Jaguar Concept Zeroes Out Past, Promises Radically Different Future

GAYDON, U.K. – Regardless of whether Jaguar’s executives and designers have it right, the iconic British sports car brand rolls out a concept tonight in Miami that is decidedly un-iconic in nearly every way.

Previewed here to journalists ahead of its unveiling during Miami Art Week, the concept dubbed “Type 00” – pronounced “Type Zero Zero” for zero emissions and zero as the starting point for design – represents a whole-cloth new future for Jaguar. The 2-door is a precursor to a battery-electric 4-door GT scheduled to go on sale in late 2026.

Four years and some $2.5 billion in the making, Type 00, Jaguar’s new branding and the cars it will spawn seek to distance the company and its products from the most recent two decades while building on the brand’s provenance and founder William Lyons’ mantra from 90 years ago to be a “copy of nothing.”

“This time we’re going to do something spectacular,” promises Jaguar CEO Adrian Mardell, who dismissed the brand’s past 20 years as being “too mass market.”

Adds Gerry McGovern, Jaguar chief creative officer, “As Adrian said…the strategy over the past 20 years was not the right one…with too much looking back at the brand’s heritage while the industry and the world have moved forward and changed.”

Long, low fastback styling echoes E-type from 1961.

The new models arising from the rebranding and redesigning initiative won’t appeal to everyone. In addition to more than doubling the starting price of the brand’s current models – all are out of production save the midsize F-Pace CUV that ends its run in 2025 – Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover suggests only 10%-15% of the brand’s current owners will follow the company into the future.

The planned GT, now in testing on public roads here prior to production, is built on the brand’s dedicated Jaguar Electrical Architecture (JEA). It’s expected to push the brand’s price of entry firmly into four figures, starting at about $120,000 (with published reports suggesting as high as a $164,000 sticker) for a BEV with 430 miles (692 km) of range. Fast charging will replenish up to 200 miles (321 km) of range in 15 minutes, the company says.

But Glover downplays the propulsion system. “People don’t buy a car based on its powertrain, but on their emotional connection to the car,” he says, with the concept aiming for the same brand impact as the sexy E-type that stunned the populace when it was introduced at the 1961 New York auto show.

With the JEA in place and brand language established, Richard Stevens, JLR design director, says the concept and production car were designed in parallel, but with design taking the lead and “not beholden to engineering for the hard points” that have been known to force unappealing styling decisions.

That brings us to Type 00. The concept we’re shown here is an imposing, low-slung cab-rearward coupe, painted in a flat rose gold dubbed “Miami Pink” to match the city’s pastel palette (It is joined in Miami by a silver blue model called “London Blue.”). It features a sharply raked windshield, fastback roofline, boattail rear and tight glasshouse with a long hood, blunt nose and fenders reminiscent of the Batmobile. The concept is 16.5 ft. (5.05 m) long and 4.2 ft. (1.27 m) high, and proportionally as wide.

“London Blue” concept shows fastback rear, pronounced rear haunches.

It rides on 23-in. wheels featuring the brand’s “strikethrough” lines centered by Jaguar’s new Artist’s Mark. The strikethrough motif also graces the concept’s nose, highlighted by thin horizontal headlight slits bracketing what would be a radiator grille on a conventional internal-combustion-engine model. The lines also appear on the tail of the vehicle, as well as providing the background for Jaguar’s trademark “leaper” that now serves as a monogram rather than a pronounced hood ornament. The profile is devoid of protruding mirrors, replaced by rear-facing cameras that deploy when the vehicle is activated.

The front left fender includes a motorized pocket that opens to reveal a “Prism” case containing the vehicle’s “totems” – slices of brass, travertine and alabaster that carry the vehicle’s owner-specified attributes for lighting, surroundings and audio system, along with scent choices.

Placing the totems on either side of a 10.5-ft. (3.2-m) full-length, brass-inlaid center console – left side for vehicle attributes, right for scent – activates the concept interior. Twin horizontal screens deploy amid an interior awash in wool-blend fabric accented by brass and travertine stone elements. Power-opening lower drawers provide storage. An oval or squared circle – we like to call it a “squircle” – steering wheel replaces the traditional full round version.

Horizontal screens deploy from concept dashboard, brass inlay runs length of center console.

How much of this appears in production? Designer Stevens says there’s nothing in the concept that isn’t possible in production, “otherwise we’d be setting ourselves up for failure.”

That likely means if you’re expecting expensive hides upholstering the interior, a wood-inlaid steering wheel or splashes of Jaguar’s signature Racing Green, you’re going to be disappointed. If it’s any consolation, at least the car will be built in the U.K.

But if new and different – from Jaguars past and from anyone else in the luxury BEV market – fits in your garage, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Glover says the brand expects its next generation of buyers to be younger and wealthier, more urban and connected, and mostly new to Jaguar. The GT likely will join several vehicles in its owner’s garage.

Initial plans for the rollout of the production car include dealer “salons,” first in Paris, offering a unique and personalized sales experience.

Considering the brand’s fortunes, with Wards Intelligence charting sales in the key U.S. market dropping from 61,000 two decades ago to just 8,836 units last year, and 8,473 sales through October this year, Jaguar is placing a make-or-break bet on this effort to bring new buyers into the fold.

Type 00 is the first hard turn in a drive that sees Jaguar transformed, leaving legions of aging owners in the dust as it accelerates into a fully electric future.

Jaguar reveals “Miami Pink” and “London Blue” concepts at Miami Art Week.