• Ian Callum, Jaguar’s design director from 1999–2019, revealed on the Road to Success podcast that the company was working on several new cars that were never released.
• Callum said that Jaguar created successors to the XF sedan, XJ sedan, F-Type sports car, and F-Pace SUV that “were all in the cards.”
• These four vehicles “were all taken away” in favor of a new, more upscale EV, previewed by the 2024 Type 00 concept.

It’s been well over a year since Jaguar unveiled its polarizing Type 00 concept, a glimpse into its future as an EV-only automaker. We’re still waiting to see the fruits of this transition to electric power, with the production car expected to be revealed at some point this year. But while we still don’t have full details on the Jaguar EV, we know how much development Jaguar threw away to commit to electricity, with former Jaguar designer Ian Callum revealing the models that were canceled in favor of EVs in an interview on the Road to Success podcast.

Callum served as design director at Jaguar from 1999 to 2019, so he was deeply involved in the brand’s product plans right up until his decision to step down and run his own eponymous design agency. His pen was responsible for some of the prettiest modern Jaguars, from the F-Type sports car to the luxurious XJ sedan and the C-X75 supercar concept that starred in the James Bond film Spectre. When Callum left Jaguar, he had been working on a series of new vehicles to overhaul the company’s lineup, none of which would see the light of day, and Jaguar hasn’t launched a new model since 2018.

On the Road to Success podcast, Callum discussed exactly what was sacrificed to make way for Jaguar’s EV plans. Alongside his successor, Julian Thomson, who left Jaguar in June 2021, Callum said that they “created quite a lot of new Jaguars before I left” that were ultimately “all taken away.”

The plans included a replacement for the XF sedan and the F-Pace SUV, the latter of which had become the brand’s bestseller. There was even a successor to the F-Type coupe being developed, and Callum said these models “were all in the cards, they were all being done.”

There was also a new iteration of the XJ, the company’s flagship sedan that had topped the lineup since 1968, that was nearly ready to be released. Back in 2024, images of the XJ successor leaked on social media, showing a large sedan with more traditional proportions than the Type 00 concept. The XJ prototype, which was also expected to be an EV, looks fairly close to production and was even spotted testing in camouflage.

“That was all stopped. Just like that,” he said with a snap of his fingers. Cryptically, Callum said he knows why the plans changed, but said “there’s no founded real excuse for doing that” without elaborating further.

Callum also provided his thoughts on the Type 00. “It’s a handsome car, it’s bold, it’s brave, and it’s got a lot of good design attributes about it,” he said. “But it’s not beautiful, and Jaguars need to be beautiful.” He also said it’s “just too retro.”

We’ll have to wait to see exactly how the Type 00 translates to production, but Callum doesn’t think all is lost at Jaguar. “It’s always possible to save the brand,” he said. “But sometimes it takes somebody from outside to take a long, hard look at it.”

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