Jaguar has confirmed the name of its controversial new all-electric car as the Jaguar Type 01 – just as I predicted in The Independent two years ago.
The rebirth of Jaguar was headline news around the world back in 2024, from the reveal of the new branding and logo in a controversial video, to the Jaguar Type 00 design vision concept car being unveiled during Miami Art Week. It’s fair to say that Jaguar hadn’t received that much attention in years – and not all of it was good.
I got to ride in the new Jaguar Type 01 back in December and also had a sneak preview of the production car. Until the look of the new car will be revealed for the first time in public later this summer, we’ve got our own exclusive preview of what the Type 01 might look like.
Jaguar Type names go back to the C, D and E-Type sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s, while the S-Type name was used on saloon models in the 1960s and resurrected in the 90s. Later, an X-Type saloon and estate was sold in the early 2000s. Most recently, Jaguar has produced the F-Type sports car, which stopped production in 2024. Jaguar says that the Type designation for the new Type 01 “unites the brand’s history of innovation in design, technology and performance with the most advanced Jaguar ever.”
In the Jaguar Type 01, the 0 represents zero tailpipe emissions from the electric drivetrain, while the 1 references the fact that this is the first model of Jaguar’s new, all-electric era.
The Type 01 name is only set to appear subtly on the car’s parallel line strikethrough graphic where the bonnet meets the windscreen. It’s also set to be seen on the camouflaged Type 01 that will be seen on the streets of Monaco ahead of the Formula E race there this coming weekend.
Rawdon Glover, Jaguar managing director, said: “We have reimagined Jaguar for a new era, with inspiration from what has gone before. Our engineers have achieved this with a vehicle that looks and drives like no other electric car, yet reflects a unique provenance. The Type 01 name is part of that story – for me, the zero also signifies a complete brand reset, and the ‘1’, our first car for a new chapter, a ‘one of a kind.’”
Jaguar’s former chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, revealed the striking Jaguar Type 00 concept in December 2024 saying: “I don’t believe in concepts unless they become a reality” – a hint that the striking styling of the design vision concept car will make it through to production.
The proportions of the concept, with its dramatic long bonnet and sloping roofline, will follow through to the production Type 01 – as seen on the camouflaged car that I’ve been in.
Plenty of the design details – such as the strikethrough graphic that sits in place of a traditional grille, the slim headlights, subtle use of the reinvented Jaguar leaper and even the soft colour palette previewed by the Miami Pink and London Blue concept cars – are all expected to make production.
Read more: “It’s been a week… and I’m loving the Jaguar Type 00 more than I ever imagined”
The front end is very much like the Type 00 concept with its flat, wide front dominated by the bold strikethrough grille. We’ve created the render to make the car look slightly more production-ready, keeping the headlights as slim as possible, while leaving a bit more space for super-advanced LED projector beam units. We’d expect the new Jaguar logo – or device mark as Jaguar calls it – to sit in the centre as it does on the concept.
Similarly, the long bonnet remains, while the Jaguar leaper still sits in a bronze panel on the squared-off sides, but potentially as part of a more traditional and easily accessed EV charging port just behind the big wheels.
With McGovern a known fan of production cars with big wheels, expect the Type 01 to get 22-or 23-inch wheels, which will feature the J and R ‘maker’s mark’ in the hub.
The design vision concept’s butterfly doors are unlikely to make production on the four-door GT model, although they would allow for excellent access in a future coupé car. We’ve taken a close look at the shape of the pre-production prototype caught testing in camouflage, and mimicked the shape of the cabin with its four doors.
The production Type 01 will need to be more practical with space for at least two people in the back, so the sloping roof might not be quite as sharply angled as the concept’s. However, we’d expect the shape to stick as true to the Type 00 as possible, with the glassless rear enabling Jaguar to push the header rail of the roof further back to allow for decent headroom – exactly has Polestar has done with its glassless rear in the Polestar 4. Cameras and a screen in place of a rear-view mirror will take care of the visibility out of the back of the car.
At the rear, we’d expect the Type 01 to be true to the concept. The rear lights would be hidden until lit, a feature McGovern pioneered on the latest Range Rover. The strikethrough graphic is likely to feature heavily again – as it does at the front – although the lights may have to move closer to the corners of the car than on the Type 00.
As far as the battery and motors are concerned, what we know so far is that the Type 01 features a completely new body architecture featuring tri-motor technology that delivers more than 1,000bhp and over 1,300Nm of torque
Given that amount of power, we’d expect the bespoke Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA) that the car sits on to offer four-wheel drive and no end of clever computer trickery to give the car a true Jaguar sporting feel.
What we do know about the production model is that Jaguar is targeting a range of 478 miles and super-fast charging to add up to 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes. We’d expect a couple of battery options, with only the biggest battery offering that sort of range.
We also know how much the new Jaguar GT will cost. Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover revealed to The Independent that prices will start at just under £100,000, although the average selling price is likely to be well above the six-figure mark.
Jaguar is reducing the number of dealers who can sell its models in future, while opening Jaguar clubhouse showrooms, the first of which will be in Paris in the Golden Triangle.
With the Type 01 model not expected to go on sale until 2028, we’d expect it to be well towards the end of the decade before the three-model range will be completed with an SUV and sporty crossover. However, the Jaguar team have promised that everything the Jaguar brand does in future will be true to its new ‘copy nothing’ philosophy of bold exuberance – so expect some more surprises along the way.
