After almost two years of teasers, controversy and considerable debate about what a Jaguar should be, the car intended to answer that question has finally arrived.
Jaguar has unveiled the Type 01, an all-electric four-door grand tourer and the first production model created under the British marque’s radical reinvention. Revealed in New York, it is the road-going evolution of the Type 00 concept shown in Miami in December 2024 – and, crucially, retains much of that car’s deliberately provocative design.
The car has the same enormously long bonnet, low roofline, and cab-rearward silhouette, and sits on 23-inch wheels. At the back, there is no conventional rear window; instead, a camera feeds the view behind the car to a digital rear-view display inside. The production car gains four doors, but Jaguar has resisted the temptation to significantly soften the proportions of the concept.
At 5.2 metres long and only 1.4 metres high, this is a very large car. Yet Jaguar says it is also the most aerodynamic road car it has made, with active vanes, a three-stage deployable spoiler and a drag coefficient of 0.23.
That contradiction – imposing but aerodynamic, extravagant but technically driven – is central to what Jaguar is trying to do.
Performance packed
Underneath the body is Jaguar’s new dedicated electric platform, known as Jaguar Electric Architecture, or JEA. Its tri-motor powertrain produces up to 1,030ps (1,015hp) and 1,365Nm of torque, making the Type 01 the most powerful Jaguar road car yet.
It will accelerate from zero to 100kph in 3.2 seconds, while Jaguar says the car can go from 100kph to 180kph in another four seconds. It has 50:50 weight distribution, all-wheel steering and torque vectoring, with expertise from Jaguar’s Formula E programme feeding into its development.
But Jaguar appears keen not to turn the Type 01 into another exercise in EV acceleration statistics.
The company describes it first and foremost as a grand tourer, intended to combine large reserves of power with the sort of long-distance comfort historically associated with some of its best cars.
That means range is important. Jaguar quotes up to 720km under the WLTP testing cycle. Its 850-volt architecture allows up to 200 miles of range to be added in 13 minutes when connected to a 350kW charger.
A Jaguar but not as we know it
The Type 01 matters because Jaguar has in effect spent the past two years betting the company on it.
Its transformation began publicly in November 2024 with the controversial Copy Nothing campaign and an entirely new visual identity. The Type 00 concept followed weeks later, offering the first indication that the changes went much deeper than a new logo.
Jaguar’s aim was to move further upmarket, repositioning itself as a more exclusive, design-led luxury marque rather than competing in the premium market as it had before.
The Type 01 is the first opportunity to judge that strategy as a physical product rather than a marketing exercise.
And whatever one thinks of the result, it is difficult to accuse Jaguar of playing it safe.
There are echoes of the marque’s past – particularly the extravagant bonnet-to-cabin proportions of the E-type and XJS – without attempting to remake either car. Even the name is intended to draw a line between old and new: “Type” references Jaguar’s historic models; “0” represents zero tailpipe emissions; and “1” denotes the first car of the new generation.
Jaguar looks beyond the automotive world
Jaguar chose New York for the world premiere, projecting the Type 01 across digital displays in Times Square, Dumbo and the Lower East Side before the car arrived at Storied in West Chelsea. British actress Florence Pugh was also announced as the first brand ambassador of the marque’s new era.
The choice of city feels significant. Jaguar’s ambitions are no longer simply about restoring a storied British car company. It wants to place itself within a broader world of fashion, architecture, art and contemporary culture and attract a new generation of customers in the process.
Whether those customers will follow is the considerably harder question.
Prices will start at £130,000 (Dh635,000), pushing Jaguar into a very different market from the one occupied by its previous saloons and SUVs. Orders open in early 2027, with the first customer deliveries expected during the second half of the year.
There will be time to decide how successfully the Type 01 drives, how convincing its luxury credentials are and whether Jaguar can translate the enormous attention surrounding its reinvention into sales.
For now, though, the most important thing about the Type 01 may be that Jaguar has followed through on a bold and controversial promise.
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