New Jaguar XJE Shooting Brake: our most wanted cars 2026

What makes a new-generation Jaguar? Exuberant proportions and luxury positioning, the company vows. Well, here’s a concept that nails the brand’s brief: a shooting brake with a ludicrously long nose flowing into
a sleek but practical body, customised by a member of the Gucci family. 

That exclusive proposition may sound straight out of the sketchbook of Gerry McGovern, the architect of new Jaguar’s ‘copy of nothing’ design philosophy who left the company this month. But it’s actually a motoring artefact from 35 years ago, a time when British coachbuilder Lynx sourced Jaguar XJ-S coupés and converted them into the Eventer shooting brake – and whose Gucci collaboration was an epic fail. 

Nonetheless, I believe a reborn shooting brake should be one of the three new electric Jaguars in the brand’s rebooted portfolio. If it looks familiar, that’s because we’ve created the car using the design language from the Type 00 – the concept that broke the internet a year ago.

Lynx’s original 1982 Eventer (pictured below) was a low-roof two-door estate, with proportions dictated by the donor car’s coupé form. McGovern cited the XJ-S as one inspiration for the new Jaguars, with its long nose – a result of the V12 engine – also evident on the upcoming EVs. 

McGovern was determined to recreate the XJ-S and E-Type’s ‘prestige gap’, the elongated space between the front wheel and windscreen, typically a function of a mighty petrol engine. Though not in the case of the new, zero-emission Jaguars.

“Electrification has impacted engineering – you’re going to get a short bonnet if you embrace that. But this is an object of desire, a piece of art, not an A-to-B EV,” McGovern told me last year.

Our ‘XJE’ – with the ‘E’ standing for Eventer and electric – subverts the shooting brake convention with its four doors, something Mercedes has done recently. The rear door handles are hidden to keep the design clean and faithful to its inspiration, although the glasshouse is narrower and the roof more sloping, to reflect modern design trends.

While the original Eventer rolled on 15-inch rims, our XJE packs 23-inch dished alloys, with low-profile rubber. Despite a length in excess of five metres, this Jag isn’t chasing the 570-litre load-lugging capability offered by BMW’s 5 Series Touring. Sleek exterior lines and an expensively trimmed interior are more important, but the rear seats would fold flat to accommodate longer loads.

While Jaguar calls its first new model a four-door GT, it hasn’t confirmed which two bodystyles will follow. A big SUV makes commercial sense, but lacks originality and impinges on the positioning of sister brand Range Rover. That’s why the versatile and fresh XJE would be the perfect companion model to sit alongside the electric GT.

With its smaller frontal area and lower ride height, the XJE would be more aero efficient than an SUV, and travel further on a full charge. And it would drive far more dynamically, with ride and handling guru Matt Becker able to tune the shooting brake to deliver engaging steering, steadfast grip and sublime Jaguar ride comfort. 

The XJE’s range shouldn’t be far off the 478 miles Jaguar promises for the GT, whose high-voltage electrical architecture will be able to replenish 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes.

But with a new CEO, PB Balaji, in charge of Jag’s relaunch and McGovern gone, JLR’s engineers are sure to be asked if the Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA) can be reconfigured for hybrid power. And it’s a supplementary drivetrain we imagine for this XJE: JLR’s inline six-cylinder engine mounted in the nose to act as a generator, feeding the battery to power high-performance electric motors front and rear.

Executives claim the electric GT will be the most powerful Jaguar in history. But a range-extender drivetrain, where electric motors drive the wheels, will be in keeping with the GT EV and help Jag break from its risky, pure electric dogma and broaden the sales potential. The XJE would cost from £130k; the GT is tipped to start at around £120k.

And that’s before any luxury collaborations crank up the price – just like the Lynx Eventer Disigno Di Paolo Gucci. Originally planned as one of 20 luxurious Eventers, the first was unveiled at the 1990 Geneva Motor Show – and Lynx was instantly served with a writ for using the Gucci family name without a licence, which sunk the entire project.

Rebooting the Eventer idea might not entirely be a copy of nothing, but it would be daring, unexpected and the chance to legitimise a crazy spin-off from the Jaguar universe. Bring it on, JLR!

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