The insider hookup, in your inbox
See future cars and secret prototypes with Spyglass, a new newsletter from The Drive
It has been nearly a year since Jaguar’s massive rebranding announcement, and in that time we’ve seen evidence that the automaker is inching closer to a production-ready Type 00 (or whatever it will officially be called). We’ve already seen it testing at the ‘ring, so much of what we have here is old news. But for the first time, our spy photographers captured the prototype with its liftgate open—and boy, is that thing tiny.
Everything we’ve seen from the Type 00 thus far has screamed “road presence,” so it’s only in that context that this seems so ridiculous. It’s obvious that Jaguar’s camo adds quite a bit of bulk to this test vehicle (plus the camera adds inches, right?), so we’re confident the effect is being magnified by the circumstances. Still, for such a massive sedan, that’s an awfully dinky cargo opening.
To say that Jaguar’s goals for the Type 00 are lofty would be understating it slightly. This car is mean to simultaneously represent Jaguar’s past and future. It will move up market, capitalizing on the brand’s heritage of exclusivity, but it will do so without a traditional internal-combustion formula.
It’s safe to say that the final production vehicle won’t fit anybody’s preconceived notion of a Jaguar (or of an EV, judging by the look of this thing). Just imagine your grandpa trying to get his oxygen tank into that trunk! But we’re curious to see what Jaguar has in store as it continues to reinvent itself in the coming years.
You can browse the full gallery of spy pics below, with some humans included for scale.
Got a news tip? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com.
Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.