Almost exactly a year on from ‘that ad’ and the jaw-dropping pink car that followed, I’m at JLR HQ in Warwickshire on a cold, damp December morning sitting inside the first of the new breed of Jaguars. It’s one of 150 prototypes undergoing testing around the world as the brand heads towards the reveal of its new luxury electric GT.
Plenty has been written about the reimagining of the great British brand – even the US President chimed in with his opinion – but I’m here to focus on how the new car feels and give you my first impressions of an early prototype model on the road.
Many details are still under wraps, as is the car I’m in with its black and white camouflage doing a reasonable job of disguising what it’ll actually look like. However, after my road trip I was treated to a surprise: a trip to the design studio where the cover was whipped off a production-ready new Jag, stripped of any camo and looking pretty much ready for its first customer.
But first I’m sitting next to Matt Becker, JLR’s Vehicle Engineering Director – in English that means he’s the guy responsible for tuning the new car to make it feel like a Jaguar. However, this is an all-new Jaguar, so it’s a chance for Becker and his team to reinvent what a Jaguar feels like – the sort of opportunity that rarely comes around for anyone in the car business.
So, what was the brief? For that I spoke to the man heading up the new Jaguar brand, Rawdon Glover. What was he looking for?
“There are certain characteristics,” said Glover. “It needs to be an involving, engaging drive, but it's not a sports car. It needs to be a car that eats up miles, is great to do long journeys at speed. It needs to have that sense of power in reserve so that you start to get a sense of, yeah, it's engaging, it's involving, but it's not exhausting.
“It's something that’s the ideal vehicle to do a long-distance journey on the Autobahn in, where you're traveling at speed for long periods of time and then when you get out you feel okay and as fresh as when you got in.
“That was the brief we gave to the team, that's what we needed them to deliver in terms of how we deliver the power, how much power we need, weight distribution, all of that good stuff.”
And if anyone can, Becker can. I have history with Becker, having sat alongside him in myriad Lotus and Aston Martin models that he’s been responsible for over the years before he joined JLR. Becker has fine-tuned the dynamics of some of the finest British cars for a generation, from Lotus sports cars to Aston’s first SUV and now Land Rovers and a new Jaguar.
So, how does this all-electric Jaguar rank amongst his many achievements? “It’s up there,” says Becker with a knowing smile on his face. “It’s definitely top three.”
That bodes well for our trip around JLR’s lengthy test track, but first a few stats that put the car into context. Becker has around 1,000bhp under his right foot in a car that’s 5.4 meters long and weighs 2,750kg. In short, it’s a beast. And the road is damp.
I ask Becker to take us back to the beginning of the project and how they defined what this new Jaguar should feel like. “We spent some time driving the classics,” he said. “Everything from the E-Type – obviously – to the XJ. But it was the [two-door] XJC that inspired us most for its comfort and heave control, it’s lightness and deftness.”
By this time, we’re underway and, despite the cladding around the car and the heavily covered interior, there’s already a sense of luxury to the way the car feels on some typically British surfaces around JLR’s test track.
I’ll describe the ride comfort as comfortably connected. You don’t feel cushioned enough to be totally detached from what’s going under the tyres – this isn’t a magic carpet ride – but nor do you feel in any way thrown around. It feels like a very British ride; a very Jaguar ride with air suspension attached to each wheel. The comfort is pretty remarkable given that the car rides on huge 23-inch wheels with very low profile tyres wrapped around them.
Given the size and weight of the car, it changes direction swiftly with no hint of body roll, helped by clever torque vectoring technology and rear-wheel steering. This isn’t the sort of car that will have Becker sliding sideways out of a corner with smoke pouring from the tyres. Today it’s more likely to be spray.
No, this Jaguar is far more restrained and always feel luxurious. I’d say it has a nice blend of comfort and stability – even when Becker points to the speed read-out that shows we’re well into three figures.
“The fundamentals were correct with this car from day one,” said Becker. “The body stiffness is incredible, which just allows us to add the flavour.
“The tuning of the brakes in an EV is different – we’re looking for a cohesion between braking and accelerating. And we want it to feel like there’s always power in reserve – there’s always something there, not with that instant kick like in some EVs.”
That’s evident in the smooth, but swift, progress we’re making on the various sections and surfaces of the test track where the new Jaguar just feels solid, exuding quality.
A few things were missing from this prototype model we drove it: the interior was covered and offered very few clues to what lies beneath. There looked to be decent space in the back, while there was no rear window – the Jaguar relying on cameras for the view rearward, like the Polestar 4. And the doors opened with a press of a button rather than a door handle.
There was also no Jaguar sound, either. That’s work in progress, said Becker. “Each brand will have a signature noise, including off or ‘calm’, and we’ve taken learnings from the Jaguar I-Pace on that.”
Jaguar’s first electric car, the I-Pace, was hugely well received, driving off with the World Car of the Year Award in 2019. The new, as yet unnamed, Jaguar will be a very different car. But from my first brief experience in it, it could be set for similar critical acclaim that will make the fuss over Jaguar’s reinvention last year a distant memory.
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