| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg’s newsletter on the future of the auto world. One X user described it as “woke garbage.” Another asked “WTF?” On Instagram, a commenter enquired “Have you been hacked?” Such was the reception for Jaguar’s radical rebranding that has the internet buzzing this week. The Tata Motors-owned British carmaker released a video aimed at building anticipation for a more thorough glimpse of its new way forward coming early next month. The 30-second spot flashes phrases like “create exuberant,” “live vivid” and “delete ordinary,” between shots of expressionless fashion models dressed for the catwalk. In response to another X user who asked, “What the actual hell is this,” Jaguar replied: “The future.”  A still from Jaguar’s brand film. Source: Jaguar Land Rover The ad is completely devoid of vehicles, leading Tesla’s Elon Musk to ask: “Do you sell cars?” The current answer is, well, no – not new ones in its home market, at least. Jaguar has for some time been preparing to rip it all up and start again. The brand known for making UK prime ministers’ wheels had already been mired in a long, slow decline when the electric vehicle transition began to take hold years ago. With lucrative Land Rover SUVs both keeping the bills paid and being a heavier lift to electrify, JLR decided to be bold with its lesser brand. Jaguar would go into hibernation for a while, then reemerge with only EVs. “They’re trying to break with the past and invent something new,” said Gabor Schreier, chief creative officer at Saffron Brand Consultants. “That video is a provocation.” To Schreier, whose past clients include Daimler when it was launching the city-car brand Smart, the reimagining smacks a bit of desperation. “All these established carmakers are in panic mode,” he said. “They’re trying to hide it, but they are in terrible panic mode, and running into a sort of schizophrenia where they don’t know if they belong to the old combustion world, or to the new EV world.” One would hope that showing a bit of sheet metal may help quiet the critics. Jaguar will unveil a concept vehicle at the Miami Art Show on Dec. 2, although the early reviews of this haven’t been entirely positive, either. Some observed that the rear corner of the car that the brand teased late Wednesday bears resemblance to an air-conditioning unit.  Jaguar released a rear detail image teasing its design direction. Source: Jaguar Land Rover Grizzled British auto journalists who’ve seen their fair share of reinventions were stunned when they got a sneak peek last week at JLR’s headquarters in Gaydon, England. So much so, in fact, that JLR’s Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern lightheartedly reassured them that his team had “not been sniffing the white stuff.” JLR CEO Adrian Mardell also warned earlier this month that the new look might be a bit polarizing. During a Nov. 8 earnings call with journalists, he said the marque would sell fewer cars, but at much higher prices to luxury buyers. “The setup for this brand as we relaunch it in 2026 is going to be spot-on,” he said. “We’re confident that, as we roll out and when we come back, this is going to be something very, very special, and appeal to lots of existing and new clients.” While the initial reaction suggests Jaguar has its work cut out, the company has left itself plenty of months to change minds. “They probably need the time to elevate the whole brand,” Schreier said. “They’re building around an experience, which is probably one that will match, in the future, with Roll-Royce or Bentley, which they don’t have today. That will require a lot of work.” — By Jamie Nimmo and Craig Trudell  A Nissan dealership at dusk in Yokohama, Japan. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg What is Effissimo Capital Management’s end game for Nissan? While the Singapore-based hedge fund has stayed silent on its motivations, two dominant theories have emerged from analysts and market watchers. The first is that Effissimo may simply view Nissan shares as awfully cheap: The company trades at around 0.25 times book value, the lowest among the top 500 listed Japanese companies. The second theory involves Effissimo’s roughly 30% stake in the carmaker’s contract manufacturer, Nissan Shatai. Some analysts speculate the hedge fund may be trying to pressure Nissan, which has a controlling 50% stake in the company, to buy out minority shareholders, handing Effissimo a hefty payday. | 
