The new electric Jaguars are 'getting exciting response from the customers'

After pretty much every car journalist and influencer has been pissing on the rebrand of Jaguar and the Jaguar 01 Concept that is part of that, all seems to be going according to plan at the brand.

No, that's an understatement. It's going better than that, if we're to believe new CEO PB Balaji. He told autonews.com: 'We have put our plans together, the cars are being revealed, they’re getting exciting response from the customers on the ground. Therefore, that’s what the strategy is.'

The sentence 'they're getting exciting response' is something either the CEO is lying about, or exaggerating. Or maybe the final production version of the 01 is a completely different car and hasn't been show in Barbie Pink and Baby Blue. I don't know.

What I do know is that a lot of car enthousiasts are kind of warming up to the 01. It almost seems like a turn around since Mister Trump and Mister Musk shat all over the brand, which in turn made it cool to like again. I kind of jokingly hinted towards this in a newsletter last week, but wasn't thinking it would come true.

But still, even with these anti-endorsements from the US President and the world's richest man, you have to put Jaguar's plans in perspective. It said it's perfectly fine with losing 85 percent of the current clientele while simultaneously moving up market. No new and fully electric Jaguar will be had below six figures.

That means the brand in focussing on margin in stead of volume, which means it probably dit the math and came to the conclusion that if only 15 percent of the clients bought a new EV from them, it would make financially sense to stay in business.

Where I'm getting worried is the part that their research told them that in the six figure market people don't care about what powers their cars. Could be a 4.4 liter twinturbo V8, a three cilinder 1.5 with hybrid power (or without for that matter) or even just a small electric motor. Funnily enough that is where future competitors of Jaguar, let's say Porsche for example, found out it was just the opposite. Their clients want to burn fuel and hear pops and bangs. 

Also surviving in that that market will be hard to say the least. Over saturation is already an issue and the Chinese onslaught will be unrelenting, with new luxury brands launching seemingly every other week. Did you see the ass scraping Denza?

Just today Zeekr revealed the new X9. While it's not a full EV, but a hybrid with a 2-liter 4-banger and a 70 kWh battery pack powering three electric motors (1381 hp), it's still a monster of a machine capable of doing 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds and topping out at 240 kph. And yes, it will be costing about six figures.

Also in that six figure range lies the Yangwang U9 with a rumored 3019 hp. And that car can jump over potholes. I don't think the Jaaaaggggg 01 will be able to compete on those terms.

That said, I'm rooting for Jaguar. I don't dislike the 01 that much. I just have to see the road legal car to make up mind about it. Therefore my hope of it being an actual good looking car shot a bit up when I read what the CEO was saying. Although, I'm still a bit sad it doesn't have a V8. For me Jaguars produce the best V8 sound of any car without a doubt. It makes it so it feels a bit criminal to drive one. It was good to be bad...

In the news:

I have to go back to that BYD Yangwang U9 with more than 3.000 hp. Not only will it be the world's most powerful car, I wonder if it'll make it a full lap around the Nürburgring. BYD already announced it'll be taking the new U9 to the famously deadly piece of tarmac to try and set a new record. But as we know, with great power comes short range. Especially if the new version will also have the 70 kWh LFP-pack as its predecessor.

Good to see ex-Jaguar designer Ian Callum is not sitting still. He posted a new shooting brake concept on Instagram this weekend. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the first image and almost flatlined when I saw the second. I went from: this is automotive perfection, to: is everything all right with Sir Callum? The man drew a perfect Aston Martin shooting brake with the back of a 1998 Ford Escort. I don't like a Ford Escort.

One of the coolest concept cars I've ever driven, the Sono Sion, is being sold for about 600 euros. If you're quick, you can buy yourself an EV you'll never have to charge again (if you live in a sunny area). I'll admit that the Sion was shit to drive, but that made the idea for the car any less cool. It was Sono's plan to build a cheap solar car to make it even cheaper to run on a daily basis. Truly a car for the masses. But sadly it wasn't meant to be. Sono went bankrupt in 2023.