Right. So here it is: the new Jaguar Type 01

“Copy Nothing.”

Two words that Jaguar has certainly not been shy about using in recent months. The phrase goes back to the company’s founder, Sir William Lyons, who was convinced that a Jaguar should be a copy of nothing. When it comes to reinventing a brand, one could choose worse guiding principles.

However, this also raises expectations a little.

So here we have the first production car that must demonstrate what ‘Copy Nothing’ actually means in 2026: the Jaguar Type 01.

And let’s put it this way: it’s going to be hard to overlook.

A big car. Very much a Jaguar.

The Type 01 is a four-door electric grand tourer with a long bonnet, low roofline, short front overhang and strikingly long rear overhang. Beneath it: 23-inch wheels. Above and in between: a surprising amount of surface area.

The result looks less as though Jaguar had designed an electric car, and more as though someone had first sketched a rather dramatic GT and then asked the engineers if they could please make it work somehow.

That seems to have been more or less the idea.

For the Type 01, Jaguar developed its own platform: the Jaguar Electric Architecture, or JEA for short. Not least because the desired proportions apparently could not be achieved using an existing architecture. More than 360 patent applications were filed in the course of its development.

That’s what you call consistency.

Or stubbornness.

At Jaguar, these two qualities have traditionally been quite closely linked anyway.

1,030 arguments

Anyone who, given its monumental appearance, assumes that Jaguar has taken a more measured approach to the technology is mistaken.

Three electric motors with Intelligent Torque Vectoring deliver up to 757 kW (1,030 PS) and 1,365 Nm of torque. This makes the Type 01 the most powerful road-going Jaguar ever produced. It goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. Almost more interestingly, the large GT takes just a further four seconds to go from 100 to 180 km/h.

That’s less about acceleration than a dramatic change in geographical position.

Nevertheless, Jaguar expressly states that it is not solely about the figures. A 50:50 weight distribution, two distinct dynamic characters and expertise from Jaguar’s Formula E programme are intended to ensure that the Type 01 not only goes fast in a straight line, but actually feels like a Jaguar.

It will be interesting to see exactly what that means in 2027.

720 kilometres later

They’re pulling out all the stops when it comes to the electric side of things, too.

A usable 118 kWh battery is paired with an 850-volt architecture. Jaguar expects a WLTP range of up to 720 kilometres; at a constant 120 km/h, a range of up to 515 kilometres is said to be possible. According to Jaguar, up to 321 kilometres of range can be recharged in 13 minutes using the appropriate 350-kW fast charger.

It is remarkable just how little the Type 01 reveals its technical efficiency on the outside. Whilst electric cars often look as though the wind tunnel had the final say, Jaguar continues to prioritise drama.

And yet it still achieves a drag coefficient of 0.23.

Active vanes and a three-stage extendable rear spoiler help achieve this. So the engineers were given free rein – but in such a way that you can’t actually see any of it afterwards.

Very British, really.

Living room? Lounge? Spaceship?

The interior isn’t necessarily any more understated.

A so-called Central Spine runs through the interior, dividing it into four distinct zones. Long aluminium strips with a brass finish emphasise the longitudinal axis. In front of the driver sits a curved 24-inch OLED display, complemented by a central 7-inch touchscreen. Added to this is a specially developed Immersive Sound System, complete with a panoramic soundbar spanning the entire width of the vehicle and Sensory Audio in the seats.

This is not a cockpit that tries to be as un-cockpit-like as possible.

And perhaps that is precisely the more exciting news.

For here, Jaguar interprets modern luxury not as the most rigorous omission possible, but as a mise-en-scène. Material. Dimension. Colour. Technology. Presence.

Jaguar calls its new design philosophy ‘Opulent Modernism’. One could also say: minimalism has had its day.

Type. Zero. One.

Even the name is a small statement of intent.

‘Type’ deliberately draws a link to Jaguar’s great names of the past. The zero stands for zero local emissions. The one stands for the first model in a new generation. Type 01, then. Pronounced: Type Zero One.

And that is perhaps the most interesting contradiction about this car: Jaguar wants to break with its past without shaking it off entirely.

The long bonnet, the low-slung silhouette, the concept of the great British grand tourer – all of that is quintessentially Jaguar. Just without a twelve-cylinder engine under the bonnet.

Instead: three electric motors, 850 volts and 1,030 PS.

Copy Nothing? At the very least, it’s hard to mistake it for anything else.

Orders for the Type 01 are set to begin in early 2027, with the first deliveries scheduled for the second half of the year. Prices start at 165,000 euros. The new Jaguar is being developed and built in the UK.

Whether this actually marks the beginning of a new era remains to be seen.

But after all the talk about Jaguar’s fresh start, one thing at least is remarkable: The finished car doesn’t try to recapture the excitement. It doesn’t apologise. It doesn’t play things down. And it certainly doesn’t look as though anyone, during its development, quickly asked what would go down well in the market at the moment.

You don’t have to like the Type 01 for that reason.

But people will be talking about it.

And for a brand that has set out to become culturally relevant again, that’s probably not a bad start.