Jaguar’s new electric car is a high-stakes bet on a whole new aesthetic

British luxury automaker Jaguar has launched its first vehicle since a radical rebrand that caused consternation, and sparked a small-time culture war with some critics calling it “woke.”

Big and broad, with no sign of Jaguar’s traditional curves, the Type 01 is a fully electric four-door grand tourer that may unsettle fans of the manufacturer’s previously heritage-heavy image. But the brand claims it is “the most technically advanced” and aerodynamic Jaguar ever engineered,” according to a press statement from parent company JLR on Wednesday.

The announcement is a big step in Jaguar’s relaunch, which got off to a decidedly rocky start in 2024.

Back then, under the tagline “copy nothing,” Jaguar published a promotional video featuring a diverse cast of models posing and moving through an otherworldly landscape.

The video was notable for the fact that it didn’t feature any cars, and it drew the ire of traditionalists, who accused Jaguar of going “woke.”

“The internet went mad, the anti-woke brigade went mad, even Elon Musk criticized it,” said automotive journalist Mark Smyth. “It threw out everything Jaguar has built over a century, including its customers.”

The Type 01 will be available from early 2027, with prices starting from £130,000 ($172,000), moving the company firmly into the upper end of the luxury car market.

Both the new model and the wider rebrand present “a massive risk” to the business, according to Smyth and other industry commentators.

Jaguar reveals first concept car after controversial rebrand

“Gone is the curvaceous design legacy of the brand, replaced by brutalist minimalism and cold surfaces,” Smyth added, also highlighting the car’s cutting edge technology and engineering.

“This is not a mainstream production car though, it is a showpiece for the elite,” he said.

“The Type 01 is probably too big for most UK cities, suggesting the US is its main target market,” said Smyth, referencing the car’s 5.2 meter (17 feet) length and two meter (6.6 feet) width.

Writing in The Guardian , journalist Zoe Williams raised similar concerns, alleging that the Type 01 would be too big “to fit into any UK car parking space,” adding that the vehicle “looks more like a tank than a car.”

Stuart Masson, editorial director at automotive market advisory firm The Car Expert, told CNN that the Type 01 is a gamble that could prove decisive for the survival of the company.

“I think Jaguar was a brand that probably more than any other really kind of relied on its heritage and its glory days from in particular the 1950s,” he said. “The rebrand consciously basically just swept all that away in one go and said ‘we’re brand new, we’re starting again.’”

Jas Lehal/Press Association/AP

What actually went wrong at Jaguar

“So it really upended everything that people thought about Jaguar, which was the point, but when you do that you are going to inevitably upset a lot of people who expect the company to be a certain way,” he added.

“The real test,” he said, “is how they’re going to go trying to sell an electric Jaguar for more than double the price of what the old Jaguars tended to be.

“If they’re going to survive they have to do something different, but this is very much last chance saloon stuff for Jaguar,” he said.

英国豪华汽车制造商捷豹推出了自彻底品牌重塑以来的首款车型，此次品牌重塑引发了轩然大波，并引发了一场小规模的文化战争，一些批评人士称其为“觉醒”。

Type 01 车身庞大宽阔，完全没有捷豹传统的曲线造型，是一款纯电动四门豪华旅行车，这或许会让那些钟情于捷豹以往浓厚历史底蕴的拥趸感到不安。但据其母公司捷豹路虎 (JLR) 周三发布的新闻稿称，这款车是“捷豹有史以来技术最先进”且空气动力学性能最佳的车型。

这一消息标志着捷豹品牌重振旗鼓迈出了重要一步，该品牌在 2024 年的复兴之路可谓开局坎坷。

当时，捷豹以“不抄袭”为口号，发布了一段宣传视频，视频中一群不同风格的模特在一个超凡脱俗的风景中摆姿势和移动。

这段视频之所以引人注目，是因为视频中没有任何汽车出现，这激怒了传统主义者，他们指责捷豹“觉醒”了。

“互联网炸开了锅，反觉醒派也炸开了锅，就连埃隆·马斯克都批评了它，”汽车记者马克·史密斯说。“它把捷豹一个多世纪以来建立的一切，包括它的客户，都推翻了。”

Type 01 将于 2027 年初上市，起价为 130,000 英镑（172,000 美元），这将使该公司稳稳地进入高端豪华车市场。

史密斯和其他业内评论员认为，新模式和更广泛的品牌重塑都给企业带来了“巨大的风险”。

捷豹在备受争议的品牌重塑后发布了首款概念车

“该品牌以往圆润流畅的设计风格已不复存在，取而代之的是粗犷的极简主义和冷峻的表面，”史密斯补充道，同时还强调了该车的尖端技术和工程设计。

“但这并非一款主流量产车，而是为精英阶层打造的展示车型，”他说道。

“Type 01 对于英国大多数城市来说可能太大了，这表明美国是其主要目标市场，”史密斯说道，他指的是这款车的长度为 5.2 米（17 英尺），宽度为 2 米（6.6 英尺）。

《卫报》记者佐伊·威廉姆斯撰文提出了类似的担忧，她声称 01 型汽车体积太大，“无法停进英国的任何停车位”，并补充说，这辆车“看起来更像坦克而不是汽车”。

汽车市场咨询公司 The Car Expert 的编辑总监 Stuart Masson 告诉 CNN，Type 01 是一场豪赌，其成败可能对公司的生存起到决定性作用。

“我认为捷豹这个品牌可能比其他任何品牌都更依赖于它的历史传承，尤其是上世纪50年代的辉煌时期，”他说。“这次品牌重塑基本上是刻意地将这一切一股脑地扫除，宣告‘我们是全新的，一切重新开始’。”

Jas Lehal/新闻协会/美联社

捷豹到底出了什么问题？

“所以，这彻底颠覆了人们对捷豹的所有看法，这正是目的所在，但当你这样做的时候，你不可避免地会惹恼很多期望公司以某种方式行事的人，”他补充道。

“真正的考验，”他说，“是他们将如何尝试以比老款捷豹汽车高出一倍多的价格出售电动捷豹汽车。”

“如果他们想要生存下去，就必须做出改变，但这对于捷豹来说，确实是他们最后的机会了，”他说。