HAMBACH, France — After a 33-year production run, the last original Land Rover Defender
was built in 2016, ending a rugged-yet-refined era for off-road pursuits.
Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors, part of an Indian conglomerate,
shifted its focus to luxury and technology with plans for a new 4x4, also named
Defender but disconnected from its predecessors.
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A year later, Jim
Ratcliffe, a British billionaire and longtime fan of Land Rover’s old Defender,
sensed an opportunity, hatching his plan for what he called “a spiritual
successor” to the vehicle of choice for exploration and safaris. As the chief
executive of the
INEOS Group, a British conglomerate, Ratcliffe had a unique
ability to act, lining up a senior team of automotive professionals to bring
his vision to life: a new workhorse 4x4. In a 2017 interview, he said he wanted
to preserve the Defender’s boxy, military-style ruggedness.
This year, INEOS
Automotive is bringing out the Grenadier.
Although some
styling cues might bring to mind the former Defender, INEOS Automotive
maintains that the Grenadier is uniquely designed and built. Land Rover, while
clear about its path away from its utilitarian Defender, “continues to contest
our right to sell the Grenadier,” said Greg Clark, executive vice president for
the Americas at INEOS Automotive, but the legal challenges have not been
successful.
The Grenadier is a
utilitarian throwback with modern touches, mechanical where it can be but
electronic wherever necessary. Fewer engine control units equal more
simplicity. Although gasoline and diesel prototypes are being produced,
hydrogen and all-electric options are possible. At its introduction this
summer,
North America will receive only the gasoline Grenadier.
“For the customer
who wishes to get off the grid, an EV powertrain is incongruous with the
Grenadier’s positioning in today’s world,” Clark said. “Given the size,
construction, and capability of the Grenadier, it would likely require an
untenable amount of battery weight to provide the customer with a range
adequate to not cause anxiety and still be usable and attractive for off-road
expeditions.”
That pragmatism
and raw capability, “combined with the straightforward nature of our sales
process, form core tenets of our commitment to our target customer,” Clark
said.
Customers are
responding. INEOS says that it has 15,000 orders, ahead of company forecasts,
and that one-third are for the
US market. INEOS recently bought a Mercedes-Benz
Smart car factory in Hambach, France, and intends for Grenadiers to roll off
the line by July. The goal is to build 25,000 to 30,000 a year.
While ambitious
for an upstart, it is a fraction of what is sold by the American off-road king:
Jeep, which has 80 years of history and sold 204,610 Wrangler 4x4s last year.
“We’re expecting
the US to be one of our biggest markets, if not the biggest,” said Donna
Falconer, the global head of product at INEOS Automotive.
“Someone once said
to me, ‘Trying to sell a pickup in the US, the home of the pickup, is like
trying to sell espresso to the Italians,’” Falconer said. “We know we’ve got
our work in convincing people we’ve got a worthy vehicle.”
Before INEOS
announced the Grenadier’s interior, it tested the cockpit’s design with
US
focus groups in early 2021. “When you look at our aspiration versus the size of
the North American market, we’re a drop in the ocean, and that’s OK,” Falconer
said.
In the 2017
interview, at the Grenadier pub in London, Ratcliffe said Jaguar’s decision to
end the original Defender “had left quite a hole in the marketplace.” He criticized
contemporary SUVs as “jelly molds” that all look alike.
Clark touched on
the company’s early plans. “As for any newcomer, building brand equity,
fostering consideration, and delivering on promises are the key ingredients of
a successful start,” he said. His goal is to keep in touch with reservation
holders to build their trust.
Clark mentioned
the big-name competition: the
Ford Bronco, the Wrangler, Toyota’s 4Runner.
“However, as adjacent competitors we of course consider the Toyota Land
Cruiser, Land Rover Defender and, to a lesser degree in this generation, the
Mercedes G-Wagon,” he said. It will be a crowded and competitive market, but
INEOS is confident in its niche.
US focus groups
yielded interesting results, Falconer said. “What we found was that anybody who
owned an old Defender just loved us,” she said. “They thought what we were
doing was great.”
She also
acknowledged that Jeep buyers were deeply loyal. “Challenges are price point,
loyal customers to other brands and getting them to take a risk with us,” she
said. The Grenadier’s price point remains unknown because of market instability
created by
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inflation, supply chain issues and
more, but chief rivals start at $50,000.
The company so far
has 100 sales and service partners lined up, as well as retail finance partners
and parts distributors.
The company’s
sales model is diversified. “We have a combination of direct sales and agencies
in Europe,” said Mark Tennant, commercial director at INEOS Automotive. (Think
Tesla.) Farther-flung markets will have more traditional dealerships. Those in
the US are set to be backed up by Bosch Car Service, with 17,000 outlets
globally.
“If you’re building
an uncompromising 4x4 for the world,” Tennant said, “you need to make sure customers
are confident to take that vehicle — their vehicle — wherever they will with
confidence they’re going to get parts and get the vehicle fixed.”
Final pricing for North
America will not be announced until later this year; however, full
specifications are expected in April. The first Grenadiers are due to hit US
soil in 2023.
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