In case anyone wondered if there was room for anymore electric vehicle offerings for the future, Ineos Automotive apparently believes the answer is: yes.
Ineos Automotive CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe confirmed what the company had already been working on: an electric vehicle is coming. Ready to “embrace the future,” Ratcliffe said it’ll be a smaller version of its much-anticipated Grenadier off-roader.
This is a reversal of the long-held belief that a fuel-cell variant would be the best alt-fuel version of the Ineos Grenadier, its forthcoming SUV whose gestalt owes much to the previous-generation Land Rover Defender, was speculated about earlier this year.
Change in perspective
However, the big change is that the all-electric model will be a smaller version — a different name? — of the Grenadier, which is nearing the end of its testing and development phase. Initially, the idea was that a greener Grenadier would be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.
“I think the Grenadier is perfect for a hydrogen engine — in time,” said Ratcliffe during an interview posted on the company’s website.
“But what we’re also looking at quite carefully at the moment is a smaller version of the Grenadier electric. We need to embrace the future, which is clearly in an urban environment going to be electric.”
The new model will use an all-new smaller platform than the Grenadier and its ladder-frame chassis, while retaining its workhorse DNA and off-road capabilities, the company noted, while providing no insight as to when the EV might launch.
The EV will be build alongside the Grenadier and a pickup version of ute at its Hambach, Germany plant it acquired from Mercedes-Benz in early 2021. The first Grenadiers are expected to begin rolling off the assembly line there in early 2023. The company says it has 15,000 reservations for the ute.
More than just an SUV
Ratcliffe also said there will be more Ineos vehicles than just the “unbreakable” SUV aimed at competing with the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, Range Rover and others.
The additional variants coming in the future include a Grenadier pickup truck, a long wheelbase version of the SUV, and a “station wagon with a small pickup cutaway at the back,” he said.
Even being steadfast about the use of a hydrogen fuel cell in the past, Ratcliffe clearly sees the current trend is in battery electrics in areas outside of city centers.
“(E)ven in a country environment and you’re a farmer you probably will have an electric car which you can drive around on the tracks and things like that,” he said. “So you want one that’s capable that electric. So I think that’s our vision at the moment.”
