Jaguar Type 01 is here, and this Coventry kid is rooting for it

I was born in Coventry, which means I was never going to be neutral about Jaguar. It's the city the car company has called home since 1928, and if you also come from there, then you'll know the leaping cat feels like part of your own heritage. Besides, Jaguar has always been my dad's favourite car. This morning, I asked him why. He said, "Because they make such beautiful and stylish cars. Since my first ride in a Jag at age six, I have loved them. And when I got to work there in the early 70s, wow... I could walk around the assembly track and the museum." And so, when I got married, I hired a 1960s Jag for the day. Because nothing else would come close to feeling special enough for the occasion. And it meant I could sit in a classic Jag with my lovely dad.

With so much love for a car brand, I've spent the last two years getting frustrated by the negativity online, much like you'd feel about hearing someone talk unfavourably about a dear friend. When Jaguar revealed its reimagined brand in November 2024, featuring a new wordmark and a 'Copy Nothing' slogan sat beside a launch film that famously didn't feature a car, the internet went a bit nuts. You'd think they'd beheaded someone lovely, like Mary Berry, the way they went on. A fortnight later, they launched Type 00 at Miami Art Week, a pink concept car that mostly got trolled. Once everything calmed down, there were whispers Jaguar might be finished. Never, I said to no one. Not my beloved Jaguar.

But, like most people, I've been wondering: so where's the car? Well, today it's finally here. Jaguar has unveiled Type 01, a fully electric four-door GT and the first production model of its new era. So what's it all about and what's the verdict?

The cat comes back

First things first, the detail we mourned the most when the rebrand was announced has returned. The leaper is on the car again. It has one home on the exterior, laser-etched into a brass-effect finisher on the front wing that Jaguar calls the "Fender Ingot", and it shows up again inside along the tops of the doors. I don't know about other die-hard Jag fans, but it's a relief to see the brand listened.

The shape of the car, though, is the bigger story here. Type 01 is long and low with a long bonnet, a short front overhang and 23-inch wheels that come up to more than half of the car's height. It's a design you don't normally see on electric vehicles because there's no engine to justify such a large bonnet. But Jaguar kept it anyway, and says there's a good reason why: the distance from the front axle to the front door makes up 17% of the car's length, which is exactly what it was on the beloved E-type.

I mean, look at it. I don't know about you, but I'm impressed. My dad is right – Jaguar really does make beautiful cars. (Although, when I sent a few pics on the WhatsApp family group this morning, the response from him was, "Ugly!") Ha. Design is subjective, I suppose.

An impossible panel

When I say impossible panel, I don't mean a bout of the BBC's Question Time. I'm talking about a single piece of aluminium. Let me explain. The rear quarter of the car has five planes and three feature lines that meet at one point. How on earth did they make such a panel?

Jaguar's engineers spent ages working out how to do it. More than 1,500 hours, apparently. Their stubbornness resulted in a panel pressed in Halewood, on Merseyside, in six stages under 2,500 tons of pressure by a machine four storeys high. As such, they've called it the 'Impossible Panel' – a design feature that also lets the frameless doors close straight against the body with no trim to hide the join. Anyone who works in the creative industries will appreciate this detail, and the sheer determination to make it work.

What about the colours?

The primary palette of the 2024 campaign has grown up. The main colours run through silvers, greys, black and blue, with satin finishes in Modernist Blue and Mesmerising Copper. There is no sign of Barbie here.

The Chromatic Moments collection will only be available to 60 buyers, and they'll get a choice of two special paints: French Ultramarine – a nod to the pigment painters have loved since the Renaissance, and London Red – inspired by the capital's Victorian brick and gallery walls.

Inside, there's a central spine that runs the entire length of the cabin and it divides into four separate seats, all edged in brass-effect aluminium. The interior tones take their cue from travertine stone, and the seats are wrapped in a wool-blend textile from Kvadrat. Flashes of bold colour are hidden inside storage compartments, too. "Materials define how you feel, and luxury is not always about more," says Mary Crisp, chief materiality designer at Jaguar. "Colours set the atmosphere, rich textures provide the depth and the brass-inspired finishers create the character."

Is it fast, though?

Yes. Is the simple answer. Three electric motors produce up to 1,030PS (that's metric horsepower), which makes this the most powerful car Jaguar has ever designed and built. It gets from 0 to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds. Holy sh*t. As for its range, Jaguar expects up to 450 miles, and says 13 minutes on a rapid charger can add 200 of them.

If that wasn't appealing enough, the Type 01 is also the most aerodynamic Jaguar to date. That's after 7,000 wind tunnel tests, and the company has filed over 360 patent applications along the way.

More importantly, all of it is designed, engineered and built in the UK. Orders are expected to open in early 2027, with the first cars being rolled out to customers in the second half of the year.

Has Jaguar pulled it off?

It was Rawdon Glover, Jaguar's managing director, who called the rebrand "a complete reset" back in 2024. And asked whether anything has changed, he says: "Jaguars should be objects of desire and culturally relevant – that's their natural habitat and where Jaguar is returning. Type 01 is the foundation of the brand, one that makes no compromise between design and engineering in our quest to reinvent Jaguar for the 21st century."

Many people made up their minds about Jaguar long before it revealed its first car today. Perhaps they'll feel the same way. Maybe they won't. Only time (and LinkedIn) will tell. What I do know is that a brand loved as much as Jaguar is always going to have a tough time if it changes. We've covered what the rebrand can teach us on Creative Boom before. But a rebrand was only ever going to be judged properly on the product.

Now the Type 01 is here... it really doesn't matter what us creatives think; sales will ultimately decide whether Jaguar's gamble has paid off. I know I'm probably more forgiving than most, being a Coventry kid. But a Jag that's long and low, British and with a leaping cat on its flank? That sounds like a Jaguar to me.