The Grenadier: Land Rover’s Lost Opportunity and Ineos’ Gain- pt.1

By Baraza JM

Let’s not mince words: this is the car that Land Rover should have replaced the old Defender with but didn’t, and now Sir Jim Ratcliffe is going to eat their lunch. Allow me to explain.

Britannia

The old Defender started off as the original Series Land Rovers: I to III built between 1948 and 1982 during which time they retained their iconic designed-by-ruler-only shape while undergoing the most subtle of evolutionary changes. In 1983 came the biggest upgrade to the vehicle: the creation of the Defender County. It was a modernization of the same old silhouette, adhering to the root principles of simplicity and ruggedness- one of the standing orders was the body panels should be instantly replaceable out in the wild using only the most rudimentary of tools – but adapting to changing times by including modern conveniences such as more liveable interior quarters, coil spring suspension, full time 4WD, better engines and power steering to  stay competitive in a market that had started seeing an influx of American Jeep Cherokees and Japanese Toyota Landcruisers.

This same technique of minuscule improvements, mostly centred on engine updates and little else, continued through the years until 2016 when Jaguar Land Rover, fondly called JLR by industry hacks, tearfully announced the end of the line for the old warhorse. Legislation, safety requirements and emissions restrictions means that type and shape of vehicle had become “unsustainable”, a diplomatic way of calling it politically incorrect in a world increasingly intolerant of the things that give life its savour and flavour

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Saxonia

Across the North Sea lay a country called Germany and it too had its own Land Rover Defender, only it was called a Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen. This was the exact same car: bred out of military needs, honed to survive the toughest conditions imaginable, designed using a ruler only, simple and Spartan for maximum reliability and ease of maintenance in intense field work and oozing rugged desirability to the point their prices skyrocketed for no discernible reason given that as civilian transport, they were not exactly the most comfortable or tractable of solutions. They were equally unsafe.

Just like the Defender, they were available in three-door SWB or 5-door LWB platforms, hardtops or soft tops and they all came in the same colours starting with Jungle Green, to white to red and sometimes cream or beige. There were other colours too, such as blue; but there was no denying Germany and England were building the exact same vehicle. Small wonder that both then exported their boxy rigs to various militaries around the world as high mobility reconnaissance or radio units…

Like its English twin, famous the G Wagon evolved through its lifespan mostly via engine updates to meet increasing power demands, spiced with the occasional addition of one or two creature comforts here and there to see off the Transatlantic and South Pacific 4×4 onslaughts.  The G’s bag of tricks involved overqualification on both the technical front (three diff-locks…) and image front (…on a car that will never see the outside of Hollywood Boulevard)

Once the Land Rover became unfashionable and JLR was forced to admit this fact, the Germans bowed their heads and acceded that the Gangsta Wagon, being the Defender’s twin, was of equal archaeological standing and would need to evolvetoo.

This is the point at which the two vehicles parted ways, but hold that thought, because a billionaire just walked into the room.

Inter Alia

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is famous for owning a quarter of Manchester United FC and for attempting to own most of Chelsea FC. He is the head of Ineos, a conglomerate famous for deploying a skinny Kenyan man by the name of Eliud Kipchoge, a.k.a “The GOAT” to do what no man had achieved before or has achieved since: a sub-2 hour full 42-kilometer marathon jog.

Ineos also builds vehicles… or a vehicle, to be exact. It is called the Grenadier and the short version is: this car is the result of things happening very quickly. Let’s go back to the Land Rover Defender…

Aria after Aria

29^th January 2016: The old Defender as we know it is no more. JLR says it may or may not be replaced, but if it is replaced, it will be with something completely new. Four long years later, the new Defender comes out, polarizing opinions to the extreme. It is a tour de force, but it is also not a Defender, it is the hard-to-miss love child of the Discovery, much as the Discovery tries to deny it.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, billionaire that he is, suddenly sees an opportunity. He must read car magazines and has probably heard of Porsche Reimagined by Singer because he immediately approaches JLR to request the tooling to continue building the now defunct old Defender. JLR angrily refuses, probably because of something that had just occurred across the pond…

14^th January 2018: The old G Wagon as we know it is no more. Mercedes said it will be replaced by a newer version and then… they proceeded to unveil the exact same vehicle as before!  Absolutely nothing has changed on this car, or so it seemed. Mercedes was making a killing on G Wagons, selling them at eye-watering prices in return for very little hardware, specification and almost no fresh R&D since the 1970s inception. They were collecting free money and they were not about to let that gravy train fizzle out. Nein, mein herr! While JLR succumbed to Karen culture and replaced the Defender, the Germans held their ground and rereleased the old G. The Brits had been outclassed

(The G Wagon may have looked exactly the same as before but it wasn’t anywhere near the same car. The platform underneath the square clothing had been modernized and expanded, safety systems integrated in accordance with contemporary requirements, emissions restrictions met with advanced powertrains policed by overzealous desmogging equipment and the rubbish driveability countermanded with new suspension, braking and steering systems. The G Wagon looked like the original but was in reality all new, top to bottom; a trick that Jaguar Land Rover must have kicked themselves over for not coming up with first)

It is therefore an understandably miffed squad of Englishmen from Solihull who showed Sir Ratcliffe the door when he came asking for permission to continue building old Defenders.

30^th June 2020: The good knight was not to be bowed. Since the old Defender had bowed out and Land Rover had taken a different path with the new one, ol’ Sir Jim decided to build the car anyway, license or not… or something close to it, rather. Right in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, during the height of curfews, lockdowns, social distancing and masks, Ol’ Sir Jim gathered some of the most influential motoring journalists from across the globe (yours truly included) in one Zoom call to announce via the Ineos Automotive top brass – CEO Dirk Heilmann, Commercial Director Mark Tennant, Head of Design Toby Ecuyer and Global PR Sarah Pelling) that he was going ahead with his not-a-Defender project and he wanted to pick our brains a little. Despite the signing of NDAs (I hope I was not the only one made to sign one… was I?), JLR caught wind of the advance and raised a copyright infringement uproar expressing their reservations about how closely the now named Ineos Grenadier resembled their outgoing Defender.

5^th of August 2020: The details of that legal tangle should be accessible after a cursory Google search so I won’t delve into it here, but the outcome was Sir Ratcliffe got his judicial endorsement and from there it was full steam ahead. What was he steaming ahead to?

*****

Read: INEOS AUTOMOTIVE – ONE MAN’S VISION

INEOS GRENADIER REVIEW: KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

IN BRIEF

Combining rugged British spirit and design with German engineering rigour, Grenadiers are truly uncompromising 4X4s from the ground up. They are designed, engineered and built to world-class standards for those needing a dependable go anywhere vehicle with the comfort, safety, refinement and standard features that today’s drivers expect.

INEOS

INEOS is the world’s third largest chemical company. It employs 25,000 people across 39 businesses, with a production network spanning 183 sites in 29 countries.

MODELS

Depending on the market, the Grenadier is available as a five-seat Station Wagon, a Utility Wagon with the choice of a two-seat or five-seat layout, and as a five-seat Quartermaster double cab pick-up. The standard variants of each model are a blank canvas ready to be configured for the exact needs of customers.

DESIGN

The Grenadier’s exterior design is clear, simple and straightforward – a timeless and instantly recognizableform, dictated by the purpose of the vehicle, with substance informing style. It is boxy to maximize space efficiency. Wheels are positioned at the corners of the chassis to minimize body overhang for better off-road capability. Simple lines are punctuated only by practical features and no superficial styling.

CABIN

The interior of the Grenadier is functional, intuitive and comfortable. Where possible it favors analogue over digital, with clearly labeled and well-spaced buttons and chunky dials on both the Central Control System and its aircraft-inspired overhead control panel.

LADDER FRAME CHASSIS

The backbone of the Grenadier is a full box-section ladder frame chassis. Simple, strong and stable, it’s designed to withstand daily punishment in all conditions. Its steel section is up to 3.5mm thick for outstanding rigidity and stiffness.

SOLID BEAM AXLES

The Grenadier’s heavy-duty solid beam axles are strong, straightforward, and built to last. They were developed in partnership with Carraro, an expert in heavy-duty tractor axles.

TRANSFER CASE

Torque and power are sent to the front and rear axles via an INEOS-designed two-speed transfer case built by industry transmission leader Tremec. The manually-operated two-speed transfer case features a built-in centre differential which is lockable in both high and low range.

OPTIONAL DIFFERENTIAL LOCKS

In addition to the standard centre locking differential in the transfer case, front and rear electronically actuated diff locks are optionally available.

ENGINES

Depending on market availability, the Grenadier is powered by a choice of BMW 3.0-litre turbo-charged inline six-cylinder petrol or diesel engines, which have been extensively revised and recalibrated for this application.

TRANSMISSION

All Grenadiers feature an eight-speed automatic gearbox from industry transmission leader, ZF. Recalibrated and fine-tuned by Magna-Steyr, the gearboxes feature a heavy-duty torque converter specifically for off-road work.

SUSPENSION

The Grenadier is set up to provide dynamic handling and a comfortable ride, whatever the load or road. This is provided by progressive coil springs, robust anti-roll bars, and a sophisticated five-link setup, with a pair of longitudinal links either side of the axle and a Panhard rod.

BRAKES

Developed with Brembo, the Grenadier’s brake system delivers confidence-inspiring performance. The 316 mm vented front discs are gripped by twin piston calipers, and the 305 mm rear solid discs are actuated by single piston calipers.

STEERING

The recirculating ball steering layout features hydraulic assistance and has 3.85 turns between locks for a 13.5-metre kerb-to-kerb turning circle.

UNCOMPROMISED OFF-ROAD ABILITY

Starting with a clean-sheet brief enabled INEOS Automotive’s designers and engineers to create an uncompromising off-roader with a meticulously selected suite of key components. The result is an off-roader that is designed, developed and engineered to deliver exceptional off-road ability straight out of the box.

EVERYDAY TRANSPORT

Whether crossing a continent, tackling a daily commute, or taking a long-anticipated family trip, the combination of high levels of refinement, a spacious and airy cabin, intelligently configured controls, excellent visibility, comfortable Recaro front seats, and phone connectivity makes the Grenadier excellent everyday transport.

PAYLOAD

All Grenadier models offer a braked 3.5-tonne towing capacity, more than 2000 litres of load space and 5.5 tonnes of winching power for recovering themselves or others. Payload on European models ranges from 689kg on a fully optioned diesel Trialmaster Station Wagon to 871kg for a base two-seat petrol Utility Wagon.

With a payload of up to 835kg, the Quartermaster pick-up is capable of carrying five people and their bulkiest of loads.

SAFETY

Developed to deliver optimal performance in both on- and off-road environments, all Grenadier models are equipped as standard with a comprehensive suite of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems required for them to meet regulations in their target sales markets.

INFOTAINMENT AND NAVIGATION

A comprehensive suite of infotainment and navigational features includes Android™ Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay® as standard, with Bluetooth connectivity and voice control for hands-free calls. Pathfinder off-road navigation is a bespoke, waypoint-based guidance system.

ACCESSORIES

INEOS Automotive offers a wide range of factory-fit options, and an extensive choice of accessories that were developed inhouse alongside the Grenadier to appeal to different customers and markets.

HAMBACH

INEOS Automotive’s Hambach plant is a state-of-the-art 210,000 sqm facility that employs a highly experienced direct workforce of over 1,000. Since acquiring Hambach from Mercedes-Benz in January 2021, INEOS Automotive has invested over €50m in addition to the €470m invested at the site in 2019.

DEVELOPMENT

The Grenadier’s development programme saw 350 world-class engineers subject development and prototype vehicles to a rigorous, global testing schedule, covering 1.1 million miles / 1.8 million kilometres in 15 countries, in all climates and across all terrains.