The new Jaguar Type 01 is here: Knightsbridge is the only place in the world to see it

If you’ve walked through SW1 in the past year, you’ll have noticed the mysterious outward appearance at 81-93 Knightsbridge. From December last year, a visionary, bold, unimpeachably futuristic realisation of the brand’s new direction offered a peek behind the curtain of what was to come. Type 00, painted custom London Red and inspired by the iconic red-brick Victorian architecture around it, was parked in the window.

The Type 00 prototype set the tone for what followed. “We’re entering an age where Jaguar goes back to luxury,” said Santino Pietrosanti, Director of Jaguar UK, when we sat down to find out what it’s been like at the heart of Jaguar’s reinvention. “Our brand needs to turn up differently. Our vehicles turn up differently. Our people turn up differently. We need to get back to the Jaguar brand essence: distinctive, original, luxurious.”

No longer a prototype, the Jaguar Type 01 has landed today as the full production realisation of its counterpart. No one had seen the exterior or the full specs, but speculation has been rife. “The way to describe the car: it is shocking and imposing. When we developed Type 01, our number one ethos was to make the impossible possible. When you finally get a chance to see the next generation of Jaguar, you will scratch your head and say, that looks impossible to do on a mass production scale,” said Santino.

The UK is Jaguar’s original home, and that will remain true for the new lineup. “Jaguar is designed, engineered, developed, tested and built in the UK,” Santino continues. “About 91 years ago, almost to the day, Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar, launched the first-ever Jaguar just around the corner in Mayfair.”

“It’s quite poignant that we’re back in Knightsbridge to honour that past and come full circle to what Jaguar always was. Knightsbridge is really important to us. It puts Jaguar at the heart of luxury. We’re in central London, and this is Jaguar’s global flagship,” Santino explains.

The car is undeniably jaw-dropping. Sleek, but defined. Reminiscent of a bespoke luxury yacht on land and inspired, but unconstrained by previous generations. You have to experience it to truly grasp where Jaguar is coming from. “Anytime we were met with a challenge – from design through to engineering development – we made sure we were uncompromising in everything we did,” Santino continued.

Type 01 is a fully electric four-door grand tourer stretching 5.235 metres – long-bonneted, low-roofed, sitting on 23-inch wheels – and it is the most powerful road car Jaguar has ever made. A tri-motor setup producing up to 1,030PS and 1,365Nm of torque gets it to 62mph in 3.2 seconds, while a 118 kilowatt-hour battery running on an 850-volt electrical architecture delivers an expected range of up to 450 miles. Plug it into a rapid charger and it adds 200 miles in 13 minutes. More than 360 patents were filed to build it, with first deliveries expected in the second half of 2027.

In New York, its identical twin made its debut at 1am this morning. Six hours later, London woke up to this – the only car anywhere in the world on public display.

Santino left us with this: “Type 01 is our statement halo vehicle. It sets the expression of Jaguar. And if you see Type 01, you could only imagine what we’re going to do next.”

Words by Jack Low. Images and video owned and supplied by Jaguar.