Jaguar Boldly Goes Where No Automaker Has Gone Before – CleanTechnica

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Two weeks ago, reports emerged in the motoring press about a new direction for Jaguar — the much beloved former British sports car manufacturer responsible for such iconic vehicles as the XK-120 that debuted in 1948 and the XK-E that followed in 1961. The company also produced a series of sedans, known in the UK as saloon cars, for wealthy Brits and a few colonists to parade around in. These were cars meant to be seen in as much as driven. Clint Eastwood drove a black XK-140 in the movie Play Misty For Me, and they were much in demand among the smart set in San Francisco who were prone to say “Muffy, why don’t we take the Jag down to Carmel this weekend?”

But burled walnut instrument panels weren’t enough to sustain the brand, especially after the Japanese proved that cars could be ridiculously reliable. As a former Jaguar owner, I can attest that it was a beautiful automobile but a lousy car. They were finicky to drive and frightfully expensive to maintain — often spending more time in the shop than in the owner’s garage. That lack of reliability coincided with a general malaise in the British auto industry that inspired satirical bumper stickers like this one — “Q. Why do the British drink warm beer? A. Because they have Lucas refrigerators.” Lucas was one of the principal electronic suppliers to British car companies and was often referred to as The Prince of Dark because the headlights it supplied would often go dark at the most inopportune moments.

Things continued to go downhill for Jaguar until it was purchased by Ford. Then they got worse, as what passed for Jaguars were little more than re-badged Ford products with all the soul and grace that implies. Eventually, Ford grew bored with the constant flow of red ink from its Jaguar division and was only too happy when Tata Motors called and asked if perhaps the brand was for sale. Land Rover was part of the deal and so Jaguar Land Rover emerged from the wreckage of Ford’s stewardship.

A few years ago, Jaguar introduced its first electric car, the I-Pace. It was a looker and quite capable on the road, but it was  bedeviled by the same electronic gremlins that have cursed Volkswagen ever since the first ID.3 rolled off the assembly line in Zwickau. The I-Pace is now out of production, as are most other Jaguar models. In fact, the Jaguar brand barely has a heartbeat. But Tata Motors has a plan to resuscitate the company by making it an ultra-chic alternative to Maybach and Rolls-Royce, a bauble for the charm bracelets of the wealthy.

The Jaguar Type 00 Unveiled

We got a taste of what the new Jaguars would look like a few weeks ago, but now the actual prototypes of the oddly named Type 00 concept cars have hit the internet for all to see. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but those concept cars have sparked general derision among the automotive design cognoscenti. The company says the exaggerated long-hood, short-deck look is supposed to pay homage to the XK-E coupe, but where that car was supple and lithe, the new one looks like it was chiseled from a solid block of granite, with not the slightest attempt to make it attractive. It looks as though it should have been featured in the Barbie movie with its putrescent pink paint and elongated proportions.

The closest thing to it the automotive world has recently seen would be the Cadillac 16 concept from 2003. That car at least has a 16-cylinder engine under its elongated hood. The Jaguar Type 00 concept has no internal combustion engine to contend with, and doesn’t even have a frunk under its acres of sheet metal.

Reaction To The Jaguar Type 00 Is Decidedly Mixed

Who better to describe the reaction to the new direction of an iconic British automotive brand than the BBC? It started its coverage with this headline: “Stunning or rubbish? Jaguar’s new concept car divides opinion.” Some on social media said the new Type 00 car was “exciting” and “absolutely stunning,” while others called it “rubbish” and told Jaguar’s designers to “go back to the drawing board.” Jaguar, however, said the reaction was exactly what it wanted as it tries to reset its brand to revive sluggish sales.

“Jaguar needs to be bold and disruptive in order to cut through and get our message across,” boss Rawdon Glover said. He added his goal was to restore Jaguar’s image as a luxury brand and no longer try to compete with a thousand other auto brands by pumping out large numbers of cars. Glover said the debate over styling helped to draw “more eyeballs” to the firm for this week’s unveiling of the new concept car. “In that context … the strategy was successful,” he said. Jaguar has long been the weakest link within the Jaguar Land Rover group. Sales have plunged from 180,000 in 2018 to just 67,000 last year. Last month, JLR stopped selling new Jaguars in the UK altogether, ahead of its relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026.

“We absolutely don’t want to ostracize any of our customer base. But, as I say, [the] most important thing for us is we need to attract a new audience to Jaguar’s brand to make sure that we are safeguarding the next 90 years of Jaguar’s future.” It said the decision to stop selling new Jaguar cars in the UK last month was a deliberate move to “create some breathing space” before unveiling its new look.

The Type 00 model unveiled at a Miami art fair is a concept car, and so will not go into production for sale to the public. Instead, the vehicle, which features an ultra-long bonnet and big wheels, suggests the direction the brand’s new models will go in. Glover said Jaguar had “ripped up the rulebook” with the new design, which is also intended to evoke Jaguars past when the brand was in its heyday. The re-brand comes with a higher price point, with Jaguar now aiming for the luxury market. “Nobody needs a vehicle at £120,000. You have to want one,” he said. “Overall, this has got that sense of real occasion. And that’s what we think is perhaps missing in that luxury EV space.”

But many on social media were nonplussed by the preview, the Beeb reports. James May, broadcaster and former presenter of Top Gear, said he was “slightly disappointed” by the design and its price. “I wanted something more futuristic,” he told the BBC. “I mean, Jaguar have been saying they will copy nothing, but there’s quite a bit of other concept cars in that new Jag.” May said Jaguar cars traditionally been “very reasonably priced compared with, for example, Aston Martin, so I’d like to see something more like half the price that they’re toting at the moment.” Beatrix Keim, director at the Center of Automotive Research, agreed that Jaguar’s concept car was “too big, too unreal.”

“This is not the way to go,” she said, given that there are already big cars in the market and “electric cars cannot only be for the rich. Of course, Jaguar is a luxury brand, but I don’t think that this is the direction which Jaguar at current point of time needs, because it’s losing out on volume as well. And this is not a volume car.”

Amanda Stretton, a racing driver and motoring journalist, also said she thought Jaguar was going in the “wrong direction” on price. “The market for cars in excess of £100,000 is not enormous. So Jaguar’s trying to break into a market that’s already tightly fought,” she said, adding that the size of the new car appeared to be “absolute nonsense. It needs to be shrunk by about 50% to be practical.”

Now it’s your turn, CleanTechnica readers. Is the Jaguar Type 00 a bold new direction or a shortcut to a dead end? To me, it’s more caricature than carrozzeria, but opinions are like noses — everybody has one. If you had a hundred and twenty grand to spend on a car, would you spend it on a Jaguar, perhaps to take a drive up the coast to Petaluma? Why or why not?