Jaguar Land Rover filed a lawsuit against Ineos Automotive, claiming its Grenadier looked too much like the old Defender.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
The pet projects of billionaires tend to be what you’d expect from a group of suspected narcissists whose limitless self-belief might only be matched by their bank accounts. Think about the new space race or the quest for immortality.
By contrast, U.K. billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s idea to start a car company called Ineos Automotive Ltd. to make a gas-powered SUV – called the Ineos Grenadier – is almost quaint. (Some of his other projects include co-ownership of the Manchester United soccer team, title sponsorships for a pro-cycling team and an America’s Cup yacht racing team.)
Yes, like Elon Musk’s Cybertruck, the Grenadier was built to please the peculiar tastes of a billionaire, but at least the Grenadier is properly fit for purpose. It’s an excellent off-roader where the Cybertruck is only mediocre as a pickup with its awful outward visibility and lower-than-expected driving range.
The story is that Ratcliffe, founder and chairman of global petrochemical giant Ineos Group Holdings SA, wanted an off-roader that picked up where the boxy old Land Rover Defender left off. So, he built one.
First, he reportedly tried to buy the rights to the original Defender, but was denied by Jaguar Land Rover, which later filed a lawsuit against Ineos Automotive, claiming its Grenadier looked too much like the old Defender. JLR lost the case.
Ineos went ahead with the Grenadier and, after a few delays – and against all odds – it’s actually kind of wonderful.
Wonderful doesn’t always mean good though. The Grenadier’s slab-sided door opens with a similar mechanical “clack” as the Mercedes G-Wagon. Love it. But then in the exposed door jamb there’s a cheap bit of foam insulation peeking out. It looks unfinished.
The Grenadier’s hodgepodge of plastic floor coverings also looks cheap, leaving exposed metal in places. Such issues might be acceptable had the Grenadier cost around £35,000 ($61,500) as originally planned back in 2017. Instead, the 2025 model starts at $96,695 in Canada, which makes it significantly more expensive than a new Defender 110 or a top-of-the-line Jeep Wrangler.
The first Canadian examples finally arrived at dealerships in 2024. Early models suffered from rubber door seals that wouldn’t stay in place, leaky sunroof windows and a sticky door button. Gregor Hembrough, Ineos’ executive vice-president for the Americas, told me in an interview that those issues have all been fixed. He added that there’ll be a software fix for the annoying overspeed warning beep, likely in early 2025.
A look inside and under the hood
An awkward leaping lunge, using the door and/or steering wheel for leverage, is required to get yourself inside the cabin.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
Climbing into the sky-high cabin requires an awkward leaping lunge using the door and/or steering wheel for leverage. Once inside, you’ll look for the starter button, which is tricky because the dashboard looks like a sample catalogue from Buttons-R-Us.
But there is no starter button. You have to get the key out of your pocket, put it into the ignition and twist. Do that and somewhere in the distance a BMW three-litre turbocharged straight-six engine fires up.
In a 3 Series sedan, this engine feels strong. In the Grenadier, however, the 281 horsepower and 331 lb-ft of torque feels merely adequate and, at times, strained. Blame the fact it’s moving around 2.6 tonnes of body-on-frame truck. Getting from a standstill to 100 kilometres an hour takes a leisurely 8.8 seconds, which puts it roughly on par with a Toyota Corolla.
Owners won’t care, but fuel economy is predictably poor, rated at 16 litres per 100 kilometres in the city and 15.3 on the highway.
The steering uses a recirculating ball system, but from the driver’s seat the steering wheel might as well be connected to the wheels through a series of large rubber bands. To say it’s vague is an understatement. There’s no self-centring, forcing drivers to unwind the steering wheel after every turn, which takes some getting used to.
On the highway the Grenadier wanders around like a dog chasing a scent. It requires constant minor corrections to keep it on the straight and narrow.
I live in the city and I want one
The Ineos Grenadier is a ridiculous machine and yet, I want one despite its many foibles and unreasonable price. I want one despite the fact it’s risky to buy a car from a startup (as any Fisker customer can attest). And I want one even though I live in a city and am not a farmer, explorer, or even someone who drives off the pavement very much.
More than the modern Defender, techy Mercedes G-Wagon or new Lexus GX, the Grenadier lets drivers cosplay as a Lara Croft/Indiana Jones-type adventurer. Sitting in the driver’s seat – under those pop-up Safari windows and the roof-mounted auxiliary electrical switches – creates the illusion that you are a rugged and capable person (even if you are only rolling into the Home Depot parking lot).
It’s utilitarian to a fault and knows it. The graphics around the switches didn’t need to look like something from a helicopter’s cockpit, but they do. The Grenadier is more comfortable than the Lexus GX Overtrail+ on the road, although not as cushy as a Defender on air suspension.
The driving position is very G-Wagon. Actually, the whole Grenadier experience is very 1970s G-Wagon, but it thankfully does without the modern Mercedes’s giant touchscreen that breaks the off-roader illusion.
Some might see the Grenadier as a luxury-lifestyle accessory akin to a big Canada Goose parka – and they’re not wrong. Priced at nearly $100,000, it is a luxury.
The appeal, at least for me, is that unlike most SUVs which feel polished and bland – as if created by a committee of marketing execs – this one was clearly built with a singular, peculiar vision to be a new old-fashioned off-roader. It doesn’t break any fresh ground, but the Ineos Grenadier is a breath of fresh air.
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