Blue Thunder or Blue Blunder? Jaguar's Electric Oddity Hits Paris
Image Credit: Jaguar.
Oh boy, Jaguar's latest electric… thing… was out and about in Paris the other day. They call it the Type 00, and frankly, I'm still trying to figure out if it's a car, a spaceship, or a really fancy doorstop. I've seen some odd-looking automobiles in my time. I've driven a few that seemed to be actively trying to escape from the laws of physics. But this controversial Jag looks like they took a perfectly normal car, stretched it, squished it, and then dipped it in a bucket of matte blue paint that was mixed by a Smurf on a bad day.
This electric beast is supposed to be the herald of Jaguar's grand comeback, a sort of phoenix rising from the ashes of underwhelming sales. Let's not beat around the bush - Jaguar's been about as popular as a soggy biscuit at a barbecue. They went from shifting over 180,000 units a year to barely scraping 67,000. That must have felt like going from headlining Glastonbury to playing a Tuesday night at the local pub.
To prop up its failing sales, Jaguar decided to go all-electric - that's not that revolutionary anymore. So they've decided to go bold. And boy, have they gone bold. This Type 00 is less a car and more a rolling statement. It's got proportions that make a stretch limo look petite, and a matte finish that hurts your eyes while the brain scrambles for answers. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing - that's up to you. Personally, I'm still on the fence. It's not a car, it's a modern art piece – you're not quite sure what it is, but you can't look away.
Jaguar claims this thing will herald a new era of four-door GTs, starting with a sedan that's supposed to hit the streets next year. And they're not messing around. We're talking a price tag of over $165,000. That's enough to buy a small house, or a fleet of reasonably nice used hatchbacks.
But for that kind of money, you'd expect something special, right? They're promising a range of 430 miles. That should be enough to get you from New York quite a long way. Impressive? Sure. But will it actually deliver? We'll have to wait and see. The dimensions? I don't have the exact measurements, but this is a big car. It's the kind of car that makes you wonder if you need a pilot's license to drive it.
Jaguar hasn't released all the specs yet, but they're hinting at performance that'll apaprently make your eyeballs rattle. They're talking acceleration times that'll pin you to your seat like a fly on flypaper. Which is exactly what you'd expect for $165,000.
Image Credit: Jaguar.
But here's the thing: all the fancy numbers and bold designs in the world don't mean a thing if the car doesn't deliver. We've seen so many EV promises go up in flames that hearing about big numbers doesn't even raise an eyebrow anymore. Jaguar needs to prove that this isn't just a flashy concept but a real, honest-to-goodness car that people actually want to buy.
They're betting big on this electric revolution, and they're hoping that this Type 00 will be the car that turns their fortunes around. I hope it will. I hope this outlandish design will capture the hearts and minds of a new generation of car buyers. But I worry it'll just end up as a footnote in the automotive history books. A quirky blip on the radar, if you like.
Whichever way this story ends, you've got to give Jaguar kudos for trying something different. They could have played it safe. They could have designed another bland SUV, then called it a day. But they didn't. They went all in, and they created something that's impossible to ignore.
And that is what makes this whole thing so interesting. Will it succeed? Will it fail? I don't know. But I can tell you it's going to be a hell of a ride. I never thought I'd ever say that Jaguar created a car that's as polarizing as a politician's haircut. A car that's as bold as a badger in a tutu. A Jaguar that's an enigma. A bold, blue enigma that's worth getting excited about.
