Jaguar takes a bold leap with concept Type 00

The year 2020 was a strange time. The impact of Covid was being felt around the world and while it brought with it a tremendous community spirit, it also brought a sense of trepidation and foreboding. Probably not the best time for a design team to start work on the very serious matter of reviving Jaguar, but start they did.

The result is the Jaguar Vision concept Type 00. The name says it all really, car 00, the car that sweeps the road ahead of competitors on a rally stage, the car that marks the beginning. In this case, it’s a new beginning, or perhaps a new new new beginning; Jaguar has had a few restarts over the years. This isn’t like any of those that have gone before it though, this is throwing everything in and betting on red. Not to be melodramatic, but if it doesn’t work, it’s probably all over for Jaguar.

The Jaguar renaissance hasn’t started well. The rebranding has been met with mixed reactions, mostly of the negative kind, but editor James McLachlan has already delved into that and shared his opinion.

Now we have an actual car, the thing that was very much lacking in the controversial ad. The fact that it made its debut at the Miami Art Week says much about the direction for the British marque. Out with the old and in with the new. “Copy Nothing” says Jag, but there are some hints at the past, including the Type 00 name itself. Jaguar even draws a parallel to the debut of the famous E-Type in 1961 by revealing two versions of the concept, one in London Blue, a colour inspired by the Silver Blue of the first E-Type, while the other is in Rhodon Rose.

The traditional Jaguar ‘Growler’ has gone, but the famous leaper remains, engraved into a piece of brass on the front fender that can adopt a patina over time and which opens to reveal a reversing camera. In reality it’s unlikely the brass ingot will remain in a production model, instead the team expect to use brass colourisation.

Think long and hard and you could say the long bonnet and fastback rear have echoes of the 1960s XK150 coupé or the 1937 S.S, but Type 00 is all about the future and futuristic it most definitely is.

“We’re very excited to be bringing Jaguar back to life,” said chief creative officer Gerry McGovern at an exclusive preview ahead of the official unveiling. McGovern is of the opinion that Jaguar has been held back for years, but with its roots in originality, it’s time to provide tangible, exuberant modernism.

He admits that Type 00 won’t be loved by everyone, especially those who have a passion for the brand’s heritage, but he says that part of the brief was to forget everything that’s gone before. That started with the brand redesign, with McGovern saying that the brand must inform the products.

That new brand is front and centre on the concept. The new jaGuar device mark sits in the middle of a faux grille that reminds me of an armoured police Land Rover. Probably not what the team were aiming for, but it is clean and different and its architectural geometry sets the tone for the rest of the design.

“What we really wanted to capture on the front was the move to electric, to create a minimal and sophisticated surface,” says David Eburah, Jaguar’s exterior design manager. “So the presence, the more upright front volume. Then within that, the embodiment about the strikethrough pattern, which is more subtle than the rear. If we tried to make it too bold on the front, it might have taken attention away from the new device mark, which we’re really proud of. We don’t want something that fights that in a visual sense.”

The team are equally proud of the new light graphic, one that again is very upright and distinctive, complimenting the rest of the frontal design from which the strikethrough theme continues.

“It’s on the piano key, through into the interior where it’s subtly on the stone,” says Aimee Larson, lead materiality designer. “You get to the load space and then on the rear is a really bold strikethrough. You have a sort of softer introduction and then it gets more exuberant as you go through the car and then you get this distinctive rear view that’s really impactful.”

Along the way the strikethrough also forms the design on the roof before leading into a fastback style devoid of any windows in a similar style to the Polestar 4. Full width horizontal lighting forms a signature element and below it sits that bold strikethrough that Larson refers to, a feature some have said looks like an air-conditioning unit. It does, but it still fits well within the overall styling theme, providing a genuine connection between the front and rear of the car.

It’s a connection that continues beyond the dramatic butterfly doors in the interior, with the strikethrough on the IP, rear shelf and on a plinth between the seats. Here the strikethrough graphic combines with the architectural inspiration in the form of travertine stone, which the design team describes as having a big influence on the overall vision for the concept. It’s not a typical interior material and given that the Type 00 is electric and will be rather heavy, probably not something that will make it into the production model. It does fit really well with the idea of Jaguar undergoing a renaissance though.

“For us, this is the renaissance of Jaguar, so we had to look at the Renaissance period historically and we drew interesting parallels between the Renaissance period, which was born out of the plague, and then our renaissance of Jaguar that was born out of Covid,” says materiality designer, Axel Goulee. “We had a look at monumental art, monumental architecture, and travertine was one of the materials that stood the test of time. The Colosseum in Rome is built in travertine and it still stands as a magnificent piece of architecture.”

The strikethrough in the travertine echoes another theme for the interior, longitudinal proportion. It’s accentuated by the blade that runs from the IP to the rear which is dominated by a long piece of brass, a material that again is likely to be changed in any production model.

What is unlikely to change is that sense of being a really cool space. Rosicky says the team worked on designs that accentuated the length in the interior, creating something that is compelling, exuberant and modernist. There’s a beautiful minimalism to it, with many features hidden away. This includes stowage areas that slide open to reveal a splash of colour. Two deployable screens fold elegantly into the IP when not in use, reflecting a belief that technology should enhance rather than dominate.

The interior is not without its gimmicks though. The designers have created a Prism case that stows away behind a powered door in the exterior. It contains a choice of totems in either brass, travertine or alabaster which can be placed in the centre console. Each totem alters the mood of the interior, including ambient lighting, sound and scent.

Describing the interior as exuberant might not be the best adjective though, instead it has a tranquility about it, that calming sense you get from perfectly executed minimalism and the luxury of well chosen materials. In many ways it’s a stark contrast to the dramatic exterior with its chiselled features, 23-inch wheels, visor-like glazing and immense presence.

How all this will translate into production models is unclear for now, with the brand saying that Type 00 is a concept with bold forms and exuberant proportions to inspire future Jaguars. The first, a four-door GT on the company’s new JEA electric platform, is already undergoing testing and is set to make its debut towards the end of 2025.

“We’re trying to copy nothing, we want to be different, we want to be disruptive in the industry,” says Larson. “We don’t want to do everything the same as everyone else, we’re trying to pave a new way and a new future for Jaguar and that’s something that we need to be bold and fearless about, so doing something completely different to what’s expected is exactly what we’ve done, and that’s what we want to keep doing.”

After the furore around the new Jaguar brand unveiling, Type 00 won’t silence all the critics, it might even draw out some more. Despite a few hints at historical connections, the days of traditional wood and leather with contrasting piping are gone, relegated to enthusiasts club meetings. It’s a bold and risky move, but as a concept and statement of intent, Jaguar Type 00 definitely sets an interesting tone for what is to come.