Jaguar’s new electric car is a high-stakes bet on a whole new aesthetic

By Jack Guy, CNN

London (CNN) — British luxury automaker Jaguar has launched its first vehicle since a radical rebrand that caused consternation, and sparked a small-time culture war with some critics calling it “woke.”

Big and broad, with no sign of Jaguar’s traditional curves, the Type 01 is a fully electric four-door grand tourer that may unsettle fans of the manufacturer’s previously heritage-heavy image. But the brand claims it is “the most technically advanced” and aerodynamic Jaguar ever engineered,” according to a press statement from parent company JLR on Wednesday.

The announcement is a big step in Jaguar’s relaunch, which got off to a decidedly rocky start in 2024.

Back then, under the tagline “copy nothing,” Jaguar published a promotional video featuring a diverse cast of models posing and moving through an otherworldly landscape.

The video was notable for the fact that it didn’t feature any cars, and it drew the ire of traditionalists, who accused Jaguar of going “woke.”

“The internet went mad, the anti-woke brigade went mad, even Elon Musk criticized it,” said automotive journalist Mark Smyth. “It threw out everything Jaguar has built over a century, including its customers.”

‘Showpiece for the elite’

The Type 01 will be available from early 2027, with prices starting from £130,000 ($172,000), moving the company firmly into the upper end of the luxury car market.

Both the new model and the wider rebrand present “a massive risk” to the business, according to Smyth and other industry commentators.

“Gone is the curvaceous design legacy of the brand, replaced by brutalist minimalism and cold surfaces,” Smyth added, also highlighting the car’s cutting edge technology and engineering.

“This is not a mainstream production car though, it is a showpiece for the elite,” he said.

“The Type 01 is probably too big for most UK cities, suggesting the US is its main target market,” said Smyth, referencing the car’s 5.2 meter (17 feet) length and two meter (6.6 feet) width.

Writing in The Guardian, journalist Zoe Williams raised similar concerns, alleging that the Type 01 would be too big “to fit into any UK car parking space,” adding that the vehicle “looks more like a tank than a car.”

Stuart Masson, editorial director at automotive market advisory firm The Car Expert, told CNN that the Type 01 is a gamble that could prove decisive for the survival of the company.

“I think Jaguar was a brand that probably more than any other really kind of relied on its heritage and its glory days from in particular the 1950s,” he said. “The rebrand consciously basically just swept all that away in one go and said ‘we’re brand new, we’re starting again.’”

“So it really upended everything that people thought about Jaguar, which was the point, but when you do that you are going to inevitably upset a lot of people who expect the company to be a certain way,” he added.

“The real test,” he said, “is how they’re going to go trying to sell an electric Jaguar for more than double the price of what the old Jaguars tended to be.

“If they’re going to survive they have to do something different, but this is very much last chance saloon stuff for Jaguar,” he said.

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