Billionaire’ Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe’s vision of the perfect 4x4 is poised for its global rollout
It started with a bunch of mates in the pub lamenting the demise of true 4x4 vehicles. One of the men was chemicals billionaire Jim Ratcliffe who decided he’d build his own.
Back in 2017 a bunch of mates sharing a pint in London pub The Grenadier were lamenting the demise of the true 4x4 vehicle, as car manufacturers pandered to the needs and wants of suburban drivers more interested in heated seats than off-road performance.
As it happens, one of those mates was one of the UK’s richest men, chemicals billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who decided rather than cry in his beer, he’d build his own.
Five years later and Ineos, the chemical industry powerhouse Ratcliffe founded and still majority owns, is about to release the Grenadier across the globe, with Australian pre-orders making our own market one of the strongest in the world to date.
The Grenadier will be priced starting at $85,500 plus on-road costs.
The car is being built in a factory at Hambach in Northern France which Ineos bought from Mercedes (Ineos is also a principal partner of the Mercedes AMG FI team), and incorporates a BMW drive train, with engineering and production oversight by 4x4 specialists Magna Steyr.
In Australia the company is rolling out dealerships in all capital cities, however Ineos’ head of region for APAC Justin Hocevar, who has previously worked with Jaguar/Land Rover and Renault, said that in keeping with the car’s off-road and workhorse pedigree, the bulk of the more than 30 dealerships to be rolled out nationwide would be in the regions.
Mr Hocevar said a key catalyst for the birth of the Grenadier was the demise of the previous iteration of the Land Rover Defender, and the swing towards creature comforts rather than utility in the 4x4 market.
“There was this sense that there was a demise of the genuine 4x4, with many manufacturers in pursuit of building SUVs,’’ Mr Hocevar said.
“The pub story is as legit as they come. They were sitting around, mulling over and lamenting the demise not just of the previous Defender but the trajectory that the (Mercedes) G-Wagon had taken.
“That’s what really gave rise to this sense that there was this ‘white space’ and he really wanted to back it, and has throughly.
“Not to just go out and build a great 4x4, but to assemble some of the greats, not hunting around for the cheapest widgets, but to seek out best-in-class suppliers and then also use the expertise of Magna to weave it together into a seamless execution.’’
Ratcliffe is certainly not one to do things by halves.
Off the back of his fortune, coming in at more than $US15bn by some estimates, he has backed endeavours such as tilts at the America’s Cup through Ineos Britannia, and he bought and rebranded the Team Sky cycling team with the renamed Team Ineos winning the 2019 Tour de France and the 2021 Giro d’Italia.
Ineos also backed marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge’s successful 2019 effort to break the two hour barrier in the marathon.
Mr Hocevar said Ineos, having invested “well into the billions of euros” developing a world-class car, was now looking to start deliveries hopefully before the end of the year in Australia.
The company was getting interest from fleet buyers in the corporate sector, SMEs with a requirement for a hardworking vehicle, and naturally hardcore 4x4 enthusiasts.
Mr Hocevar said Australian buyers could expect deliveries “very late this year if not tipping over into next year’’.
In terms of dealerships Mr Hocevar said by the time sales had started in Australia the network should be about 32 strong.
“More heavily skewed to regional Australia - only one agent in every capital city,’’ he said.
“In order to give people the peace of mind of a decent network we’ve been appointing locations like Port Macquarie, Mildura, Orange, Dubbo. That enables people to access the vehicles but also to know that if they do travel they’re going to find someone there that can service their vehicle etc.’’
Mr Hocevar said the company was not releasing volume targets, but had taken 15,000 orders globally with Australia currently sitting in third place.
Why that Valentine’s Day gift might head back to the shop
Australians returned more than $11m in gifts, or 88,600 items, in the fortnight after Christmas and it could be down to people cashing in what they can to make ends meet, a data collector says.
MCoBeauty sold with huge payday for founder
Make-up ‘dupe’ phenomenon MCoBeauty has been sold, with founder Shelley Sullivan cashing out in a massive deal.