Ineos is a chemicals company first and foremost — the name is an acronym for Inspec Ethylene Oxide and Specialties, that concoction of letters derived from a business transaction made in 1998. Part of the outfit’s yearly toil is producing hydrogen, some 400,000 metric tons of the stuff according to Ineos Automotive CEO Lynn Calder. So it makes sense to swap the turbocharged BMW 3.0-cylinder inline-six that normally powers the Grenadier Station Wagon for a BMW fuel cell powertrain, when it’s reasonable to expect Ineos would be one of the companies powering the hydrogen highway worldwide. That’s what we have here, the Grenadier FCEV Demonstrator that debuted today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Ineos Automotive gave no specifics about mechanical bits other than calling them “BMW Group’s latest hydrogen fuel cell powertrain.” We figure Ineos refers to the setup in the BMW iX5 we drove earlier this year. The details on that start with two hydrogen tanks that hold a total of about 13 gallons of hydrogen at 700 bar. The bulge in the demonstrator’s hood is the fuel cell stack sourced from Toyota, but that bulge would be smoothed out in a potential production vehicle. The stack sends its electricity to a 2-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that powers two electric drive units on the rear axle, the drive units enabling true torque vectoring. In the iX5, BMW pegs the system’s total output at 401 horsepower; the gas-powered Grenadier makes about 283 horsepower. The roughly 5,500-pound iX5’s driving range checks in at up to 313 miles when tested on the WLTP cycle used in Europe. Hitting 60 mph from a stop takes around 6 seconds.
The automaker says rigorous testing has showed the demonstrator doesn’t give up any capability compared to the ICE-powered Grenadier, including towing, which was the point.
BMW put the iX5 into production earlier this year, only pledging to make less than 100 units, though. It’s possible Ineos could eventually do the same with the Grenadier demonstrator. The company’s busy now getting to full speed on rollouts of the Grenadier Station Wagon and Grenadier Quartermaster pickup, and we’ve heard there’s a two-door version in the works. A battery-electric Grenadier is due in 2026.
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