Photo: Ineos
It’s been a tough year for everyone, including for fresh-on-the-market British carmaker Ineos, who is still planning on releasing the very Land Rover Defender-inspired Grenadier onto the roads of the world. Only now, it is obvious (and official) that it will do so later than originally planned.
Initially slotted for the start of production in 2021, the Grenadier will not come to be in production form until at least July 2022, Ineos head of everything Sir Jim Ratcliffe said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The announcement came alongside the revelation that prototypes of the upcoming SUV have been hard at work testing their off-road prowess in the Schöckl mountain in Austria, near Magna Steyr’s headquarters. The parts supplier is Ineos’s engineering partner for the Grenadier.
Now that the troublesome 2020 is behind us, Ineos plans to step up the pace of testing. This year, the second phase of prototypes will enter testing, with about 130 of them expected to travel a combined 1.8 million km (1.1 million miles) under the most demanding of conditions.
So far, the machine already underwent cold-weather testing in Sweden, and up next are drives under the hot sun of the Middle East and the American Death Valley.
Once everything is sorted out and all the loose ends taken care of, Ineos will begin assembling the Grenadier in Hambach, France, the very place from where over the past few years, Mercedes’s smart vehicles used to come from.
The SUV has been designed to quench the thirst some people still have for the original Defender. A selection of BMW six-cylinder engines will power it, and prices will likely range between $40,000 and $60,000.
Back in September last year, the company’s leader stated that people are incredibly hyped by the project, and 17,000 of them have already expressed their interest in buying one.
The announcement came alongside the revelation that prototypes of the upcoming SUV have been hard at work testing their off-road prowess in the Schöckl mountain in Austria, near Magna Steyr’s headquarters. The parts supplier is Ineos’s engineering partner for the Grenadier.
Now that the troublesome 2020 is behind us, Ineos plans to step up the pace of testing. This year, the second phase of prototypes will enter testing, with about 130 of them expected to travel a combined 1.8 million km (1.1 million miles) under the most demanding of conditions.
So far, the machine already underwent cold-weather testing in Sweden, and up next are drives under the hot sun of the Middle East and the American Death Valley.
Once everything is sorted out and all the loose ends taken care of, Ineos will begin assembling the Grenadier in Hambach, France, the very place from where over the past few years, Mercedes’s smart vehicles used to come from.
The SUV has been designed to quench the thirst some people still have for the original Defender. A selection of BMW six-cylinder engines will power it, and prices will likely range between $40,000 and $60,000.
Back in September last year, the company’s leader stated that people are incredibly hyped by the project, and 17,000 of them have already expressed their interest in buying one.
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