The front of the concept is more Range Rover, and very ‘boxy’. It looks like an attempt to rival Rolls Royce or Bentley (since they are aiming for the same premium market with their pricing point). One wonders how pedestrian friendly any of these types of front-end designs are – but they must be passing the EURO NCAP tests. Talking of which, the visibility on this car would be interesting. One wonders with the low profile and the extremely long bonnet that some driving situations might be a challenge.

As for the back of the car, apparently there is no rear window, which makes the rear profile interesting, but relaying on cameras to see behind will be a big change for some people. Next comes the colour – two so far. Without using the ‘fluffy’ names, the colours they chose were pink and blue.

Too clinical and minimal?

There are a number of other radical innovations on this car, as Top Gear reviews in the above video. Now, if you have the money, you may well be pleased to have a clinical, hospital like interior that you can choose to alter as the mood takes you whenever you get into the car. Then you would be well catered for (and probably what you would expect at the price point anyway). However, the use of two massive displays to control everything in the car and the loss of all physical ‘touchy-feely’ buttons is a negative for me in the whole experience. The use of ‘natural’ textures and materials in a different way – such as for the central console – doesn’t make up for the otherwise clinical feel.

Perhaps the younger, in particular, are looking for minimal, but despite the gaudy colour choices, the minimalist feel to all the surfaces could perhaps end up taking away from the feeling of luxury, instead replaced by a clinical and functional athetic. Overall it has a hint of Apple styling, with the smooth minimalist lines and choice of colours.

Make or break

This is a make-or-break moment for the Jaguar brand, and it seems the main things they set out to do – to create conversation and awareness around their complete rebrand, to appeal to a niche and not try to reach the masses and to enable them to charge more for each car, but sell far fewer cars per year may have been successful to this point as a marketing exercise in resetting the brand, but it promises a lot. In reality the concept we’ve been shown won’t be making it to market.

We’ll have to wait until late 2025 to know how successful this rebrand has been (and hopefully not over-hyped), when the first production car, an electric four-door GT, will be released. The pictures that have been released for this seem they might perhaps be a little dulled down and a little less radical from the concept (see a hint at the possible shape of the car in this AutoExpress article posted 19/11/24). If so, this may be quite disappointing for some, but significantly better for others (especially if there are black, red and British racing green options). Jaguar have said they don’t expect everyone to like their new cars. Let’s hope that enough premium buyers do like them to enable Jaguar to continue innovating and making new cars. This will be an interesting brand to watch as their new story unfolds over the next year or two.