A British-designed unofficial successor of the original Land Rover off-roader is a step closer with the launch of a digital campaign to build interest and invite would-be owners to engage with it.
The car, created and backed by industrial chemical conglomerate Ineos, goes by the codename ‘Ineos Grenadier’ and gets its own website (www.projektgrenadier.com) and social media presence as of today (19 September).
Insight: Ineos Grenadier - why a chemical firm is creating a 'serious' off-roader
Ineos founded its automotive business in 2015, shortly after Ineos chairman and principal shareholder Jim Ratcliffe identified the need for a car to pick up where the now-discontinued Land Rover Defender left off: in the company’s words, “a world-class, uncompromising 4x4”. Over the past two years, Ineos has been assembling a small team of designers, engineers and business experts to run the embryonic outfit. It plans to announce the location of the car’s UK production base early in 2018 before revealing its first designs to the public later that year, with preliminary production starting in 2019 and deliveries in 2020.
In the meantime – and in a departure from the ‘behind closed doors’ development philosophy of most automotive products – interested parties are being encouraged to participate at an early stage. The projektgrenadier.com website will publish regular updates on the car’s development and insights on the team behind the car and the processes they’re engaged with, while social media channels will encourage the public to share their views. “We are extremely keen to hear the opinions and recommendations of the off-roading public about how we can make this the best 4x4 possible,” said Ineos Automotive CEO Dirk Heilmann.
The website will also be used for recruitment as the project gathers pace and the Ineos Automotive team expands. It will also host a competition for the public to determine the car's name.
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Ultimately what I want for
This does not exist, and I think that is what is planned.
Base G-class?
I don't know the entry price for the Merc G-class but it matches the description fairly closely.
The G certainly does meet my
The G certainly does meet my requirements (save for being a bit too luxurious), and I love it.
But is starts at £92k.
Mk1 Disco
It's OK getting all nostalgic about the Defender but lets be honest, they should bring back the Mk.1 Discovery and have a Euro spec with and electronic engine and a Africa spec with the bomb proof 200/300 tdi. Comfy, good driving position and probably better off road than a Defender.
I'm currently in Tanzania and it seems to be the last outpost for ex UK discoveries, many have been converted to pick ups and still earning their keep
chris1969 wrote:
200/300tdi far too weedy. Give me a big 4.0L diesel 6 or 8 like a Patrol or Landcruiser anyday. Landrovers have always had weedy little sh!tty engines, axles that snap and gearboxes that crunch. Had all three in my time and although the Landrover was 'charming', it lacked at least two cylinders, around 100hp and roughly 150Nm.
JLR will put the new 4cyl ingenium engines in but apart from a few nostalgic types and wanna be country set ya's who elses is gling to buy them. US DEMAND at least 6 cylinders.
This new thing needs at least 5 or 6 cylinders minimum.
I lived in Saudi Arabia for
I lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years and the Landcruiser was King for the poor people and the G55 for the rich people.JLR was well known for unreliability.Howerver I had a Disco and it was great-V8 manual.Wrangler has NOT moved upmarket! they are cheap as S**t here in Canada and awful to drive.I wish them well, but feel this will not be "for the poor people" or all my Scottish farmer friends who have the originals.