history
Sir Jim Radcliffe, the billionaire chairman of the Ineos Group Limited, a multinational chemical company that had about 20 standalone business units under its roof. Besides, Ineos was already a sponsor for major sporting events and teams worldwide. Thus, the company's owner was not a stranger to outdoor-loving people. He understood their needs and found a way to give them exactly that, expanding Ineos' business in the process.
As an automotive enthusiast who owned an old Land Rover Defender, he thought about creating a replacement for his aged vehicle. He thought that other people had the same desire but couldn't get what they wanted because that classic car was no longer in production. So he went to Land Rover at Solihull to buy the tooling and rights for the Defender designs but was turned down.
But that didn't stop him. At a beer talk in Radcliffe's favorite pub, The Grenadier, from Belgravia, London, he launched his own automotive brand and built a capable off-road vehicle. Since he already had the money and the connections in the automotive business, he started to look for a powertrain supplier. Thus, he inked a deal with the German automaker BMW for both gasoline and turbo-diesel engines. Besides the original drivetrains supplied by BMW, the brand also announced that it started working with Hyundai for fuel-cell powertrains.
As soon as the first sketches went out, Radcliffe entered into a legal dispute with Land Rover about the vehicle's design. This battle was ultimately won by the young car company against the famous British automaker. Another setback was the location of the factory. While in the beginning, Sir Radcliffe wanted to build the vehicle in the UK, he had to change his plans and move to Hambach, France, to the former plant that used to manufacture Smart vehicles.
After trials and errors, the new automaker finally started the series production in late 2022.
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