Range Rover GT risks borrowing too heavily from Jaguar’s new look

I am going to say something potentially controversial: I rather like the new Jaguar. The Type 00 concept, and the Type 01 production car that follows it, feel gloriously extravagant. Their proportions are outrageous, their design is unapologetically unconventional and, after years of Jaguar appearing unsure of its own direction, they suggest a brand with a point of view again.

Then the Range Rover GT appeared, at least in the form of the images released so far, and an uncomfortable thought arrived with it. Has Range Rover simply reheated Jaguar’s nachos?

I like Range Rovers too. JLR has every reason to share ideas across its brands, particularly when both are attempting to define a modern form of British luxury. Yet the Range Rover GT seems to lean so heavily on the same visual language as the Jaguar Type 01 that the distinction between the two becomes harder to spot than it ought to be.

Two luxury interiors with a familiar layout

The cabin is where the resemblance is most difficult to ignore. Both cars appear to embrace minimalist luxury through broad horizontal dashboards, tall centre structures and a carefully architectural separation between driver and passenger. Technology is concealed rather than celebrated, while the whole arrangement is intended to resemble an expensive piece of contemporary furniture.

That treatment works for Jaguar. The Type 00 was deliberately theatrical, and the Type 01 carries that radical idea into something closer to a production car. It is unusual, slightly absurd and clearly intended to divide opinion. Those qualities suit a marque attempting to rediscover an identity beyond merely offering another premium saloon or SUV.

The Range Rover GT, however, appears to be working from a remarkably similar template. There is the elongated centre console, the clean dashboard treatment and the same carefully restrained approach to screens and controls. The materials may well be excellent, and there is every reason to expect the cabin to be exceptionally comfortable. But a handsome interior is not automatically a distinctive one.

For decades, Jaguar and Range Rover occupied very different corners of the British luxury-car landscape. Jaguar was the eccentric sporting alternative, often a little flawed but rarely dull. Range Rover was the imperious luxury off-roader, equally convincing outside a country estate or a five-star hotel.

They had different priorities, different proportions and, crucially, different visual identities. The Range Rover GT design risks narrowing that gap just as Jaguar is spending considerable effort trying to make its own future look unmistakably individual.

Shared thinking is not the same as shared identity

There are obvious differences between the two cars. Jaguar’s Type 01 is a low-slung electric grand tourer, while the Range Rover GT takes on a more elevated crossover silhouette and promises the all-terrain capability expected of the badge. The source material also indicates that they sit on different engineering architectures, so this is not a straightforward case of one car wearing another car’s bodywork.

That does not entirely resolve the concern. Sharing engineering can make sound commercial sense. Sharing too much of a brand identity is a more delicate matter, particularly when buyers are being asked to choose between two luxury names with long and very different histories.

JLR has clearly developed a coherent vision of modern luxury: clean surfaces, imposing proportions, restrained technology and an architectural approach to interior design. It is a respectable direction, and often a beautiful one. The trouble is that a design language can become so successful internally that it starts appearing everywhere.

Jaguar’s reinvention has already been controversial, but nobody could reasonably accuse it of being timid. The Type 00 and Type 01 have made a clear break with the marque’s recent past, and their flamboyance is a significant part of the appeal. Love it or loathe it, the Jaguar looks like it has something to say.

Range Rover ought to say something different. It should feel imposing, beautifully finished and quietly authoritative, with a sense of effortlessness that has long separated it from conventional luxury SUVs. It does not need to imitate Jaguar’s rebelliousness, nor should Jaguar be asked to borrow Range Rover’s reserved confidence.

Perhaps the finished Range Rover GT will make those differences much clearer. Its exterior has largely remained under camouflage, and images can only reveal so much about proportion, material quality or the atmosphere of a finished cabin. Seeing the two cars together may yet make the separation obvious.

For now, though, the concern remains valid. JLR has two extraordinary luxury brands, each capable of offering its own view of the future. The Jaguar Type 01 felt exciting because it appeared to be something only Jaguar would dare to make. The Range Rover GT needs to ensure it does not look like the same idea served again from a higher seating position.