Will Jaguar's all-in gamble pay off? | PH Footnote
Type 01 is the product of unprecedented soul-searching - now it must hope to convince the rest of us...
“Jaguar is back” was prominent among the mantras heard in New York last week. It was proclaimed at the start of the manufacturer's big day, prior to a final briefing on why precisely the Type 01 is the best thing since sliced granary. And we heard it in the final moments from Managing Director, Rawdon Glover, a man well used to explaining Jaguar’s long-running status as a functioning non-entity, just before the Anointed One whizzed onto stage in a building that once served as Annie Leibovitz’s studio. “There is nothing stranger than the truth,” the acclaimed photographer once said. Amen, sister.
Back from where exactly no one thought to mention. Jaguar’s self-enforced absence from the global market is not typical of a volume manufacturer. ‘No German carmaker would have attempted it’, opined Thomas Mueller, JLR’s affable Chief Technology Officer, a man who has spent a large part of his career at the VW Group, and seen it all. He was alluding to the boldness required to withdraw all one’s resources from the production line, and commit entirely to the possibilities afforded by a blank sheet of paper. But it is equally true that no equivalent German carmaker could have absorbed such an implausible dent in output or revenue. Or would be batshit crazy enough to try.
Of course, from Gaydon’s perspective, its return is meant to seem less like a delayed journey back from purgatory and more like a triumphant exit from the deep-thought chrysalis. Behind closed doors, it has been boiling Jaguar down to its chromosomes - to little more than a shoulder line and a long bonnet - and then applying that bottled essence to a single, startling vision of what the brand ought to be about from now on. Which, of course, implies that Jaguar isn’t back from anywhere. The butterfly could hardly be said to resemble the caterpillar. It is a copy of nothing.
Or at any rate, that was the original plan. But Jaguar’s (understandable) decision to overhaul the brand at the same time meant it was holed beneath the waterline before it even left the dock, its tone-deaf messaging (or the opposite, perhaps: messaging so hyper alert to every tonal wavelength that it defaulted to a fudged pink blancmange), igniting a social media firestorm. In the intervening months, likely aided by the unexpected - and still unexplained - exit of its Chief Creative Officer, Jaguar has made a more concerted effort to treat its 92-year backstory less as something to be cast off, and more like a hallowed compass, as if it were George Lucas talking wistfully about Akira Kurosawa’s influence on Star Wars.
Earlier in the day, Rawdon signalled regret when asked about the polarising aftermath of Type 00’s reveal, particularly with regard to the political response (politics being the third rail for any carmaker hoping to succeed in North America), although he readily acknowledged too the silver lining that came with the gaff cloud: no conventional replacement for the I-Pace would have featured so prominently on the homepage of the BBC or the Guardian or the Telegraph within minutes of the production car’s reveal, even allowing for the degree to which each pandered wildly to its core audience.
For the rest of us, those of us interested less in Type 01 as a metaphor for wokeness, and more in its qualities as a new electric grand tourer, the subtle shift in marketing tone (see if you can detect it below) was welcome not because it took the extraordinary risk of identifying the most likely end user - a bloke - nor that it appeared to have been shot in Bruce Wayne's basement by Denis Villeneuve, but rather because it seemed unafraid of old-fashioned notions, like the idea that Type 01 had been made to go like stink and also corner a bit, too. There was also the assumption, in the fall of so many artful shadows, that the viewer might be partial to a four-door GT that looked the part. Like every customer of Jaguar in the good old days.
Which is naturally where we arrived at the brassiest of brass tacks. Is the Type 01, in the cold light of a New York day (and night), with its rear doors and no place to hide, actually pleasant to look at? Does it, in the words of its creators, stimulate ‘irrational desire’, as it was intended to? For yours truly, on a fundamental level, no - because while its success in evoking ‘sculpted solidity’ is undeniable, and its physical presence colossal, it wilfully sabotages too many formal assumptions we hold dear about beauty and its place in automotive design. This does not necessarily make it ugly either. But if you’ve ever swooned at curved sheet metal or the flick of a ducktail, you might not be predisposed to like Jaguar’s brutalist new dawn.
Admittedly, that is the opinion of someone clothed head to toe in M&S at the unveiling (trainers excepted, of course), and who would think a fashion influencer’s inventive dress sense about as appealing as a Jimmy Savile wig. Which is to say that the Type 01 might not be for everyone - which, if we give it some rope, is to start down the road of conceding Jaguar’s point about this first model not needing to be for everyone. Not everyone liked the E-Type either, or the XJS or the F-Type. But you could hardly forget what they looked like. Shut your eyes, one of Type 01’s exterior designers encouraged us, and you can still see it. This is true.
Nevertheless, if we’re inclined to agree that Jaguar has succeeded in its primary mission - i.e. to build something truly unforgettable, and therefore worthy of the epoch-shifting moment - there is still the possibly thornier issue of its status as a six-figure electric car. Despite ample evidence of faltering demand, the issue has been relentlessly downplayed by its maker, and its unwillingness to discuss projected sales volumes means it is conceivable that Jaguar will declare the Type 01 a success no matter how many examples are ultimately shifted. But Glover has fielded the powertrain question a sufficiently wearying number of times to simply concede that some people, those who prefer their four-door GTs to come with a sonorous V8, are unlikely to be at the front of the queue. Or ever joining the back.
Given that Land Rover, Jaguar’s conjoined alter ego, has committed to exactly the opposite path - i.e. offering its customers the choice they plainly favour - one does not need to indulge in Robert Harris-style revisionism to imagine a present where Jaguar made a more enlightened choice, and reaped the benefits. But the sense is now, even against a backdrop of savage U-turns among its rivals, that Jaguar is too far gone to join them. Again, this is unlikely to doom the Type 01 specifically. Though you do worry for the equally large electric crossover destined to follow it.
What we do not worry about, for now anyway, is whether or not the new battery-powered GT will be good to drive. This aspect, based on first-hand evidence and the relaxed demeanour of Vehicle Engineering Director, Matt Becker, in New York, is likely in the bag. Not just for the assuredness of the hand on the developmental tiller, or the endless amount of tech poured into the Type 01, but because we’ve come to trust Jaguar to get this bit right even as it failed in the past (or palpably fumbled) to clear other hurdles. As instruments of driving pleasure, the firm’s back catalogue is mostly exemplary. As you would hope, PH prejudges no car, ever - but let’s just say the shock of its grand tourer being a disappointing steer would massively outweigh the shock of seeing it for the first time as a design concept.
Finally, there is the inkling, voiced by more than a few colleagues, that Jaguar’s agonising crawl to the finish line has been to the benefit of its new flagship. You do not need to think of Type 01 as pretty to decisively favour it over the likes of the Ferrari Luce or the Mercedes-AMG 4-door GT, or even the Bentley Torcal. If nothing else, it is the product of a bold and uncompromising vision, equipped with an opulent, show car-worthy interior and more ‘performance in reserve’ than you’ll ever really need. It is also already very famous and largely unconcerned with aesthetic conventions, which will be appealing to anyone hoping to get noticed in an otherwise indifferent global city. That it looked right at home on West 26th Street is a good omen for Jaguar. And no coincidence.
They've also done a superb job of distancing themselves from the stupidity of their first brand launch....albeit it it for even the most disinterested car people in my family, all were talking about it, so maybe it did something there?
The engineering and design behind it is exceptional, though I doubt that will be a motivating factor for many buyers.
It will probably be the first EV to meaningfully appear on Dubai/ Monaco/Kings Rd/ LA Hills and Cheshire. Jaguar have arguably delivered the first truly desirable EV, with cachet.
The old brand is truly dead and for it's target market, that is probably no issue and not even on their radar. This may well be the first time Jaguar has really appeared in their consciousness.
Your typical buyer will have little "brand memory" of old Jag. They wont have been buyers back in the day.
As was said about the 2000's Astons "too much Ford switchgear - yes, but who buying a new Vanquish, has been in a Ford"?
I would happily sell my wife for organ harvest to pay for one
When I suggested this, she agreed, working in high end engineering as she does, and suggested if I were sold, she might raise enough for a Jaecoo
As a result, for young people this is a effectively an "unknown" brand. I don't see them shelling out 150k for an unknown electric car.
Older folk who do know the brand won't like it, as it doesn't look like a lovely old Jag, so JLR is crashing between two stools.
New Jaguar has had to reinvent or die and it has done it with aplomb. This car looks magnificent and has real presence and makes virtually everything else out there look dated. Wait until you see one on the road or pass you on the motorway and tell me it won’t attract your gaze.
Will it save Jag? This model alone won’t but this is the halo model where all else follows and is designed to show future direction and intent. It’s the next model (likely to be a SUV type thing) where that question must be asked. That will be the model that makes or breaks Jag but if the 01 is anything to go by then expect big things.
Good to see they’ve realised who will be buying these things and have changed the marketing to suit or maybe that was their intention all along to get people talking?
Do they expect to sell that slab-sided monster?
I like it and I hope it succeeds, especially for everyone whose salary is connected to this project.
It's nice to see so many positive comments for a change.
k.It’s not a demographic I want any part of, but I can definitely see it selling. Good luck to them, it’s a car for the 21st century cad not the 20th century version.
Not sure it was a good idea to photograph the new car with that black e-type and the xjs present…. They only serve to show how overgrown the new one is, not to mention slab sided it is.
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