Leaping cat wraps off
Jaguar is trying to hark back to the past with the long-awaited Type 01 sure to turn heads in a way the E-Type once did.
The monochromatic EV, which had its big reveal in New York this week, is a long, wide, low-roofed, four-door sedan with a rear-opening hatch. Its smooth body boasts flashy chrome, vents, swage lines and indentations.
The Type 01’s three electric motors produce as much as 757kWh of powers and deliver 0-to-60mph (96.56kph) acceleration in 3.1 seconds.
The 850-volt electrical system enables fast charging and a driving range of 646km. There are two charging ports, one on each side, and 322km of range can be added in 13 minutes.
Andy Wheel, Jaguar’s director of design development, says the Type 01 “should be polarising and have a sense of never having been seen before, a sense of like nothing else and a sense of wow”.
The sedan’s grille is upright, angled and designed to push air around the fenders. The flush headlights, each containing 20,000 LEDs are narrow slits. Active grille shutters, mounted low on the front fascia, channel air to the brakes, powertrain and climate control system.
Jaguar says the Type 01, with a drag coefficient of 0.23, is its most aerodynamic production car ever.
The one-piece rear aluminium quarter panels that incorporate the roof sections take Jaguar into new design territory. Each side of the sedan has what Jaguar body engineers describe as the “impossible panel”.
The Type 01’s interior also gets the minimalist treatment. There are no knobs, buttons or switches on the dashboard. It instead responds to voice commands and screen inputs to control major functions.
There’s a three-section, 24-inch OLED screen behind the steering wheel with driving functions on the left, speed displayed in the middle and navigation on the right.
A seven-inch screen is mounted at the front of the full-length console. Front-seat occupants can manage the climate and sound systems. But Jaguar expects the voice recognition system will be used to operate the vehicle’s controls. The electrical architecture is sourced from Nvidia.
Jaguar expects roughly 80 per cent of Type 01 buyers will be new to the brand and about 50,000 expressions of interest have been lodged. The company started accepting deposits after the debut.
Deliveries in Europe and North America will start next year, possibly mid-2026. The Asian launch will follow and New Zealand orders will open at the start of 2027.
The Type 01 will be priced at around US$130,000 – or about NZ$232,200 – before options, which is roughly twice as much as previous Jaguars. The last was the F-Pace, which was discontinued in December 2025.
