What Jaguar’s Type 00 concept car tells us about its design direction

To state the necessary but obvious, Jaguar will still be making cars running on electric powertrains, so is not creating anything jaw-droppingly original in this sense. Some concept cars are wild, fantastical visions of the future, featuring many ideas that are never taken forward.

Much needed specificity

In this case, the company is serious about the concept leading to something: a long-distance grand tourer, to be revealed late next year, built in the UK, offering a 430-mile driving range on a single charge as well as a 200-mile fast charge in 15 minutes. This sets out a vision of practicality that could form a baseline of Jaguar’s USP. We may not know until the time of the real car’s launch what it offers in terms of comfort, tech, safety and driving pleasure.

Branding expert James Greenfield of Koto – who was one of the commentators from our initial Jaguar analysis – reflected further following the Miami event.

“It has launched a car that is about exuberance and this is a newish code for vehicles. It is luxury but in a different, more showy way. It’s not the quiet luxury of today. It has taken its cues from fashion and hospitality. But it is not clear enough that this was their intent,” says Greenfield

At the time of the identity reveal, I made the point that car brands have spent the last five years coming up with new visual identities that lean heavily on being electrified, often indicated with glowing, light-up badges. Jaguar is pushing in a very different direction and, in this context, ‘Copy Nothing’ starts to make a bit more sense. However, it was the copywriting that was one of the hardest things to deconstruct at the time of the identity launch. Declarative yet platitudinal was my initial reaction.

For Greenfield, “‘Live Vivid,’ ‘Delete Ordinary’ and ‘Copy Nothing’ still all seem too disconnected.”

Concept images leaked to the motoring press ahead of the launch have turned out to be official. Along with a load of other promotional material, they show that the Type 00 has built on the visual language expressed through the new identity, making particular use of color.

The featured concept car is demonstrated in Miami Pink and London Blue no less. The former is supposed to reference its art deco surroundings and the latter British Heritage, according to Jaguar.

Greenfield says: “London Blue, a color influenced by a 1960s E Type but shown with a picture of the Lloyds Building? That’s not the right source; it’s not evocative, so the logic breaks.

“I don’t know enough about vehicle design to comment on the car, however much of a petrolhead I am, but you can imagine it parked outside a slick hotel with the sun shining and people coveting that lifestyle, which the old Jaguar had lost. So it has reinvented it pretty successfully, but it all could have been done a little better is my overwhelming feeling.”

In terms of other new elements, although the name of the concept car Type 00 does sound a bit like an alcohol-free beer ,it also suggests a new era and it will be interesting to see how this informs future naming conventions.

If you forget the aforementioned, infuriated, stringback leather glove-wearing, classic car enthusiasts and the pointed ‘woke’ criticism, it’s easier to focus on the designed elements of the identity, which we have already critiqued. We have established that a lot of the design criticism stems from the elements not hanging together very well, the identity as a whole not standing for anything (although this is changing) and the launch being baffling – yet, as others have pointed out, maybe Jaguar has had the last laugh here.

In terms of the new launch video it does feel rather self-congratulatory and pretentious, but that’s not to say it won’t be effective. The car industry has never lacked confidence, so it doesn’t seem to be that out of place a position.

Jaguar will probably succeed despite the circus surrounding it

The point that has already been made is that Jaguar is seeking a new customer, who you would imagine to be young, wealthy and aspirational. That person is probably not your average design critic or designer.

Greenfield’s main reflection is: “Having seen the whole Jaguar rebrand process, it is a great example of the importance to sweat the details. Now we see it all, it makes a lot more sense. Is this a car for me? No, not really. Ostentatious with a little bling, but it will be great for someone. I imagine the streets of Dubai will be full of them. What did it get wrong? The copy and art direction mainly.”