Jaguar has officially presented the new 2028 Jaguar Type 01 in New York, and the sky hasn’t fallen after all. Two years ago, when the British brand dropped its pastel concepts, the internet unleashed an absolute storm of ridicule and brand obituaries. Even Elon Musk, a guy whose cars’ designs are the equivalent of porridge, moaned. Today, faced with the actual machine, some of that rabid criticism has flipped. Some.
If cars were buildings, the new Jaguar would definitely be an impenetrable brutalist volume. The automotive equivalent of John Carl Warnecke’s AT&T Long Lines Building. Heck, brutalism may fall short. This thing is so brutal and huge one may mistake it with the entire Soviet Union on four wheels. It’s the car that would make Darth Vader smile.
In the metal, the Type 01 is imposing. Unlike the smooth curves of the Porsche Taycan or an Audi e-tron GT, the Jaguar is a monolith with tiny windows. A massive, four-door (it’s a sedan, not a coupe like originally presented), 17.3-foot-long slab of smoothed aluminum sitting impossibly low to the ground on 23-inch wheels, with a hood so long it looks like it can fit the Titanic. There isn’t even a rear window, with its roof tapering on a smooth curve until it reaches the vertical grid on its butt. Inside, there are four sets with a spine that physically separates the passengers.
And, well, um, I kind of like it. Ish. At least it’s bold and original, which is what most people are saying online.
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