“A bold grand tourer that never arrives unnoticed, like all the best Jaguars of the past,” Jaguar’s press material says. This is most certainly true: you will see this thing coming. The low roofline, short front and extended rear overhangs, long hood, and huge 23-inch wheels all remain from the prototype, just as promised. The cab-rear design hides a 50–50 weight distribution, and the huge surfaces make it hard to square the fact that this is the most aerodynamic Jag ever, with active vanes, a deployable spoiler, and airflow trickery delivering a drag coefficient of 0.23 Cd.
Crucially, the production model’s extra doors make more sense of the design, shifting the Type 01’s look away from Thunderbirds territory to more familiar ground. The front has been softened ever so slightly as well, which again is preferable to the prototype’s exceedingly bluff nose. The rear, however, is where the exterior design really shines with hidden-until-lit, full-width lights embedded in horizontal strikethroughs.
Let’s get the specs out of the way: the Type 01 is the most powerful Jaguar road car, with up to 1,030 Pferdestärke (PS) and 1,365 Newton-meters. It goes from standstill to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds. Justifying the tagline of “power in reserve,” the car can rocket from 62 to 112 mph in a further 4 seconds. I’ve been driven in it, and it feels like the acceleration never ends thanks to the tri-motor setup of a 260-kilowatt (kW) front motor paired with twin 310-kW rear motors.
It stands 5,235 mm long and 1,403 mm tall, but all-wheel steering makes it feel much smaller on the road. The 850-volt bespoke Jaguar architecture and 118-kilowatt-hour usable battery supposedly deliver an EPA range of up to 400 miles (450 miles on WLTP), with a “sustained highway speed” range of up to 320 miles. Drivers can add up to 200 miles of range in 13 minutes using 350 kW rapid DC charging. So the TL;DR? It’s huge, fast, aerodynamic, powerful, and, most definitely, unique.
Inside, a dramatic central spine runs the full length of the cabin, creating a zone for each occupant. Lots of “brass-inspired” finishes are intended to underline the luxury message. A panoramic glass roof with adjustable virtual blinds brings in the light, but there’s no rear windscreen. Instead, a digital “ClearSight” rearview display is embedded centrally in the full-width panoramic soundbar at the base of the windscreen to show what’s behind. Cleverly, the feed from this rear-facing camera is positioned at the same height as the door mirrors, supposedly reducing the annoying focal adjustment these systems usually demand.