Jaguar Type 00: Redefining the Future of Luxury EVs

Jaguar has long been a brand synonymous with bold design, high performance, and a certain air of British sophistication. But with the unveiling of the Type 00 concept, the automaker is charting a radical new course. Positioned as both a celebration of Jaguar’s illustrious past and a bold step toward its electrified future, the Type 00 is less about what a car should be today and more about what it could be tomorrow. Polarizing, provocative, and unapologetically different, the Type 00 represents a tectonic shift for the brand, and it’s turning heads for all the right—and wrong—reasons.

In the lead-up to the Type 00’s reveal, Jaguar took a bold approach to marketing. Its campaign wasn’t aimed at playing it safe or simply pleasing existing fans. Instead, the automaker leaned into controversy, crafting a campaign designed to spark debate and grab headlines. Critics ridiculed the campaign’s heavy-handed slogans and imagery, but the noise only amplified the car’s reach. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk couldn’t resist weighing in, tweeting a sarcastic comment: “Do you sell cars?”

While this might have seemed like a jab, Musk’s comment placed Jaguar squarely in the spotlight, achieving exactly what the brand wanted—attention. Jaguar’s campaign proved that sometimes, the best way to dominate the conversation is by embracing polarization. After all, controversy gets people talking, and when they talk, they share.

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Wowzers.

At first glance, the Type 00 is a car that demands attention. It evokes a sense of familiarity with nods to the iconic Bugatti Type 57, while also appearing futuristic, like something straight out of Batman Beyond. Jaguar describes it as a blend of “brave, unconstrained creative thinking and unwavering determination,” and it’s hard to argue otherwise. The car’s aggressive silhouette features butterfly doors, a low-slung stance, and bold stylistic elements that Jaguar calls “strikethroughs.” These details, which run across the roof, grille, and rear of the car, aren’t just for show—they conceal functional elements like cameras, indicators, and lights. The roof, appearing body-colored at first glance, is actually a panoramic glass ceiling, adding to the car’s mystique. Minimal branding is another standout feature. Gone are the bold emblems and flashy logos of traditional automotive design. Instead, Jaguar’s new logo—elegant, simplistic, and modern—mirrors the aesthetic of premium tech brands like Apple or Samsung. It’s a conscious move, signaling that Jaguar is moving beyond its roots to position itself as a forward-thinking luxury brand.

If the exterior of the Type 00 is bold, the interior is downright avant-garde. Jaguar has reimagined the car’s cabin as a space of luxury and creativity. A central travertine plinth runs through the middle of the car, supporting two minimalist seats made from a wool blend. This plinth acts as both a structural and stylistic centerpiece, underscoring Jaguar’s emphasis on materiality and craftsmanship.

The most talked-about feature of the cabin is undoubtedly the “totem system.” Between the front wing and the door lies a compartment housing three cylindrical totems made of brass, travertine, and alabaster. When placed into the center console, these totems allow drivers to personalize the car’s interior atmosphere, adjusting lighting, sound, and even the visuals on the retractable infotainment displays.

It’s an unconventional idea, blurring the line between art, technology, and functionality. By prioritizing the sensory experience of the driver, Jaguar is signaling that future luxury vehicles will be about far more than just speed or handling—they’ll be about creating an emotional connection.

Despite its muscular proportions and vast bonnet, the Type 00 is an electric vehicle. This creates a design paradox: the illusion of a powerful internal combustion engine lurking under the hood when, in reality, the space is empty. Jaguar hasn’t disclosed whether this area will have a functional purpose in future production models, but it’s an intriguing hint at the possibilities of an electric platform.

The narrow, visor-like windscreen and lack of traditional rear visibility add to the car’s futuristic vibe. Instead of a rear window, drivers will rely on cameras integrated into the strikethroughs to provide a full view of their surroundings. This radical rethinking of visibility is just another way Jaguar is challenging conventions.

What’s missing from the Type 00’s debut is any mention of performance metrics. Jaguar has shared ambitious goals for its forthcoming electric vehicles—430 miles of range and fast charging capability—but has offered little insight into how the Type 00 will handle or perform on the road. For now, the car is more about vision than practicality, keeping enthusiasts guessing about what’s to come.

Jaguar isn’t just rethinking its cars—it’s reimagining the entire customer experience. The brand plans to abandon traditional dealership showrooms in favor of a luxury retail model inspired by brands like Hermès, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. This boutique-style approach emphasizes exclusivity and personalized service, aligning the car-buying experience with the expectations of high-end consumers. This shift reflects a broader trend in the luxury market, where customers increasingly value experiences over transactions. By positioning itself as a cultural and lifestyle brand, Jaguar aims to appeal to a new generation of buyers who see cars as extensions of their identity. They project that up to 80% of buyers will be new to the brand with just 20% being left to longtime Jaguar champions.

The Type 00 is not a production car—it’s a statement of intent. Much like the iconic E-Type in the 1960s, the Type 00 is a bold declaration of Jaguar’s ambitions for the future. It’s a preview of the brand’s upcoming all-electric four-door GT, set to debut in late 2025. While the E-Type was the finished product, the Type 00 is an abstract sketch of what Jaguar hopes to achieve in the latter half of the2020s.

Jaguar’s emphasis on design, luxury, and innovation suggests that the Type 00 is less about competing with Tesla and more about carving out a unique niche in the electric vehicle market. It’s a car for those who value artistry and exclusivity, even if it means sacrificing some of the practicalities associated with traditional vehicles.

While the Type 00 has generated significant buzz, it’s not without its challenges. The lack of performance details risks alienating traditional enthusiasts who value pace, handling, and dynamics. Translating the car’s high-concept design into a production-ready model will also be a formidable task, especially when it comes to complex features like the totem system - should it ever see production.

However, Jaguar’s recent financial performance suggests the company is well-positioned to tackle these challenges. With a 25% year-over-year profit increase and £1.1 billion in profits in the first half of 2023, Jaguar Land Rover is one of the few automakers thriving in an increasingly competitive market.

The Jaguar Type 00 is more than just a concept car—it’s a manifesto for the brand’s future. By embracing controversy, pushing the boundaries of design, and reimagining luxury, Jaguar has created a vehicle that’s as much about culture as it is about transportation.

The Type 00 isn’t for everyone, and that’s precisely the point. It’s a car that challenges expectations and invites debate, positioning Jaguar as a leader in the luxury EV market. Whether the production models live up to this bold vision remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Jaguar is putting it all on Miami Pink…or was it London Blue?

Dark Clouds Circle Over Wolfsburg

For the last few months, one car manufacture’s name has continually popped up again and again. From headlines, to brief mentions in conversation to posts on social media, the German behemoth, Volkswagen, has been humming in the air and the mood in Wolfsburg seems bleak. Since it was established in Berlin in 1937 *cough*, Volkswagen has been responsible for bringing us some of the 20th centuries most iconic cars from the revolutionary Beetle, the Microbus that became synonymous with the swinging 60’s, to the pulsating excitement of the Golf GTI, this once jack-booted auto maker has gone from it’s humble and unfortunate beginnings to achieve something it’s founder never could, world domination. After all, a whopping 40% of Volkswagen’s sales and profits come from China alone, however, all is not well in that crucial market and Volkswagen is now having to navigate an immensely transitional period in the automotive industry with very little room for error with cut throat competition from new brands, many of whom are native to that most lucrative and crucially important Chinese market.

In the 1970’s, things were changing quickly in China. With the death of Mao in 1976, decades of economic isolation came to an end and under the new leadership of Deng Xiaoping, it was decided that, in order to modernise China’s automotive industry, an injection of foreign investment and knowledge was best and this led to a faithful visit to Wolfsburg in 1978, when a delegation of representatives from the Chinese Communist Party visited VW HQ in search of a partner from the automotive industry for a project in Shanghai. Exploratory talks were held, and a few weeks later the Volkswagen Group and representatives of the Chinese government began negotiations on local assembly. This culminated in the production of the first Chinese Volkswagen, the Santana in September 1985, but here is what is most important about this story, Volkswagen was in first. A China emerging from isolation and looking for foreign investment and know-how from Western brands to develop their automotive industry was equivalent to taking a cast of a squalid Victorian London slumites and offering one massive t-bone steak to whom ever could get their first and watch as they salivate and clamber over one another to take the prize. In 1985, China had a population of just over 1 Billion people and, in the next 40 years, that population of road going globalists would balloon to just under 1.5 Billion, and crucially, Volkswagen got in the door first and were adept at producing cheap, reliable transport that was desirable in ways other cut price manufacturers simply were not, and to you’re average pedal-pushing Chinese worker, a Volkswagen would have been as exotic as a Bentley to loud 19 year old Twitch Streamer. But, sadly, this was not to last.

Volkswagen may have had the jump on everyone else in getting to China, but, despite its early dominance, Volkswagen faced increasing competition in the 2000s as more foreign automakers, including General Motors, Toyota, and Honda, entered the Chinese market. More worryingly, Chinese domestic car manufacturers were also improving their capabilities and introducing more competitive models. This was due to the CCP’s condition of foreign car manufacturers having to pair with domestic manufacturers under a joint venture in order produce and sell cars in China. The down side to this arrangement is that domestic Chinese companies gained access to the latest in European and American automotive technology which they can study and research and develop until they are independent enough to produce their own models. We can talk more about Dieselgate another time, but what’s important to note now, is Volkswagen’s aggressive leap to Electric Vehicles and Battery Technology is partially to shed their skin in the aftermath of the emissions scandal and partially to shore up their market share in China. However, the truth of the matter is German car manufacturers as a whole hold only about 20% of the market share in China with domestic auto makers producing EVs only, now holding 30% and, if we drill down into just the EV market alone in China, 62.5% of the share is owned by domestic brands with German brands holding onto just 3.4%. China has always known it would never catch up to Europe, the Unites States and Japan when it comes to internal combustion, but the CCP saw another way by pouring investment into battery technology for decades until the likes of BYD and CATL controlled over 50% of the global battery market.

Tariffs are another thing I’ve been hearing about lately and it turns out that green subsidy initiatives might have done more bad than good to the European car industry. Basically, if you were a German consumer looking into purchasing a brand new EV, you are welcome to do so and the Government will even pay for it in the form of subsidies. How great is that? Any vehicle you like from any manufacturer you like from anywhere in the world. If you were a Chinese consumer, on the other hand, subsidies would only be available to you if you were to buy a Chinese EV and not a foreign one, like an ID.4, for example. Subsidies for Chinese EVs were worth $231 Billion between 2009 and 2023 and you don’t need to be Archimedes to work out that this spells trouble for those who are not just losing out in the World’s largest car market, but on their home turf as well.

As I covered already, China is worth 40% of Volkswagen’s bank balance and their market share has been declining for years and so, we must ask the question of what Volkswagen should do? If they were to abandon this market it could sink the entire group and you’d have to be mad to walk away from the world’s biggest car market so that seems unlikely. They could continue to crawl through the mud and try to hold onto their shrinking market share, but gargantuan companies like Volkswagen are a bit like sharks - if they stop moving they die. And so, the only option left for them is to try to regain some ground in China, but, that brings it’s own set of complications. All legacy car manufacturers are going through a difficult time of transition away from fossil fuels and into battery electric technology and this is both an expensive and risky game. It’s also important to know what your consumer wants from their car, and so, expensive technology for infotainment purposes is also a necessity and, if Volkswagen wants to regain share in the Chinese market, they will have to put a lot of resources and focus into R&D for software. Enter Rivian.

Volkswagen’s $5 Billion joint venture with Rivian to develop vehicle software. As EV adoption grows, software — used for driver assistance, optimizing vehicle performance, and integrating with smartphones, maps, and apps — is becoming a crucial factor in consumers’ decisions when choosing a car. The EU is imposing high tariffs on Chinese cars, but this does not help competition in Europe. For instance, Tesla (an American company) successfully lobbied the European Commission for a separate investigation within its made-in-China EV probe, scoring a lower rate than Europe’s own brands. Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s China partner SAIC was lambasted for non-cooperation and slapped with the highest duty of 35.3 percent. Couple this with underutilised factories throughout Europe and Chinese manufacturers determination to circumvent tariffs by setting up shop in Europe, and you have a cataclysmic outcome for Volkswagen, and it looks like Volkswagen is headed straight for that cataclysmic outcome. It is rumoured that up to 30’000 lay offs could be in the pipeline on Volkswagen’s home turf in Germany. According to Manager Magazin, 10% of the conglomerates workforce would be cut, hitting R&D hardest and forcing the closure, for the first time ever, of two of it’s German factories. The rumours have sparked outrage among union leaders in Germany and offers of help from Germany’s Economic Minister, Robert Habeck.

Volkswagen is not the only European car manufacturer in this difficult position, but it is especially vulnerable given how reliant it has become on China. As mentioned, many factories across Europe remain underutilised as manufacturers produce more cars than they can sell. The Stellantis factory in Mirafiori, Italy, where the Fiat 500e is built has dropped production by more than 60% in the first half of 2024. A need for extra revenue, idle factories, politicians looking to prevent a workforce ending up on the unemployment list and determined Chinese manufacturers looking for ways around import tariffs might be the perfect storm to turn Wolfsburg from the home of the Volkswagen Golf to home of the BYD Seal.

One for the Road: the end of a Trio, a Ritual and an Era of Television

Last night, I sat down for the last time to perform a ritual I have been performing for most of my life. I can’t tell you when exactly I began this ritual or for exactly how long I’ve been practising it, but I can tell you where it began and whom I began it with. This ritual has been proving harder and harder to perform properly over the years. It shouldn’t be done alone and, if you’ve been practicing for years like I have, you should try as best as you can to perorm this ritual with those whom you’ve been practicing with for years. I would have been no more than nine or 10 when I first started this ritual because my Dad said that something called Top Gear was back on TV. I’m sure having watched the launch of this new silly format which emphasised power slides and mockery of British cars and constant showboating by the lead presenter left an awful taste in his mouth. My Dad is, in many ways, the antithesis to Jeremy Clarkson. He likes Austin Allegros and Morris Marinas. He thinks all BMW’s are driven by tossers (they are), and power slides, drag races and burnouts are for shaved apes, but I on the other hand thought this was great. I was too young to undersatand or remember Quentin Wilson’s consumer savvy price guides and didn’t care. I was a child and wanted to see rubber burning, things moving quickyl, explosions etc. Dad was a bit more placated when James May came along because he liked model trains and delivering technical monologues and from that point on, Sundays at 8pm meant one thing and one thing only - Top Gear. Top Gear was the ritual.

And so, for roughly 10 or 11 years, on Sunday there was a very clear series of actions that made up the ritual. First, home work had to be boxed off and put out of the way, by about 6 o’clock before dinner was served. Once dinner was polished off and the washing was done, it would be somewhere between 7 and half 7. That meant there was time to squeeze in the latter half of Sky One’s 7 o’clock double bill, but really, that was just preamble to the main event. It's difficult to communicate to people who weren’t there at the time how immensely important Top Gear was to my generation of petrol heads. Nowadays, when traditional television isn’t dominant and people’s entertainment habits are based more around personalised algorithmic bubbles fed privately to them through their phone, the concept of families sitting down together in the same room at the same time to watch and discuss the same thing without distraction and without being forced to do so seems so old fashioned I almost picture us wearing knitted wool cardigans and knee socks, but these are some of my fondest memories. Nearly every Sunday at 8pm I would switch on BBC 2 and spend the next hour or so engrossed with the three most hilarious, entertaining and down right stupid people I have ever seen. Dad, my brother and I would laugh at their jokes or at the ensuing chaos that soon became a hallmark of the show as much as we found ourselves in awe of the beauty of the World we got to see through their eyes as well as being left aghast at the demise of Saab with Clarkson and May’s ode to the Swedish car maker. I look back now with a lump in my throat because it wasn’t just a TV show about cars, it was bonding with my Dad and brother as well fostering an interest in life. It was a taste for adventure and exploration and it is fundamental to why today I still mess around with cars with my Dad and brother. If I do it on my own, it’s no fun at all. It’s about having fun with your mates and laughing at things when they go wrong. 

As years rolled by and my skin blew up with acne and my voice went from tenor to a bit more baritone, cars gave way to girls but I had pretty much no luck with that so there was always ritualistic Top Gear on BBC 2 on Sundays at 8pm - the ol’ reliable. At this rate, Top Gear was bigger, more flashy, more ridiculous and destructive than ever before and even the normal people in school were talking about it. This sounds great but actually, backfired on me spectacularly.  At this point in my life I had bought a 1979 Triumph Dolomite with money I had received to put towards my future from relatives for my Confirmation - or is it Holy Confirmation? Or Sacred Confirmation? Whatever it is, I took the money and ran! This happened to be the same time Top Gear aired its British Leyland special in which Hammond drove and derided a Dolomite Sprint. I thought my Dolomite was cool and retro, but, as a result of Hammond’s quips, people laughed at it and ridiculed my own Dolomite (which was not a Sprint) for a long time and I will never let that go, but I couldn’t stay angry, the trio were always there to brighten things up. One night when I was about 14, I was coming back from a friend’s house when I was stopped by some local rival lads. They kicked the crap out of me so I went home and watched Top Gear to cheer myself up. 

We all know what happened when the Top Gear presenters became the Grand Tour presenters so there’s no use delving back into it, but Clarkson, Hammond and May had a new home. There was no longer a set time and place to watch what they got up to because they, along with most television, had moved to streaming. I don’t think I’ve ever watched the Grand Tour with my Dad or brother and now I never will (not a new one anyway) because it stopped being a certain time and place thing and so life wormed its way in so that we caught a new special whenever and wherever we got the chance. Now the acne on my face is gone along with my lucious head of hair and I live elsewhere with my wife who has been glued to the Grand Tour ever since James May drove into a tunnel in Norway. It’s sad to let go of this sacredly held ritual that I’ve been carrying out now for 22 years of 28 years long life, but I must move with the times. Clarkson, Hammond and May are too old to be driving across continents, crashing and falling over. They’ve done it all so what’s left to do? It was an anomaly that it happened at all. Back in 2002, TV was about to go bigger than it ever had before right before it retreated into its middle-England period murder mystery stronghold in the face of rising streaming services. Streaming services are at war with each other and becoming ever more cash strapped as the tide of teenage dramas about taking drugs and having sex goes out. Top Gear set a very high bar to begin with and, over the course of 22 years, continually raised that bar little by little. Men and Motors didn’t last, Fifth Gear didn’t last and, ultimately, Top Gear didn’t either. Automotive entertainment has moved online and fractured off into a million rabbit holes. I’ve got obligations, my Dad is coming on retirement and will likely travel and my brother has his obligations, but, every now again, we meet up and talk about cars and have a laugh and that’s all it ever was really.