Weekend Drive “There’s no playbook for what we’re doing

Has there ever been a reset like this in 140-odd years of the automobile? Brands have pivoted and reinvented, but no carmaker with nine decades of history has ever stopped everything, walked away from the petrol engines it spent 90 years honing into an art form, and started again with a blank sheet of paper.

That’s what Jaguar has done. The XE, XF, F-Pace, F-Type — all gone. No petrol, no diesel, not even a hybrid safety net. Just one new car (to start with), pure electric. That car is the Type 01, and the name says it all: 0, for zero emissions; 1, for the first model of Jaguar’ rebirth; and Type, to echo the earlier C-, D- and E-Types. First deliveries begin in 2027, and I’ve just driven a camouflaged prototype at Jaguar’s test track in England.

“There’s no playbook for what we’re doing,” Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover told me. “It’s actually everything changed.” This is the deep end, and Jaguar has jumped in without armbands.

The camouflage hides the details but not the proportions. This is a big car, over five metres long, yet unmistakably a Jaguar. The bonnet is impossibly long in the grand classical tradition, even though there’s no V12 under it, and the roofline swoops into a proper coupé silhouette that channels the romance of the E-Type. Huge 23-inch wheels are standard. The production car has four doors where the concept had two, but expect it to stay every bit as polarising.

Glover isn’t running from the word. “I’d much rather four people out of ten absolutely love the car” than have everybody call it merely okay, he says. Climb in and the first surprise is how low you sit. With the low ceiling, slim windows and high centre console, the cabin feels snug and cocooning. This is a car built around the driver, and how that plays in India, where owners want chauffeur-driven comfort, remains to be seen. The tiny rear windows don’t bode well, but the long wheelbase promises generous legroom, and the individual rear seats should be properly luxurious. This is strictly a four-seater and a luxurious one.

With around 1000bhp, the Type 01 will hit 100kph in under three seconds, but what stays with you is the way all that power is delivered. Instead of the head-tossing savagery fast EVs mistake for excitement, you get one deep, unbroken surge that refuses to taper even at serious speeds. The steering is an old Jaguar trick, faithfully copied. And this 5.2-metre GT shrinks around you the moment you roll. It doesn’t attack corners but flows through them with the unruffled composure of a proper GT.

Wind and tyre noise barely register, and the ride has a lovely long-legged gait. Only on broken tarmac do those enormous wheels betray a faint business, though 21-inch wheels with taller, more cushioned, tyres are planned for markets like ours.

India will get the Type 01 as a full import. With UK pricing estimated to be £120,000 to £150,000, expect upwards of ₹3 crore with duties. This is a risk for Jaguar. The design may be polarising. There’s no fallback. But the Type 01 drives with a fluency and character that feel authentically Jaguar. It might be the boldest bet in the history of the car business.