Jaguar is back, and it's brought a $130,000 electric car with it. On the evening of October 6, the British luxury marque staged a world premiere in New York and revealed the production Jaguar Type 01 — a four-door electric GT starting at $130,500, which the company calls the most powerful, most aerodynamic and most technologically advanced Jaguar ever built.
The numbers are serious. Built on the bespoke Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA), the Type 01 produces more than 1,000PS (1,015 horsepower), claims a 400-mile EPA range, and rides on an 850-volt system that can add 200 miles of range in 13 minutes on a 350kW charger. Zero to 62 mph takes 3.2 seconds.
The design is equally bold: an ultra-long bonnet, low roofline, sleek silhouette, frameless doors, and a camera where the rear window should be. Jaguar says the car was developed from a single line drawn on a blank sheet and calls it the most aerodynamic production Jaguar it has made.
The premiere was pure theater. The Type 01 carved through closed roads on Manhattan's West Side before arriving at STORIED in West Chelsea, with large digital displays lighting up Times Square, DUMBO and the Lower East Side. Formula E driver António Félix da Costa drove the car to the event, actor Florence Pugh was announced as the brand's inaugural ambassador for the new era, and British singer-songwriter Sienna Spiro performed.
"From its dramatic design to its captivating drive, Type 01 distils the essence of Jaguar into a luxury grand tourer for a new era," said Rawdon Glover, Jaguar's managing director.
The launch can't escape the shadow of that controversial rebrand. In November 2024, Jaguar released a 30-second ad showing androgynous models in bright clothing chanting "delete ordinary" and "copy nothing" — featuring no car and no Jaguar logo — drawing fierce backlash from enthusiasts and critics alike. The Type 00 concept that followed split opinion just as sharply.
Since then, Jaguar has weathered a major cyberattack that halted production and, last month, announced plans to cut nearly 10% of its workforce over two years. The brand has bet everything on electric, even as US enthusiasm for EVs lags Europe's — and Ferrari's and Bentley's recent first EVs both met skeptical receptions.
The price tag is itself a gamble. Jaguar's plan sharpens its focus on the US: orders open at the start of 2027, with first deliveries expected in the second half of the year. Strategically, the brand is moving further upmarket to court younger, wealthier North American customers while shifting the entire lineup to electric.
With Europe's auto industry squeezed by competitively priced Chinese EVs and tariff costs, Jaguar is treating the US as its growth engine. Whether wealthy buyers will pay $130,500 for an electric Jaguar won't be answered until those first cars arrive in mid-2027.