Jaguar is diving headfirst into its electric future with the Type 01—a massive, battery-powered luxury sedan designed to take on the likes of Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Unfortunately for Jag, the rollout of its next EV hasn’t exactly been met with unanimous praise.
The internet bashed the concept for its Minecraft-like design and the automaker’s, let’s say, unorthodox marketing approach. Regardless, Jaguar pushes on with its new Type 01, revealing its name just a few months before prototypes hit the street. An official debut is scheduled for later this year.
Ahead of what might be Jaguar’s most important debut in the company’s more-than-100-year history, I wanted to speak to the man who spent more than 20 years leading the company’s design department and get his thoughts on Jaguar’s new look and direction.
Photo by: Jaguar
Brutal, But Not Beautiful
Ian Callum is an industry vet. He began his career in the late 1970s with Ford, before working his way up to lead Jaguar in 1999. Callum left the automaker in 2019 to start his own company, Ian Callum Design.
Speaking with him as part of a larger interview about his work on the Aston Martin Vanquish—which you should definitely read, by the way—I asked him a difficult question about his former employer: What does he think of the new Jaguar?
According to Ian, the new Jag (at least, in concept form) lacks one thing: beauty.
‘The [Type 00 concept] is very bold, and it’s very dramatic. It lacks beauty. I won’t deny it’s bold and it’s dramatic; it’s a very extreme proportion. For me, the proportion is too retro… but the extremity is brave. It’s brutal, but it lacks beauty, and I think a criteria of Jaguar is to be beautiful. Not to say it’s a bad design, it just lacks that very important element of Jaguar design.’
Callum would know a thing or two about beauty. During his 20 years as head of Jag’s design department, he penned some of the most iconic Jaguar designs of all time. Callum brought sedans like the XF and XJ to life, as well as coupes like the XK and F-Type.
Callum also came up with the forward-thinking I-Pace, which he still considers one of his greatest designs. His final act at Jag was the gorgeous C-X75 concept. Although it never made it to production, you can still sort of buy one from his company today.
Photo by: Jaguar
Overcoming Electrification
For Callum, though, the Type 01’s lack of beauty isn’t the car’s only issue. He believes that the electric powertrain will also limit the large Jag’s appeal as more buyers eschew pricey EVs.
‘I think where [the Type 01’s] biggest challenge will be is the fact that it’s electric. That’s not an opinion on my part; that’s just a fact of life. If you look at all the electric supercars, nobody seems to want any. People who buy supercars aren’t going to worry about fuel consumption; that’s for sure.’
‘They tend to view a certain age group—generally older. They’re not 25-year-olds; they’re 65-year-olds, and they’re of a certain generation where the noise of the engine and the changing of gears is very important to them. That’s not going to continue forever.’
Callum certainly has a point. Executives have spoken at length about the difficulties of bringing electric vehicles to the high-end performance market. Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac said that buyers simply aren’t interested in electric hypercars at the moment. Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann noted something similar, calling them an ‘expensive hobby.’
It’s unclear what the future might have in store for Jag’s first ultra-pricey EV. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.
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