A little over twelve months ago there was a lot of talk about a new car that was about to be released based on the old Land Rover Defender, it’s a five-seat almost purpose-built off-road 4×4 wagon, called the INEOS Grenadier.
I first wrote about it in the December 2021 Famous Last Words and then spoke with Justin Hocevar, the Regional Head of APAC INEOS Automotive in the January 2022 Famous Last Words Podcast
INEOS Grenadier is on its way – Famous Last Words Dec 2021
Justin Hocevar – Regional Head APAC INEOS Automotive – Famous Last Words January 2022
Now after more than four years in the development and an estimated £1.36 billion being spent to get to this stage, customer cars are now rolling off the former Mercedes Benz Smart Car production line in Hambach in northeast France.
The good news for more than 1,000 Australian customers who ordered and paid deposits more than a year ago, are that they are now slowly taking delivery of their cars, nearly four months later than expected. However, if you want to order a new Grenadier now, you’ll also be waiting approximately 12 months before you take delivery, and you’ll have to cover recent price rises of around 14% with the new prices ranging from $97,000 to $109,525 plus on-road costs.
There’s a lot of expectation of what the new Grenadier will be like, can it deliver and live up to all the publicity and hype surrounding its launch. Mike Sinclair from carsales joined the worlds motoring media at the February global launch in Scotland and here’s what he thought of the car:
INEOS Grenadier 2023 Video Review – carsales
I like many others are very keen to see the Grenadier in the flesh and will be very interested to see if it is as good off-road as we are all hoping.
In the meantime, I’ll just have to jealously watch videos like this one from INEOS which gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘hand over’. Three people from different parts of Europe meet in Morocco’s Anti Atlas Mountains to collect their new Grenadiers and drive them home. It’s a great video