Ineos Grenadier – the ‘REAL’ Land Rover Defender – finally starts production

Production of the Ineos Grenadier – Jim Ratcliffe’s vision of what the new Land Rover Defender should be – finally starts production.

It’s more than six years since we reported that Jim Ratcliffe, billionaire boss of Ineos, was planning to develop a new 4×4 to be what the then mooted new Land Rover Defender wasn’t, aiming to create a new off-roader – subsequently named the Ineos Grenadier – which had all the qualities of the old Defender but with much-improved tech, build quality and reliability.

Since then, we’ve had Land Rover try to block the Ineos plans (and fail), plans to build the Ineos Grenadier in Wales (and fail) and the revelation that the Grenadier will be powered by BMW. And much more.

Despite a number of setbacks – added to which has been the global ‘Covid and Chips’ issues – the plan was to begin production of the Grenadier, at the old Smart factory in France, last year. But that didn’t happen either.

But now, finally, production of the Grenadier has started, and the first Ineos Grenadier has rolled off the line and is probably heading for Jim Ratcliffe’s garage.

Mark Tennant, INEOS Commercial Director, said:

We’ve come a long way since the project kicked off in 2017 and this is a landmark moment for Ineos automotive as a vehicle manufacturer. To get to this point is a testament to the resilience and hard work of the entire Ineos automotive team, our development partners and our suppliers – for which we thank them all as we now look forward to making our first deliveries to customers.

Production won’t ramp up properly until December, but customer deliveries should start in the New Year.