Ineos Automotive has just started delivering its Grenadier wagon to Australians after a few months of delays, but for many buyers it’s the (officially) yet-to-be-revealed dual-cab ute that’s of greater interest.
Expected to emerge in the next month or two and enter series production by year’s end, the oft-spied Grenadier pickup shapes as a bit of a niche proposition within Australia’s booming ute market – which accounts for about one-in-five of new vehicle sales.
“Its importance for the Australian market is immense… I think that we’ve got something that’s quite a unique proposition as well,” Ineos Automotive Asia Pacific boss Justin Hocevar told us this week, adding that more news regarding the vehicle was “imminent”.
The Grenadier ute will have clear stylistic differences to mainstream dual-cabs like the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger – not to mention heavier duty specs and higher prices – and should offer better loading and towing abilities than the similar boxy Jeep Gladiator.
While it will be priced more closely to the range of larger American pickups entering the market, all of which offer strong towing credentials, the Grenadier should have them covered for off-road ability – in terms of potential angles of attack, articulation etc.
If anything the Grenadier dual-cab ute shapes as a more refined and modern competitor to the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series dual-cab – an agricultural vehicle, but nevertheless one offering heavyweight capability and subsequently dominates rural Australia.
“We don’t have the legacy of their story, but we’ve certainly got a big investment in high quality equipment and I think that people have been really drawn to that,” Mr Hocevar claimed. In a fortuitous piece of timing, Toyota has had to pause LC70 orders due to low production rates.
“So I like to think that we’ve almost lived in between where the Thailand [sourced] and the big American stuff is now, and there’s not a lot of choice in the space that we intend to occupy. The network is incredibly amped up and ready for this vehicle, particularly all the regional guys.”
“We’ve got very strong order numbers here in Australia, [but] we’ve still got a very strong reservation number,” Mr Hocevar added, referring to people that apparently put down Grenadier deposits when the wagon went on sale – for the unrevealed ute instead.
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Original Ineos pickup render
“These were people that put down that $800 reservation fee back in October 2021, there’s a big number of those people that… have parked that money there with us for a couple of years nearly to be first cab off the rank when it comes to the dual-cab.”
“That’s a really strong indicator to us that there’s some people out there that are hanging out for this vehicle.”
We obviously don’t know exactly how much the Grenadier ute will cost, but for context the station wagon opens at $98,000 for the base model with no options – meaning it’ll likely be a six-figure vehicle once on-road costs are factored in.
Expect the Grenadier pickup to share most of the same specs as the Grenadier wagon – engines, axles, front-half panels, interior – but to also offer a longer wheelbase and a higher payload than the wagon’s 932kg stock maximum.
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Grenadier wagon
The Grenadier wagon – the ute is a derivative of the same platform – offers BMW-sourced inline-six diesel (183kW and 550Nm) and petrol (210kW and 450Nm) engines, mated to eight-speed automatic transmissions and 4×4 with low-range.
It has Carraro beam axles at both ends suspended with five-link Eibach coils, a box-section ladder chassis, permanent 4×4 with a Tremec transfer case, three diff locks, a gross vehicle mass of 3550kg, and a 3500kg towing ability.
Background
Australia is one of the main global markets for the rugged Grenadier, billed by some as a spiritual successor to the original Land Rover Defender.
The Grenadier is the brainchild of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire engineer and chairman of multinational petrochemical giant Ineos. No expense has been spared on his passion project.
The official story says Ratcliffe was hanging out in London’s Grenadier pub in 2017, bemoaning Land Rover’s decision to kill the old Defender and replace it with the more modern and luxurious new SUV model when he decided to bring the car to life.
Ineos Automotive Australia will be a factory operation rather than an independent distributor. The company has around 30 brand stores in Australia selling via a fixed-price agency model, including five in capital cities and 25 in regional hubs, reflecting the Grenadier’s target audience.
Production Grenadiers are built at an old Mercedes-Benz plant in Hambach, France, which was purchased by Ineos. Since 2019 the plant has received a claimed A$770 million in upgrades, funded by both Mercedes-Benz and Ineos.
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