Jaguar GT prototype review – driving 2026’s most controversial car

No matter how hard I try, I can't make the car spin. The engineer sitting alongside me reckons it’s impossible, and so it proves, the big Jag shrugging off even my most erratic, hamfisted attempts to unsettle it. Crank the steering, plant the throttle and it enters a neat four- wheel drift, precisely metering out circa-1000bhp and dampening my inputs just enough to stop the tail swinging wide. Try throwing its weight around by lifting off and flicking hard from left to right, and the electronics deftly soften the direction change and dial out any sideways momentum in the car.

There’s never the slightest hint that the rear might want to overtake the front, more than five metres ahead of it. But as well as being foolproof, the systems feel like an aid rather than a hindrance, keeping the Jag on its path while still giving as much freedom as they can to you, the driver. The most impressive bit? We’re driving on snow, on factory-fit unstudded winter tyres...

Getting a glimpse behind the curtain of a car’s development is always fascinating, especially so when it has been designed and engineered from a totally clean sheet. Jaguar’s new GT is exactly that – the first of a new generation of Jaguars that’s radical in every sense, from its technical make-up to its high- end market positioning. And yes, its design. Much has been said of the GT’s bold look and its polarising marketing programme, but this is a chance to cut through the noise, get under that new skin, and get a taste of what it’s like to drive at Jaguar’s Revi winter testing facility in Sweden, where prototypes are being honed and refined ahead of customer deliveries starting early next year.

The GT gives Jaguar a chance to define the character of its cars for years to come, and despite it being a circa-£120k four-door grand tourer powered by batteries, it’s not gunning for the obvious rival (and most dynamic car in the class), the Porsche Taycan. It’s a tourer first and a sports saloon second, and capturing the effortless character of iconic past Jags in a modern package has been the target. Matt Becker, formerly of Lotus and Aston Martin and now JLR’s vehicle engineering director, references the 1970s XJ‐C V12 as one of the key inspirations. 

That character has been baked into the GT’s all-new, 850-volt Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA) from the beginning. The platform has been designed to be exceptionally rigid and serves as a base for the twin-chamber air suspension with Bilstein adaptive dampers, triple-motor drivetrain and 120kWh battery pack. There’s a single motor at the front with an open differential, but the rear gets independent units for each wheel, enabling full torque vectoring.

The headline power figures are enormous – around 1000bhp and 1000lb ft of torque – but again, outright performance wasn’t the primary goal. The GT will dispatch 0-62mph in the low-3sec range, but Jaguar intentionally hasn’t chased the instantaneous thrust usually associated with fast EVs, instead mapping the torque curve to be more progressive, giving the impression of sustained thrust at higher cruising speeds – entirely fitting for a GT.

Range is, of course, another critical element for a long-distance tourer, and the GT will achieve more than 435 miles on the WLTP cycle. That’s more than a Taycan, but the Jag uses a bigger battery and thus weighs more. As much as half a ton more, putting it in the region of 2700kg. Yes, it has a bigger footprint than the Porsche and its focus on comfort and refinement does come with a natural weight penalty, but for a clean-sheet, new-generation EV to be quite so heavy is disappointing.

The first of two prototypes we’re driving – dubbed PT3 – was built 18 months ago and evidently has fair few development miles under its wheels. It’s a bit ratty, in other words, albeit in an endearing sort of way. Even so, and even with most of the cabin covered by a makeshift fabric disguise, there’s a sense of occasion. The relatively low, laid-back seating position and expanse of bonnet ahead very much give traditional GT vibes.

Set off and there’s impressive silence, too. This prototype isn’t signed-off in terms of noise and refinement, but it feels cohesive and vibration-free, with only the crunching of ice and snow beneath its wheels disturbing the cabin. The steering is light and measured in its responses. Not bristling with a sense of connection, but calm and intuitive as you wind on lock. Overall feel is closer to something like a Bentley than the sports car precision of a Taycan.

That also extends to the ride. On the access roads to one of Revi’s handling circuits, the GT feels plush and settles into a relaxed stride as it picks up speed. It doesn’t precisely track the contours of the road, instead flowing freely on its suspension to absorb long-wave bumps. Exploratory waggles of the wheel also reveal some roll and movement in the body – perhaps due to the fact that Jaguar has chosen not to fit active anti-roll bars to prop up the GT’s considerable mass. Clearly this isn’t a car with physics-defying responsiveness and absolute body control; rather it seems to embrace the fact that it’s a large, comfort-oriented GT.

But it’s also one with 1000bhp to manage, and the scale of that challenge comes to light on the handling circuit. There’s a monstrous level of forward thrust and, with the stability systems disabled, the GT’s wheel speed flares up to an indicated 100mph in the brief moments when you can reach full throttle.

Vehicle dynamics manager James Hazlehurst is in the passenger seat, with a laptop hooked up to the GT’s electronic brain. There are three driving modes – Rain/Ice/Snow, Comfort and Dynamic – and we begin in Comfort. It’s not the most rear-biased mode, but I’m surprised by how playful and fundamentally neutral the car feels. Tipping it into a corner and steering it on the throttle feels natural, and there’s a lovely sense of the car propelling itself forwards while it holds a slight drift angle. The way it can corner with a near-straight steering wheel is almost balletic.

When settled like this the GT’s enormous weight isn’t a factor, but it does make itself felt under braking, or when slinging it through direction changes. The body shifts over on its springs and, though the movement is cushioned and controlled, you need to slow down your inputs to account for it. 

Drive beyond that satisfyingly neutral window and the four-wheel-drive calibration in Comfort starts to rein things in. Adding armfuls of correction prompts the system to engage the front motor and pull you straight, keeping you pointing the right way but stopping you from fully indulging in the GT’s balance. Switching to Rain/Ice/Snow renders the car even less prone to oversteer but makes the GT feel almost like a front-wheel-drive car at times in how it uses the front axle to correct itself.

We switch to Dynamic and suddenly the handling becomes more rear-led. With less support from the front axle there’s more propensity for the rear to slide out of corners – and continue to do so well into the next straight – but the upside is a free, malleable balance. Despite the GT’s mass, very rarely does the front end push on entry, which allows you to rotate the car on the power from the moment you turn in, all the way to the exit.

Get it right and it’s really satisfying, though there were times when the systems didn’t anticipate exactly what I was asking for. For instance, when balancing the car through certain tight corners, I’d add throttle to tighten the line, but drive was sent to the front instead, pulling the nose wide when I needed it to tuck in. James notes that there are still final tweaks to be made to the software (at this stage it’s 75-80 per cent complete), and that perfectly optimising the car for snow would probably compromise its tarmac behaviour.

Later we try a VB (Verification Build) prototype with the stability systems active, and as impressive as PT3 was, the full might of the electronics is more apparent here. The electric motors enable fine control of wheel slip and hold the car precisely at the limit with real finesse, whether from a standing launch or through corners. But the real genius is in the dual-motor rear axle. It not only manipulates torque to each wheel under power, but also works off-throttle to either stabilise the rear or improve turn-in. It softens aggressive direction changes and, if you wind on excessive amounts of lock, works to minimise understeer when you’d otherwise go straight on. It’s an impressive box of tricks and makes the GT pretty much unspinnable.

To say there’s a lot riding on the GT would be a massive understatement. Jaguar has rolled the dice on a premium EV at a time when other car makers are struggling to sell them, and when governments have changed tack to be more lenient towards hybrid power. Simply being a competent, highly impressive EV won’t guarantee success, as demonstrated by the Taycan that's now struggling to find owners. On this evidence the GT is an impressive engineering feat, but will customers truly desire it? Time will tell.