The New Jaguar Look Like Cruella’s Car

Jaguar is hitting the reset button. Rather than continuing to chase BMW, it wants to go after Bentley. The brand’s reinvention starts with this outrageously shaped car. It was initially previewed by the Type 00 concept last December before the outlandish EV appeared earlier this month during Paris Fashion Week. You won’t be able to buy the Type 00 as is. Instead, Jag will sell you whatever’s hiding underneath the camouflage.

Having recently watched the original 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians film with my daughter, I can’t help but notice how the shape of Jag’s new EV reminds me of Cruella de Vil’s car. But the imposingly long hood doesn’t conceal a combustion engine. Instead, the British brand is going completely electric. It has already ended production of all its ICE models except for the F-Pace. From 2026, every car that will be launched with the leaping cat will be an EV.

A new spy video courtesy of professional car paparazzi CarSpyMedia shows the all-new Jaguar failing to hide its unorthodox shape. It may not have such a large body as the thick camouflage could be playing tricks on us. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say there won’t be anything like this on the road in 2026 when the car goes on sale. It already stands out in traffic, not because of its weird disguise. The camo will come off late this year when the production-ready model is set to break cover.

But who is the spectacular car for? Well, Jaguar recently admitted that as many as 85 percent of current customers won’t buy the striking EV. The Tata-owned brand must build a new clientele to survive in the upcoming electric era. By moving the brand upmarket, those buyers must fork out six figures, whether in dollars, euros, or British pounds.

Jaguar realizes it’ll sell even fewer cars than in 2024, when shipments plummeted to 33,000 units after most models were wiped out from the lineup, leaving the large gasoline SUV as the sole survivor. In 2018, before the coronavirus pandemic changed everything, deliveries reached 180,833 vehicles. That’s a nearly 82-percent drop in only six years.

42

The company isn’t backing down from its EV-only agenda. It has pledged not to put a gas engine underneath the stately hood. Ideally, a massive front trunk will make use of the car’s unusually long nose. Speaking of practicality, it’s evident that this prototype adopts a four-door layout instead of the Type 00 concept’s two-door silhouette.

The rear doors look short for such a long body, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the interior will be cramped. Since the car will ride on a dedicated EV platform, not having to incorporate an ICE car’s guts will free up room inside the cabin. The concept had a massive 126-inch (3.2-meter) brass “spine” that split the interior in two. It stretched from the dashboard to the cargo area, making it seem like space was abundant inside.

Jaguar is taking a huge risk with its new strategy, ushered in by an extremely bold grand tourer. Love it or loathe it, at least it’s not another SUV. However, there are reports that the swanky GT will be followed by an SUV and a more conventionally shaped large sedan. The latter won’t be related to the electric XJ, which was killed at the last minute.