Jaguar Type 01 new car review

No half measures here. Every Type 01 will get a drivetrain befitting its 'Ultimate Grand Tourer' status. The unique JEA ('Jaguar Electric Architecture') chassis has been designed for two things: an enormous 118kWh battery. And an extremely powerful tri-motor layout developing an enormous 1,030PS, with 1,365Nm of torque. Power is split 30% to the 349bhp motor at the front, with the rest to the two 416bhp motors at the rear. The front one works alone at cruising speeds, the rear axle units chipping in during sporty driving, each motor working independently to allow torque vectoring.
As you can imagine from that description, this Jaguar is consequently very fast indeed, 0-62mph dispatched in just 3.2s, though the engineers reckon a better gauge of the sustained power on offer is delivered by the 62-112mph sprint time of just 4.0s. Top speed is 150mph. Range is rated at 435 miles - not class-leading but better than a Bentley Torcan or Rolls-Royce Spectre.
Handling was developed by a team led by renowned top ex-Lotus and Aston Martin engineer Matt Becker, who rates the Type 01 as one of his career highlights. He's gone for very much a rear-driven-style feel, with torque vectoring controlling the load at each wheel, an inverter switching power on and off instantly as needed at speed through the corners. Becker talks about the engaging way the car 'rotates around your hips' when cornering. His team certainly had a lot of technology to work with, including adaptive damping of course - and twin-chamber air suspension able to adapt its rates to road and driving conditions.
There's also four-wheel steering to improve cornering stability at high speeds, a system that at low speeds gives this 5.2-metre Jaguar a turning circle similar to that of a Volkswagen Golf. This set-up gives 6-degrees of wheel angle at the back axle, whilst allowing the fronts to turn by up to 43-degrees.
Expect three-figure autobahn cruising to be astonishingly quiet and there's a bespoke setting for that with the three-position rear spoiler, which can provide up to 75kg of downforce at speed. There are front vanes that open or close based on sensor data to cool either the battery or brakes - as needed. The conventional drive modes are 'Eco', 'Jaguar', 'Sport' and a 'Snow' setting.

Three groups of stylists competed to produce this design and the Type 01 is, as advertised, 'a copy of nothing' - not even a Jaguar of the past. Particularly astonishing is the low roof line, given that such a large battery must undergird everything; that super-low 1,400mm height necessitated the development of a unique JEA ('Jaguar Electric Architecture') platform.
Almost equally difficult to create was the huge roof panel that stretches back and wraps around the C-pillars. Three quarters of this car, including this panel, is fashioned from aluminium and this roof section initially looked impossible to create, so many different pressings were required for it.
What you'll probably notice first in profile though, is the so-called 'Prestige Gap', a 900mm section between the front wheel and the front door that takes up 17% of the total 5,235mm length and extends the enormous bonnet.
At the front end, you meet the exuberant 'Strikethrough' grille, a series of horizontal lines apparently embossed on sheet metal, above a low-set cooling aperture. And flanked by the smallest headlamps in Jaguar history, characterised by illuminating corner hyphens.
At the rear, there's another 'Strikethrough' panel which contains discrete light bars. But the back of this car is mainly notable for its Polestar 4-esque absent rear screen. And for its integrated adaptive rear wing. There are big 23-inch wheels as standard (though smaller 21-inch rims are optional), with a brass-style panel behind each front wheel arch. This is, predictably, the most aerodynamic car Jaguar has ever made, with a drag coefficient of 0.23Cd. Roll down Mayfair or Sunset Boulevard in one of these and you'll certainly get stared at.
Open the frameless driver's door and your faced with a cabin that's a million miles from the gentleman's club ambiance of older Jags. You'll either be wowed by the ambitious design or perhaps feel a little uncomfortable with the futuristic minimalism; as with the exterior, there'll be no in-betweens.
It certainly says 'luxury' though, with satisfying soft-touch materials wherever you look, brass-style elements - and wool carpeting, which cossetingly spreads into the lower doors. On the dashboard, not a single switch is visible.
The chunky central spine not only divides the front seats but runs the entire length of the cabin, which Jaguar thinks 'creates a sense of drama', with embedded lids that swivel open to reveal cubbies trimmed in bright colours. Screen sizes aren't huge, the main 24-inch panel housing an instrument display that stretches into an infotainment monitor. There's also a small touchscreen above the centre console for climate controls.
The slimline seats are upholstered in neograin ultrafabric and Kuadrat duoweave, which is 30% wool blended ecocentrically with polyester. There's a Soundbar beneath the windscreen incorporating 13 speakers (with 25 more around the cabin) and in the centre of the bar is the camera display for the 'ClearSight' digital rear view mirror. The wheel is the only place you'll find buttons - and satisfyingly tactile column stalks
All this you might like. But what you'll need to be OK with is the surprisingly cramped rear cabin - astonishingly so for such a big car. Thank the extrovert 'Prestige Gap' front wing theatrics for that. Jaguar goes as far as to call this a '2+2' rather than a full four-seater. If that's not good enough but you like what the marque is trying to do here, wait for the forthcoming similarly-engineered SUV model.
Given the low roof height and the big underfloor battery, your expectations for rear seat comfort won't be great; and for sure, leg room is quite tight - once you get in in the first place - the rear doors don't open that wide. But it could have been so much worse without the clever design and engineering on display here.
Because of the way the JEA platform segments the battery cells, there's a floor void (which also houses the front seat mounting) into which each of the rear seat occupants can insert their feet. The lack of a rear screen helps too because it means the header rail can be mounted further back, so head room is better than the swept-back silhouette leads you to expect.
Out back, the boot floor sits flush with the entrance to make loading easier, though there's quite a high loading lip and the boot area itself is fairly shallow, though it can accommodate 430-litres. With the rear seats tilted forward, 1,000-litres of space is freed up. There's no under bonnet 'frunk' for the charging leads - only space for small emergency first-aid kit.

Going forward, Jaguar sees its positioning slightly above Porsche and slightly below Bentley. Which in the case of the Type 01 means asking figures starting about the £130,000 for the standard version, with the plusher 'Design Vision' variant at around the £145,000 mark. In either case though, the brand expects that likely customers will end up paying much more, a bespoke configuration likely to take the required asking figure closer to the £200,000 level. For a company that only a few years ago could sell you an E-PACE for £30,000, it's quite a step.
But that all goes along with Jaguar's repositioning within what are now seen as the four 'pillars' of the JLR conglomerate (the other three are Land Rover-based - 'Range Rover', 'Defender' and 'Discovery'). The Type 01 launch will see a limited run of just 10 models (in 'deep blue' or 'serin red') with main production commencing afterwards. Around 78% of customers are predicted to be completely new for the brand and the biggest market will be North America, followed by the UK and Germany - though once China comes on stream, that will change.
There will be a drastic reduction in the number of Jaguar dealerships. Those that remain will be more like lounges - like the company's new Knightsbridge London location which is like an art gallery with a cafe.
The 'Design Vision' spec includes unique satin-finished 'Visionary Silver' exterior paint, anodised brass-effect accents, 23-inch diamond-turned wheels with metallic black inserts and cabin trim upholstered in 'Orchid Ultrafrabrics and 'Dusk Grey Kvadrat DuoWeave' textile.

The 850V battery has a satisfyingly strong DC charging rate of 350kW, which should be good enough to restore 200 miles of range in just 30 minutes. For when the car is plugged into a lower-powered 400V DC charger, the battery will be effectively divided into two parallel packs, each charging up to 50kW.
AC home charging of the 118kWh battery will be lengthy with a single-phase 7.4kW wall box (about 18 hours); you're really going to need a three-phase 11kW or 22kW wallbox for sensible replenishment times (about 12 hours at 11kW and about 6 hours at 22kW). There are AC charge ports on both flanks, the one at the right for DC connections too.
The 435 mile EV range figure is helped hugely by the sleek aerodynamics, based around the wheel designs, the flat underbody and the four-corner air suspension, which lowers the car at speed.
The Type 01 is sold with a 'curated' multi-year ownership plan based around either a three or five year ownership package. Complimentary three or five year packages to include all routine scheduled servicing (needed every two years or 21,000 miles), 24/7 roadside assistance and 'premium mobility support' are also included in the asking price.

Will the Type 01 be seen as the most interesting car of its decade? Very possibly, but that doesn't mean it'll sell in the numbers Jaguar needs it to. Even the company's own research shows that this car is polarising in the opinions it generates amongst buyers. A number of whom weren't hugely impressed by the longevity of the brand's last EV model, the I-PACE.
But Jaguar today is very different from the marque that launched that car, bold enough to head into Bentley territory with a saloon competing in a sea of SUVs. And an all-electric powertrain without the safety net of an alternative PHEV model.