U.S. buyers will soon have an alternative to rugged SUVs like the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler, Land Rover Defender, and Mercedes-Benz G-Class in the form if the Ineos Grenadier, the first product from the newly minted automotive arm of British chemical giant Ineos.
Ineos Automotive last week announced U.S. pricing for the Grenadier and confirmed a May 31 start for the reservation process via the company’s website. The first customer deliveries are scheduled for late 2023, meaning we should see the Grenadier arrive as a 2024 model. Orders will be finalized with dealerships that Ineos will announce around August.
The Grenadier will be offered in the U.S. in three grades, with pricing starting at $71,500 for a base grade and at $79,190 for Trialmaster and Fieldmaster grades. Ineos said the more expensive grades are pre-configured to suit commercial buyers in the case of the Trialmaster and off-roaders in the case of the Fieldmaster.
There’s only the one body style at present, a five-door SUV, though Ineos is currently testing prototypes for a Grenadier pickup truck and has confirmed plans to start production of an electric 4×4 smaller than the Grenadier in 2026.
There’s also only a single powertrain option for the Grenadier, a 3.0-liter turbo-6. The engine is sourced from BMW and in the Grenadier is hooked up with an 8-speed automatic and a four-wheel-drive system with a 2-speed transfer case. Final specifications for the U.S. market will be announced at a later date, but in other markets the 3.0-liter engine is rated at 281 hp.
The Grenadier is based on a platform with body-on-frame construction, solid beam axles with panhard rods front and rear, and progressive coil springs. To help reduce weight, the body is made from a mix of aluminum, high-strength steels and even some composites. To help with the development, Ineos teamed up with Austria’s Magna Steyr, the same company that helped Mercedes-Benz develop the G-Class and still builds the iconic SUV to this day.
Production, which started in mid-2022, is handled at a former Mercedes plant in Hambach, France.