Ineos — Jim Ratcliffe's Grenadier off-roader, from idea to Hambach

Ineos at a glance

Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS

Jim Ratcliffe was born on 18 October 1952 in Failsworth, Lancashire, now part of Greater Manchester. In 1998 Ratcliffe set up INEOS to buy the ethylene oxide plant of the chemical company Inspec in Antwerp, Belgium, in an £84 million deal. Large purchases followed, among them BP's Innovene business in 2006 and the polymers business of Norsk Hydro in 2007. By 2022 INEOS had revenue of €20.9 billion (2022), and it employed about 26,000 people in 2021.

The group is also known for sport. It bought the Team Sky cycling franchise in 2019 and turned it into INEOS Grenadiers. It owns the football clubs OGC Nice and FC Lausanne-Sport and is a one-third owner of the Mercedes Formula One team. In December 2023 Ratcliffe agreed to buy 25 per cent of Manchester United, and the deal was completed in February 2024. Ratcliffe was knighted in the 2018 Birthday Honours.

A pub, a Defender and a new 4x4

The original Land Rover Defender began as the One Ten in 1983 and was named Defender in late 1990. After a run of 67 years for the Land Rover Series and Defender family, the last one, a soft-top 90, left the Solihull line on 29 January 2016. Just over two million had been built. Ratcliffe asked Jaguar Land Rover to sell the tooling, and the request was refused.

The idea of building a successor was first discussed at The Grenadier, a pub in Belgravia, London, and the car carries the same name. In February 2017 Ratcliffe became chairman of Ineos Automotive, and the company announced it would build an "uncompromising" 4x4 off-roader. In September 2017 the project was reported under the codename Projekt Grenadier. Magna Steyr, the Austrian engineering firm, became a technology partner, and BMW agreed to supply the engines.

From Bridgend to Hambach

The first plan was a new plant at Bridgend in Wales, with production at the end of 2021. In December 2020 Ineos moved final assembly to France instead and bought the former Smart factory at Hambach in eastern France, on 8 December 2020. The car's exterior was first shown in an online launch on 1 July 2020, and the interior and technical details followed in mid-2021.

The Grenadier is built the traditional way:

Production started in October 2022 according to the company article (the Grenadier article gives July 2022), and first deliveries followed in December 2022. That month Lynn Calder took over as chief executive from Dirk Heilmann.

Quartermaster, Fusilier and the electric plans

In July 2023 the range grew with the Quartermaster, a four-door pickup. Its wheelbase is 305 mm longer than the SUV's, it carries a payload of 760 kg on a load bay of 1,564 by 1,619 mm, and it can tow 3,500 kg like the Grenadier.

Ineos also looked at other drives. In October 2021 it announced a partnership with Hyundai Motor Group to develop a hydrogen fuel-cell Grenadier, and in 2022 it said it was considering a fully electric version. In February 2024 it presented a prototype of the Fusilier, a smaller model planned as an electric car or a range-extender hybrid, with series production no earlier than 2027. In early July 2024 the Fusilier was cancelled.

Production rose from 4,553 cars in 2023 to 8,000 in 2024. At full capacity, the company expects the Hambach plant to build 25,000 Grenadiers a year. For a brand that began in 2017 with no factory and no engine of its own, the Grenadier became a real production car in five years.

The Ineos models on 1cars are listed in the Ineos catalogue, and the main model has its own page on the Grenadier, its BMW engines and the Quartermaster. The car that inspired it is covered in the history of Land Rover and in the Defender generations, 90, 110 and 130. For rivals, see the best off-road vehicles and the best tow cars.

Ineos timeline

Landmark Ineos models

Photo gallery