Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe announces a compact electric off-roader. The model with a pure electric drive is to be positioned below the Grenadier. In April 2023, Magna has now confirmed the development order for the model.
Production of the new Ineos Grenadier off-road vehicle had just started in the summer of 2022 when the busy company boss Sir James Ratcliffe pulled the next rabbit out of the hat. "Yes," he confirmed in a video interview published by Ineos, there will be "a smaller version with an electric drive". After Ratcliffe had stomped a new car manufacturer out of the ground with Ineos Automotive in just a few years and actually delivered a pretty fine off-road vehicle with the Grenadier, the newcomer is keeping the excitement going. In the meantime there are also new details on the technical basis.
, It was clear from the outset that Ineos would not exist with just one model in the long term. And that a second, smaller model is being planned for the off-road vehicle brand was also confirmed by Ineos CEO Dirk Heilmann a year earlier in an interview with auto motor und sport. The announcement of a purely electrically powered off-roader in 2022 came as a bit of a surprise, because with the Grenadier, Ineos had expressly distanced itself from battery-electric drives. The trend here was still that fuel cell technology was favored when it came to alternative drives for the Grenadier.
Ineos SUVs for the future
However: "We have to adapt to the future, which is clearly in an urban environment. Even if you are a farmer, you will probably have an electric car in the future," Ratcliffe said in the interview. However, he also makes it clear that this is not just another of the now countless E-SUVs with off-road optics from Ineos, but a device that is definitely calibrated for off-road capability.
"The all-electric model will be built on a completely new and smaller platform than the Grenadier, while also retaining the characteristics of a workhorse with off-road capabilities," Ineos said in a short statement. There was also confirmation that this electric off-road vehicle should also be produced at the Ineos plant in Hambach.
New electric platform
In an interview with the Australian portal "Drive", Ineos announced more details at the beginning of 2023. Accordingly, the development is already quite advanced. "The exterior design is almost complete, we still have a little more work to do on the interior. We are also working with external vehicle assembly and engineering company Magna-Steyr on this development program," quoted "Drive" Mark Tennant, Commercial Director of Ineos.
According to Tennant, the new vehicle will not be an offshoot of the Grenadier, but will have its own platform.This is supposed to be a so-called skateboard platform, in which the batteries form the entire floor of the vehicle, which is the current state of the art in electric car construction. However, according to Tennant in the interview at the time, Ineos wants to push the limits of off-road capability within the segment of electrically powered SUVs.
On April 17, 2023, Magna, already Ineos' development partner at Grenadier, announced its collaboration with the company in the development of the new electric SUV. In the report, Lynn Calder, CEO of Ineos Automotive, also gave a specific date for the market launch of the new model series: it should be presented in 2026. Development partner Magna will above all contribute its high level of expertise in electric drive technology. The company has already developed numerous drive components for a wide variety of applications, including "e-beam" technology, rigid axles with integrated electric drive for particularly robust and off-road vehicles.
Also top electrically off-road
It is certain that Ineos will place the future electric off-roader as a vehicle that is very suitable for off-road use. In October 2022, the head of marketing at Ineos, Gary Pearson, followed up again in an interview and announced further key data on the Elektro-Grenadier. Accordingly, the electric off-roader should be positioned very clearly as a workhorse, where maximum range and a luxurious ambience are not the focus of development. Instead, the E-Grenadier should have very good off-road characteristics and become an ideal vehicle for daily use, for example in agriculture or for tourist safaris.
In the picture gallery we show you the Grenadier on our first drive with a pre-series model.
Conclusion
It has been known for a long time that a model below the new Grenadier is being planned and developed. But the real surprise is that a purely electric model is just around the corner. Especially since, in view of the previous Ineos strategy, one can be prepared for the fact that this “baby grenadier” with an electric drive will have fairly serious intentions in terms of off-road capability. This has now been confirmed by several Ineos managers. Since April 2023 it has also been clear that the development work on the new series will be carried out by Magna in Austria, as was already the case with the Ineos Grenadier.
