Jagwyre Unveils 130,000 gp Electric Car, Bold Pivot

Friends, the electric car is here, and it costs 130,000 gold pieces. Jagwyre Carriageworks, the venerable Cormyran maker of sleek spell-propelled coaches, has unveiled the Type Zero-One, a four-door grand tourer that starts at about 130,000 gp in Waterdeep. Production begins in 2027 at its works in Solihold, with orders opening early that year. Some people see a pricey car nobody can buy for a year. I see anticipation as a business model.

The specs are admirable. Three enchanted motors, more than a thousand horses' worth of power, zero to sixty-two in 3.2 seconds, and roughly 400 miles on a single charge of captured lightning. That is fast enough to outrun a bill collector and most owlbears. It is also, one reviewer noted, a car that makes a Waterdeep lamp-oil carriage feel like a cheese wagon. I choose to quote that reviewer's enthusiasm and not the rest of his column.

Now, the skeptics. Two years ago Jagwyre rebranded in a way that fans described as, and I am paraphrasing, a betrayal of the leaping cat. The reaction to the new carriage has been split, and critics call the design polarizing. Polarizing, friends, is just another word for memorable. Nobody ever lined up around the block for a coach that everyone agreed was fine.

I met the Guildmaster of a rival carriageworks once at a Midwinter gala, and he told me, "Sterling, a customer who argues about your design is a customer who has already mentally bought it." I think about that every morning at the fourth bell, between sword drills and the cold plunge. The man was right. Or he was drunk. Either way, thought-leading.

What is happening here is a classic scale-up by shrinking the audience. Sell fewer carriages to richer people. Disrupt the middle by abandoning it. Will the buyers appear? That is a question for 2027, and I intend to be bullish in 2027 as well.

Key takeaways for the ambitious adventurer:

• If the market hates your rebrand, raise the price until it respects you.
• A launch with no delivery date is a waiting list in disguise.
• "Polarizing" is a review. Frame it.

— Sterling Vanmoor, Guild Visionary. Let's connect at the Gilded Tankard.