ahtishambuttA new brand, a tough new 4×4. Here’s our take on the hotly anticipated INEOS Grenadier utility vehicle…
Are you sitting comfortably? Well, let’s start at the beginning because the INEOS Grenadier has a back story like no other new vehicle.
Without Sir Jim Ratcliffe – billionaire and chairman of the multinational chemicals company INEOS – there would be no Grenadier.
When the iconic Land Rover Defender finally ceased production at Solihull in 2016 after 67 years, Sir Jim offered to buy the tooling to continue production.
Jaguar Land Rover weren’t so keen, so, over a beer with friends at his favourite pub – The Grenadier in Belgravia, London – he decided to create his own old-school off-roader.
INEOS Automotive was created and hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent developing the 4×4 named after a pub.
The original plan was to build the Grenadier at a new factory in Wales, but then in 2020 INEOS Automotive bought a Mercedes-Benz/Smart plant at Hambach, France, which is where the first vehicle rolled off the production line in 2022.
The Grenadier has some seriously good DNA. Magna Steyr of Austria developed the chassis, the axles are from Italian tractor supplier Carraro and the were brakes developed with Brembo, plus the two engine options are care of BMW, and they are both mated to a ZF automatic transmission.
In other words, the Grenadier has come a long way since the project kicked off in 2017.
So, what is the Grenadier, what’s it like to drive, and has Sir Jim achieved his goal?
It may look similar to the boxy old Land Rover Defender with a hint of Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, but the Grenadier is new from the ground up and there are some subtle differences.
As Toby Ecuyer, head of design at INEOS Automotive, said: “The brief was simple. We set out to design a modern, functional and highly capable 4×4 vehicle with utility at its core.”
Available as a five-door station wagon, two or five-seat utility wagon and a two-door double pick-up, its design isn’t overcomplicated.
Featuring distinctive round headlights and tail-lights, a vertically split 70/30 tailgate, a rear-mounted spare wheel, external door hinges and an (almost) flat windscreen, it ticks all the right boxes for a utility vehicle targeted at 4×4 buyers. They will range from farmers, emergency services, international charities and the military at the hardcore end of the market to cool people who want to stand out from the crowd.
There are some clever touches too, such as twin mini-sunroofs which can be hinged or popped out, plus a multitude of accessories which can be added from the word go, including a ladder, full-length roofrack, integrated side roof rails, roof-mounted LED light bar and an integrated all-weather side awning.
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