New 2022 Ineos Grenadier: prices, specs and launch date

This is the Ineos Grenadier. It is the first automobile from the recently formed automotive division of the British chemical firm, Ineos – and it is been developed as a spiritual successor to the previous-technology Land Rover Defender.

The Grenadier normally takes its title from a pub in Belgravia, London where, just a few decades back, Ineos Chairman Sir Jim Radcliffe conceived the job – and from the beginning, his vision was to build a no-compromise, rugged off-roader whose variety adopted operate.

So, the Grenadier shares the identical boxy proportions as the old Defender, with likewise angular doorways and window glass. It also shares the Land Rover’s slatted radiator grille, flat bonnet, round headlamps and upright windscreen – and, underneath the front bumper, there’s a thick sump guard.

There are some components of the Mercedes G-Class blended into the Grenadier’s layout, also, which is no shock considering Ineos’s partnership with the Austrian engineering firm, Magna Steyr. The company has managed the manufacturing of the G-Wagen because 2018 and will also aid Ineos piece with each other the Grenadier.

At the helm of the firm is Dirk Heilmann. He’s been an Ineos worker for the last two many years but, like the company’s layout chief, Toby Ecuyer, he has no previous encounter in the automobile business – other than getting a self-confessed petrolhead. So, is that a difficulty or a gain for someone main a new automobile firm?

Heilmann explained to us: “A bit of both of those, definitely. We’ve acquired a extremely gifted bunch of automotive designers and engineers we’re doing the job extremely closely with, which is massively beneficial and helpful. But equally, I feel, getting from a unique business and wondering about matters in a a little unique way, I feel which is also served a whole lot as very well.”

New Ineos Grenadier: layout and system

The Grenadier was developed by Toby Ecuyer, who started off his vocation as an architect and lately moved into planning tremendous yachts. The Grenadier was his first automobile, but he does not see his deficiency of encounter in the automotive globe as a difficulty.

Ecuyer reported: “If you can layout one particular matter, you can layout yet another. So, if you can layout a toaster very well, I feel you can layout a automobile definitely very well, also. I feel it is a lot more to do with your planning concepts than anything at all else. But I feel it does have benefits.”

So, to make sure he was on the appropriate monitor, Ecuyer studied a broad selection of off-roaders for inspiration. “We were being seeking at all sorts of unique autos,” he explained. “From Unimogs to military services autos, to plane, to lorries and vans. The Willys Jeep, clearly, and Land Rover, the Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol, Ford Bronco – actually almost everything. They’re all extremely uncomplicated and extremely genuine. We believed that was a excellent area to check out to aim for.”

Like most of the cars and trucks in that record, the Grenadier will characteristic a system-on-frame development with a metal ladder-frame chassis. The company’s CEO, Dirk Heilmann, has also formerly reported that the completed product or service will be “fairly light-weight,” with a towing capability of three.five tonnes and a one particular-tonne payload.

The Grenadier has been developed to get the job done, also. There’s a software-box sized storage crate in the rear, external wiring details and vertically break up rear doorways that open large to expose a area large ample for a Euro pallet. Even the flat bonnet surfaces have been developed to be practical. “This is a definitely helpful surface area to sit on, put your tea on, laptop on – it is extremely a lot a workbench in a lot of approaches,” reported Ecuyer.

Interior and equipment

We’re still to see the Grenadier’s interior, but Ineos programs to make it equally utilitarian and functional, with a fairly stripped-back layout which forgoes these kinds of luxuries as carpet and audio deadening. Leather will be made use of on the seats purely for its durability and drain plugs will be provided, making it possible for the driver to very easily hose out the interior.

Even so, Mark Tennant, Business Director of Ineos Automotive, guarantees that the car’s cabin will be bang up-to-date. “We’ve acquired to have a degree of convenience that a twenty first-century consumer is going to be expecting,” he claims. “You’ve acquired to have space for your elbows in the auto. And you have acquired to have the ranges of connectivity, the screens, all the matters that people have the appropriate to be expecting now.”

Ineos will also just take a “relaxed” technique to auto modification, with Tennant stressing that purchasers will be inspired to personalise their Grenadiers with aftermarket accessories. The firm claims it will give pre-equipped mounting details in the Grenadier’s chassis and system for additions these kinds of as light-weight-bars and roof racks.

Simplicity of use was also critical, with options these kinds of as the “utility belt” operating about the center of the automobile, which lets owners to attach accessories and tethering eyes decreased down the doorways. And when Ineos will supply a raft of accessories, it will inspire owners to use current package and make it possible for other corporations to develop their individual accessories. “It’s a common procedure,” Tennant explained to us. “We want to be definitely open-resource about it.”

Engines and drivetrain

Ineos signed a partnership with BMW, to give its three.-litre straight-6 TwinPower turbo petrol and diesel engines for the Grenadier job. Each units will feed their ability to a everlasting all-wheel-generate procedure via an eight-pace ZF automatic transmission only – with no guide alternative offered.

Like the old Defender, the Grenadier’s chassis will characteristic a pair of beam axles, a few locking differentials and a small-selection transfer situation. The 4×4 has been developed predominantly for off-street use, with minimum compromises for use on tarmac streets. Heilmann also reported that the Grenadier will supply “class-main cross-axleing capacity.”

Manufacturing and progress

The bulk of the assembly was initially envisioned to just take area in a new manufacturing unit in Bridgend, South Wales, meaning the Grenadier would have been British-developed – in spite of Heilmann insistence that the automobile is an “international” job. Even so, Ineos is understood to be in talks about the attainable buy of the Mercedes-owned Smart manufacturing unit in France.

Regardless of the manufacturing internet site, the Grenadier is nevertheless some way off. The first cars and trucks will be with customers in 2022 – but Heilmann claims that revealing the auto now indicates the firm can get on with one.2 million miles of testing the automobile in basic sight.

Market place and pricing

Tennant promised innovation in how Ineos will market the Grenadier. “We’ll be as direct as attainable,” he claims, “We won’t be solely on-line – we want to give people the likelihood to kick tyres and just take a examination generate.”

On pricing, we realize that, in the present-day market, the Grenadier’s entry-value would get started with a four. Even so, with a classification of N1, it will formally be a professional auto, so VAT will have to be extra. That indicates a probable whole commencing value which is nearer to £50,000 for these who simply cannot assert the tax back via their enterprise.

This is only the commencing level for Ineos, while. A double-cab select-up model has been verified, when Dirk Heilmann has also promised that “we will have some electrification.” Even so, alternatively of a full EV, the firm is a lot more probable to use a hydrogen gas-cell established-up, which Heilmann claims is very well suited to the ladder-frame chassis. Work has currently started off on the second-technology Grenadier, he hinted.

Examine out Twisted’s programs for electric Land Rover Defenders right here…