Ineos Grenadier
When you’re blasting up a steep and muddy hill with nary the slip of a tire and all you see through the windshield is the sky above, it’s hard to hang on to the notion that most of the vehicles that try to pass themselves off as off-road-capable would struggle to navigate anything rougher than gravel. At least that’s the experience behind the wheel of the Ineos Grenadier.
If the name isn’t familiar, no surprise. It’s the latest entrant in the growing adventure-ready market. If you know Ineos, it is likely as a chemical company. Or maybe as part of the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team. But Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the firm’s head and the U.K.’s richest man, decided he wanted to get into auto manufacturing, and a few years later the first result is an SUV designed for only the most serious off-roaders.
There was no attempt to make it pretty. If anything, it looks a lot like early versions of the Land Rover Defender. The boxy SUV uses a ladder-frame platform with armor-level steel body panels and numerous skid plates to handily bounce over jagged rocks. Two powertrains are available. A 3.0-liter turbocharged gas engine makes 283 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque. The stump-puller is a diesel version (as yet unscheduled to reach the U.S.). It’s rated at 248 hp and 405 lb-ft. Both use an eight-speed automatic and direct power to all four wheels through a two-speed transfer case and a center differential. Serious off-roaders should add electronically locking front and rear “diffs.”
While Grenadier is no-frills, it does offer good noise isolation, a large video screen, well-padded seats and plenty of safety tech, for those times when you’re cruising in search of a suitable trail. But it’s off-road where it shines. It can ford more than 31 inches of water. The digital display shows the angle at which you’re climbing. The hill descent control helps the Grenadier smoothly creep down an equally steep slope at a steady 3 mph, with no need to flip-flop from throttle to brake.
Engineers are working out a few bugs on the U.S. model, but remain confident the first should arrive in the States late this year or early 2024, with a price tag expected to start around $70,000. To those questioning whether to commit to a new brand, Ineos officials counter that the parent company has deep pockets and the commitment of its founder and CEO to take on better-known names like Land-Rover, Jeep and Mercedes.
