Jaguar Launches Rebrand with Radical Concept Car

Jaguar is undergoing a transformation and has launched its rebrand with a new logo, a new design philosophy, and a radical new concept car.

The concept car, called the Type 00 (Type Zero Zero), is meant to help debut the British brand’s “bold new visual identity,” but it has been met with widespread criticism. While the Type 00 has the proportions of a traditional Jaguar sports car with a long hood, short deck, and strong rear haunches, the design resembles a very digital parody car from a videogame, and there's not much else that connects it to what we traditionally know about the brand.

The bright blue and pink electric vehicles (EVs) have flush surfaces, no rear windows, huge 23-inch wheels, front-hinged butterfly doors, thin headlights, full-width tail lights, and a boxy grille and rear end. The interior renderings are unsurprisingly minimalist, with an oblong two-spoke steering wheel, brass details, stowable wide display screens for the driver and another for the front passenger, who have an open wall dividing their seating areas. Travertine stone and alabaster are also used in the interior renderings, which is odd considering how heavy those materials are.

The Type 00 is a concept car, but it’s meant to inspire the design for an upcoming electric vehicle. The zeros in the name represent zero emissions and signify a reset for the whole brand.

Jaguar’s next production model will be a fully electric four-door grand touring sedan, which will be revealed in late 2525 and built in the U.K. The EV will use a new dedicated platform and will offer 692 km of range on the overly generous European testing cycle. Canadian range estimates will be significantly lower when they are announced.

Jaguar earlier committed to being a fully electric automaker by 2025, which led it to discontinue most of its models this year in preparation for the switchover. This left Jaguar with only one vehicle in its current portfolio, the F-Pace SUV, which oddly is not an EV. This led many to questions about where the brand would be in the near future with only one vehicle for sale in North America and no vehicles in the immediate pipeline. The brand has already invested billions into its EV transition.

While the rebrand has been a topic of heated debate, with many industry insiders saying that it does not respect the brand’s rich heritage and is too large a departure, others are hopeful that it ushers in a new era for Jaguar and helps it reach new customers. Jaguar is now employing a "copy nothing" design philosophy, so it shouldn't be surprising that the dramatic Type 00 looks like no other Jaguar ever has.

Jaguar has been around since 1935 and has a reputation for designing some of the most beautiful cars of all time, including the iconic E-Type.