Jaguar just showed its hand for the next era of Formula E. On November 10, the team pulled the cover off the I-Type 08 at Jaguar at Knightsbridge in London. It is the car that will carry the reigning Teams’ World Champions into the GEN4 era. I have not seen this car in person, and I have not driven it. What follows comes from Jaguar’s own release and Formula E’s official GEN4 material. The short version is simple. Formula E is about to get much faster, and the team to beat just got a new weapon.
The Car: 600 kW and All-Wheel Drive
The headline number is 600 kW. That is the I-Type 08’s peak output in Attack Mode and qualifying, roughly 800 horsepower. In normal race trim it runs at 450 kW, which is still a 50 percent jump over the GEN3 Evo. The car does 0 to 60 mph in 1.8 seconds. Top speed is 335 km/h, or 208 mph. Formula E expects lap times to fall by at least five seconds on street circuits.
The power comes from Jaguar’s own powertrain. A 350 kW unit drives the rear axle and a 250 kW unit drives the front. Together they give the car permanent active all-wheel drive. Formula E says the GEN4 is the only single-seater race car with that setup. The battery is new too. At 55 kWh it holds 43 percent more energy than the GEN3 Evo pack. Regenerative braking recovers up to 700 kW, which is more than the car’s peak driving power. Over 40 percent of the energy used in a race comes back through regen.
Team principal Ian James called the I-Type 08 the most performant electric race car Jaguar TCS Racing has built. He also said the reveal underlines what a pivotal moment this is for Jaguar and its all-electric future. That is a big claim from a team principal. The numbers back it up. This is the largest technical jump Formula E has made since the series started in 2014. Electric performance has gone mainstream on the road too. The Rivian R2 shows how far the tech has come for regular drivers.
Two Champions in the Cockpit
Jaguar is not easing into the GEN4 era with rookies. Both seats go to former Drivers’ World Champions. António Félix da Costa stays on for a second season with the team. He won the title in Season 6, back in 2020, and he will drive the number 13 car. Stoffel Vandoorne joins as his teammate in the number 5 car. Vandoorne won the title in Season 8, in 2022.
Vandoorne replaces Mitch Evans, who has moved on to Opel. The Belgian is not a stranger to the team. He spent last season as Jaguar’s reserve and development driver. He worked on the GEN4 car while it was still taking shape. That matters. A new formula means a steep learning curve, and Vandoorne already knows this car from the inside. Ian James said the lineup gives the team plenty of optimism for the campaign ahead. Two champions, one of whom helped build the car, is a strong place to start a title defense.
A Livery That Matches the Road Car
The car looks different too, and the change is deliberate. The I-Type 08 wears French Ultramarine Blue up front, fading to jet black across the sidepods and the rear. The blue is the main color of Jaguar’s new brand identity. It is the same French Ultramarine Blue that customers can order on the Type 01. The Jaguar leaper sits on the strikethrough graphic, another design element shared with the road car.
This is the part I find most interesting. Jaguar is not treating Formula E as a separate world from its road cars anymore. The race car and the road car now wear the same colors and the same graphic language. When I covered the Type 01 reveal in October, the story was a 1,016 horsepower electric GT. It has no rear window and a 130,000 pound price tag. The I-Type 08 is the other half of that story. Same brand reset, same colors, same idea. The race car proves the technology. The road car sells it.
Race to Road Is Real This Time
Every manufacturer in Formula E talks about race to road technology transfer. Jaguar has a more direct claim than most. JLR says the technology proven on track by Jaguar TCS Racing has directly enhanced development of the Type 01. That is the all-electric luxury four-door GT that launched in October 2026. The timing is not a coincidence. The road car and the race car arrived within weeks of each other. They share more than a paint color.
Jaguar designs its own GEN4 powertrain. That means the motor generator unit, the transmission, and the inverter. It also means the rear suspension, the rear active differential, and all the software control systems. The carbon fiber chassis and the battery are common parts. They are the same for every team. So the engineering fight is about powertrain efficiency and software. Jaguar will also supply its GEN4 powertrain to two other teams, Paysafe Envision and Fortescue Zero Racing. When a manufacturer trusts your powertrain enough to race it, that tells you something about the hardware.
What the Season Looks Like
The I-Type 08 goes to work quickly. The official pre-season test runs in Madrid from November 16 to 20. The season itself, Season 13 of the championship, opens in Jeddah on December 18. The calendar runs to 21 races across 13 cities. Familiar stops include Sao Paulo, Tokyo, and Monaco. New additions include the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Brands Hatch, and Zandvoort. The season finale is a double-header weekend in Tokyo, a first for the series.
Formula E has always raced on temporary street circuits in city centers, and that stays true. What changes is the speed. Five seconds a lap is a huge jump on a street circuit, where the walls leave no room for error. The new sprint and feature race formats will test energy management as much as outright pace. Want a feel for the shape of these cars before the season starts? Try the LEGO NEOM McLaren Formula E Race Car. It is a fun way to see one up close. The real thing will be quicker than anything the series has run before.
Jaguar enters this season as the team to beat. The team has 26 wins, 63 podiums, and 1,926 points from 144 race starts. Its Formula E debut came in October 2016. It is the most winning team in the series. It holds the Teams’ title from 2024 and the current crown. The I-Type 08 has to defend that. With 600 kW, all-wheel drive, and two champions in the cockpit, it has the tools. The Madrid test will show whether the tools are enough.
