinking, and unwavering determination. It is our first physical manifestation and the foundation stone for a new family of Jaguars that will look unlike anything you’ve ever seen.” There isn’t much arguing with that sentiment, and nor is there any question that the manufacturer’s idea of a ‘bold statement’ virtually dares you to engage with it emotionally - for better or worse. Being mildly theatrical is a common trait among concepts - and with hand-finished brass ingots indicating hidden items like the rear-facing camera, and a ‘body-harmonised glazed roof’ ahead of a glassless tailgate, there is no shortage of that - but rarely has one attempted to blueprint an entirely new design ethos, not to mention a far-reaching brand invention beyond, on the strength of one remarkably unapologetic show car.
Especially one divorced (by choice, it would seem) from significant discussion of its technical merits. The cabin, accessed by butterfly doors (or a ‘pantograph’ tailgate that PH did not see working), is suitably ornate - think 3.2-metre long brass spine in between floating instrument panels, with a travertine stone plinth beneath it, among some genuinely lovely looking woven textiles - but, as is the way of such things, it will surely enjoy only a tangential relationship with the real-world interior. Unless Jaguar really is considering introducing three handheld totems (in brass, travertine and alabaster, no less) that tailor the car’s ambience to reflect their innate properties when placed in a central ‘Prism’ case. PH would happily settle for infotainment screens that really do retract into the dash.
Otherwise, anything as concrete as a number was limited to succinct discussion of the targeted single-charge range: confirmed in the subsequent release as 478 miles via WLTP or 430 miles when measured the EPA’s way. And the prospect of adding up to 200 miles of range after charging for just 15 minutes. All very laudable then - if delivery of the first production cars were imminent; less so with 2026 still a long way off. Clearly, there is much else to come on the subject in time, but when ‘Capturing the Spirit of Jaguar’ is limited to brief mention of the new platform ensuring ‘clients experience a captivating driving experience, engaging handling and exemplary ride comfort’ you come to appreciate just how much stock JLR has invested in the ‘sense of awe’ it expects Type 00 to summon up.
This, predictably, is where the 23-inch wheels are prone to come off. Fearlessness, as Jaguar is in the process of discovering, works both ways. The general thrust of its intentions - most notably to forge ‘a creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant and one that really stands out’ as MD, Rawdon Glover put it - is wholly good. The core ambition contained within Exuberant Modernism is admirable, too: being true to its newly established tenets in the future (in a way that it arguably failed to be in its recent past) is a commendable - and theoretically profitable - way to distinguish itself from the ‘increasingly homogenous EV market’ it is hellbent on entering.
But Jaguar has probably set too much store in its capacity to recreate the kind of response that greeted the pair of E-types it showed to the world at Geneva in 1961. Such pivotal moments - always easier to recognise in retrospect than in real-time anyway - are vanishingly rare. Rarer still when the future production model you’re attempting to angle buyers toward is not an innately svelte sports car, but a necessarily large and box-like four-door GT. Which will spawn a lineup of similarly chunky battery-powered SUVs. Jaguar has been fearless enough to implore people to feel before they think, but has given them scant reason to feel anything like the excitement that might have been generated by (for example) a legitimate, non-plagiarised, fully-electric followup to its most famous road car.
Which isn’t to suggest, as it seems at least half the internet already has, that the Type 00 is a doomsday-style miss. Granted, applying the tagline ‘Copy Nothing’ to its efforts was always destined to produce a list of cars that the concept resembles, and Jaguar has done its wider popularity very few favours by needlessly (shamelessly, some might say) pandering to the sort of audience it presumably imagines attends events like Miami Art Week - but the concept itself, seen in person, is not without redeeming features. Like many design-driven projects, of the car’s many angles, it helps to locate the one you find most favourable: for PH, this was the rear three-quarter, where those blistered arches and the tapering roofline (an E-type reference if ever there was one) combine with the low-slung, glassless body pleasingly well. Some in the office even claimed to like it from the front.
Of course, it is precisely this kind of subjective bickering that leads to another salient point. Or two. The first is money. If we can collectively agree that the Type 00 is not classically pretty, it would be hard to conclusively disagree with the fact of its boldness, aesthetically speaking - and there’s always an audience for that kind of bold. The thought then lingers: had Jaguar revealed its Design Vision Concept as a near production-ready preview of what was to come, and announced that there would be, say, 65 of them, one for each year between now and the E-type’s launch, priced at whatever astronomical figure you’d care to pluck from the air, then its unveiling would be framed completely differently. (Doubly so with a hybridised V8 mounted in that suspiciously long nose - but let’s not go there.) Instead, at under £150k, we must grapple with the notion that Jaguar’s four-door electric GT will eventually need to contend with the likes of the Porsche Taycan, only slightly less reliant on volume than the saloons that preceded it.
The second point - and the one which seems to stick in many a PHer craw - is the extent to which the firm has apparently alienated its existing fanbase with what seems like an exaggerated attempt to distance the future of the brand from its storied past. While some of this discontent can be dismissed as the usual traditionalist handwringing in the face of much-needed change, the idea that the ‘Copy Nothing’ ethos is suppressing (or even subverting) some of what made Jaguar so likeable in the first place is a more persistent one - and not easily allayed by a concept that doesn’t conform to the effortless, flowing lines that once characterised the manufacturer’s output. JLR might persuasively argue that past is now so distant its value as a legitimate reference point is limited, and the time has finally arrived to nail down a ‘visionary design’ for this century and the electric age just over the horizon. Type 00 probably isn’t it. But there’s only one way to go from zero, right?
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