Jaguar has not sold a single car in South Africa in a year – This is its comeback

Following the discontinuation of all of its existing models in 2024, Jaguar announced it would complete a massive rebranding campaign to counter declining sales and is now preparing to introduce the first in a brand new series of cars – the Type 01.

Having not sold a single model in South Africa in a year, the iconic British carmaker has unveiled the interior of its EV, ahead of the prototype’s debut at Monterey Car Week this weekend.

The Jaguar Type 01 will be revealed officially in New York on 6 October 2026. Until then, all we have to go off of are images shared by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

According to the carmaker, a central spine runs the full length of the cabin, creating four individual spaces around each seat. The cabin also shrinks around the driver’s low seating position.

The interior features a brass-inspired finish along this central spine, which is repeated along the tops of the doors and runs the length of the cabin, bearing the signature Jaguar leaper icon.

According to the company’s Chief Interior Designer, Thomas Holden, its design philosophy aims to translate the vehicle’s exterior presence to the interior architecture.

“In contrast to the horizontal interior design norm, we emphasise its dramatic longitudinal nature through the central spine,” he said.

“With authentic materials, technology on demand and reductive flowing surfaces, Type 01 presents unmistakable drama and theatre that will define the modern luxury automotive interior of the future.”

This “technology on demand” includes infotainment technology that forms part of the interior architecture, with digital interfaces integrated for control-on-demand.

These include a digital ClearSight Rear View Display positioned centrally at the base of the windscreen, at the same height as the door mirrors, concealed compartments, hidden-until-needed technologies and “unexpected moments of colour”.

Jaguar Managing Director, Rawdon Glover, said the Type 01 is the first production car to follow the brand’s new creative philosophy.

“With Type 01, we wanted every journey to be an occasion, from how it drives to how it looks and how it makes you feel,” he said.

“With a confidence-inspiring GT driving position, clean and sophisticated technology and dramatic styling, Type 01 has an interior like no other.”

An entirely new direction for a British icon

Jaguar’s “Reimagine” strategy is meant to take the carmaker in an entirely new direction, shifting it further upmarket, while appealing to younger audiences by introducing high-end EVs.

At the time of the rebrand, JLR declared that its petrol-car roster was no longer profitable and was not aiding the brand’s shift to an all-electric future.

This led Jaguar to discontinue its entire line-up last year, as production of the E-Pace, F-Pace, F-Type, I-Pace, XE, and XF came to an end.

Its pivot upmarket starts with the Type 01 – a 735kW and 1,300Nm luxury four-door electric GT.

To achieve this, Glover explained it not only harnessed the brand’s Formula E know-how but also embedded Jaguar TCS Racing’s competition mindset into its engineering teams.

“This helped us develop innovative solutions for our luxury four-door GT that drives like no other electric car,” he said.

The brand has previously confirmed to TopAuto that it will no longer compete with long-time rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and is instead looking to bigger fish.

As a result, the Tata-owned British automaker has set its sights on fellow British icon Bentley as its new rival.

The key difference is that Bentley still offers an extensive range of internal combustion vehicles across its model line-up, including new-energy vehicle (NEV) options like plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

If this is the direction Jaguar wants to take, it will need the Type 01 to compete with Bentley’s locally available GT car, the Continental GT, a R5.3 million PHEV coupé fitted with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8.

Jaguar Type 01 interior