1:00 am, December 3, 2024
Jaguar has finally taken the wraps off the concept car that it hopes will lead the brand’s revival – and I was at the rather bewildering unveiling.
On Armistice Day, a gathering of motoring hacks were treated to one of the most bizarre launches I’ve ever attended and now, finally, we can talk about the car.
The whole day felt like a cross between a sci-fi movie and an acid trip as we were shown the brand’s plans to ‘copy nothing’ and ‘live vivid’. By now you’ll probably have seen the adverts, read the internet bile and witnessed the fall out.
Two weeks on, we can talk about part two of that event – the concept car launch itself – after its official unveiling at Miami Art Week.
We saw the stark pink concept car – dubbed the Type 00 (to indicate it’s ‘the first’ and zero emissions) – at Gaydon, the brand’s HQ and were sworn to secrecy up until now by a scary looking NDA.
Jaguar purposefully split the launch of its new brand identity and the car with two embargoes, two weeks apart, which means today the world can attempt to make sense of what the firm has been planning.
The new branding had what can only be described as mixed reviews. The unveiling came complete with a car advert with no cars in it, a fresh logo peppered with random upper and lower case letters and marketing-babble slogans that would make even a thesaurus sick.
The branding went down like a lead balloon with die-hard Jaguar fans. The Daily Mail branded it ‘woke’, Elon Musk questioned if the car maker ‘even sold cars’ and even Nigel Farage got upset (shame).
Now the Type 00 has been unveiled, the internet will have something else to moan about.
Calling it a ‘complete reset’, design chief Gerry McGovern told journalists at the launch that his team had ‘not been sniffing the white stuff – this is real’.
‘Real’ is a concept car that comes complete with a lunch-box style ‘prism’ that contains ‘totems’ – chocolate bar-sized pieces of precious metal – that owners can place inside their new cars to change its mood and colours.
As baffling as that sounds, once they’re finished with these ‘ingots’, owners will be able to store the ‘prism’ behind a motorised slot in the side of the car (below).
At this point in the presentation, I did question whether someone had laced the morning pastries with magic mushrooms, but apparently it did actually happen.
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At the launch, we were treated to a hall of mirrors style display of the brand’s new iconography. There was a new leaper embossed on brass (growler – gone), a strikethrough grille with lots of horizontal lines and that new logo that will have sub-editors twitching.
Journalists were hustled into a holding pen where the ‘copy nothing’ cult mantra was burnt into our retinas accompanied by deep, bassy trance music, the sort of which previous Jaguar owners wouldn’t even know existed.
After a fanfare and a ‘Strikethrough’ lightshow, the digital wall parted and the pink Type 00 was revealed.
As the car was revealed there were no gasps, not that I’d expected any from the bewildered journalists. I suspected that by this point in the day, many had succumbed to the cult hypnosis. I was certainly teetering on the edge.
As we edged forwards to get a closer look, I heard one hack quietly mumble: ‘Did Rolls Royce not like that design for the Spectre, then?’ I could see his point – it does look a bit similar (copy nothing).
Personally, I got more Hyundai Veloster and Chrysler Crossfire love child from it, with a hint of Thunderbirds FAB1. That last bit might have been the colour, but there are definitely some similarities. One car dealer who’s seen the pictures dubbed it the ‘Pink Panther’ – I suppose at least there’s a cat element to that one.
After the digital wall had parted, and the ingot speech had been delivered, journalists were encouraged by McGovern to ‘take it in from every angle’.
I tried to do as I was told. By this point, most journalists were huddled, whispering to each other. It was hard to gauge what people were thinking. I’m sure most didn’t want to air their thoughts. Certainly not with Jaguar’s designers circling.
The new car has no wing mirrors, but instead cameras pop out from the brass-plated side panels. It’s got whopping 23-inch wheels and the whole thing is absolutely huge. And I mean really, really big. These pics do not do it justice – it’s Rolls-Royce Phantom in length.
Jaguar says the new brand will keep just 15% of its previous customer base and it will instead be targeting affluent, young car buyers, the sort of which had never bought a Jaguar before.
Having discussed this at length with many former Jaguar car dealers, the consensus is these people simply don’t exist.
‘If these buyers do exist, they certainly don’t want a whopping great GT car – in fact I don’t know many people who do,’ said one ousted Jaguar dealer.
Another car executive told me the whole Jaguar rebrand felt like ‘an Apprentice style challenge’ and that he was ‘waiting for Lord Sugar to give them a good talking to’.
Jaguar, Lord Sugar will see you now…
It wasn’t all bad news, though. After leaked images began circling online yesterday afternoon, I got some more texts from the motor trade in support of its bold new look.
‘I’d drive that, and I’m a Baby Boomer,’ said one dealer boss. ‘Let’s face it, EVs are not selling to the private customer and maybe this will.’
Another said it looked like a ‘modern day E-Type’.
I can’t help thinking that if Jaguar had revealed this bold new branding and then backed it up with a small, sporty city car with a great range, cool looks and an affordable price tag, more people might have understood what they were planning.
But a plus-£100,000 GT car? Is that what young, city dwelling influencers want – a car with a bonnet as long as a Polo and ingots to change their mood? They’ve got Snapchat filters for that and probably prefer Ubers and electric scooters to get about. Equally, I’m sure the brand’s customer research is far more on the money than my guessing.
Jaguar says the Type 00 is the ‘physical manifestation’ of its new ‘creative philosophy – exuberant modernism’. And is at pains to point out it will have a range of 478 miles.
At the Miami launch, McGovern said: ‘Getting attention in today’s world is not always easy, and I assume all of you, and those following from around the world, may have read a thing of two about the new Jaguar brand and we’re delighted to have your attention.
‘When Jaguar was at its best it threw away the car design rule book and created the E-Type and the XJS.
‘These were objects of desire. Sir William Lyons, our founder, many years ago, said Jaguar should be a copy of nothing. Don’t be held back by the past. Be brave. Be fearless. Copy nothing. Create new objects of desire.
‘These were exactly the words I use to brief my creative team. Type 00 is the first physical manifestation of the new Jaguar brand that’s influenced by the desire to recapture the essence of Jaguar’s original creative conviction. This is a taste of things to come.’
It’s worth remembering the Type 00 is a concept car and will shape the look of the brand’s future models. Fans will be hoping it’s enough to tempt some new buyers in to reinvigorate a car maker that holds a special place in many petrolheads’ hearts.
