Americans are clearly hungry for off-roader options. Ford can’t keep up with Bronco demand, Jeep keeps adding Wrangler variations, and buyers are still lining up for the aging Toyota 4Runner. The Ineos Grenadier will step into the American off-road bullring in the first quarter of 2023, and the question is, can this old-school vehicle from an unfamiliar name cut it against these established players?
New name or no, the Grenadier 4X4 is a refreshing back-to-basics jolt to automotive evolution. In sharp contrast to the wave of mall-crawling crossovers and Outbackified-cars in today’s market, it’s a machine engineered to do a job without pretense or frills.
Meant to occupy the space between the Wrangler Renegade and Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, it will land in the US at around $50,000 MSRP (plus or minus a few thousand dollars). That’s more or less the same price as the current Land Rover Defender 110. Ironically, the original Defender is the vehicle that involuntarily leaps to mind whenever people see the Grenadier for the first time. That old machine, which ceased production in 2016, directly inspired the Ineos’ design.
The Grenadier will arrive here with the same BMW inline-six found in that company’s X7 SUV, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and three differential locks, all attached to enormously strong suspension systems. To see how well this brew comes together, I sampled it at an Ineos-hosted event in Hambach, France. The company’s test course around a former iron-ore mine didn’t pull any punches, with conditions so muddy and slippery that people struggled to walk in them.
A global chemical-making giant, Ineos has done well enough to turn its owner, Jim Ratcliffe, into one of Britain’s richest men. The company also owns a third of the dominant Mercedes-AMG Formula One team and bought the former Smart car plant in France off Daimler-Benz, so the makers of the G-Wagen take the company quite seriously.
BMW takes them seriously, too, and supplies Ineos with diesel and gasoline engines (though only the gas version will come stateside). Giant supplier Bosch even lets it piggyback its service network around the world.
When Land Rover discontinued the classic Defender, Ratcliffe saw an opportunity to fill the void and build a rival to the last truly global, no-frills, go-anywhere SUV, Toyota’s 70-Series Land Cruiser, which isn’t sold here.
Now here we are, with a no-nonsense machine, built to not just live in the world off the asphalt, but to conquer it, with over-engineered chassis and suspension pieces throughout. It has been engineered to go anywhere, but as with other such vehicles, that often means some compromises.
Designed more for Overlanding than rock crawling, the Ineos Grenadier is big by global standards if not American ones. Ineos hasn’t locked down the figures yet, but the five-seat passenger version of the Grenadier could come in at up to 5,900 pounds while stretching 193.9 inches, heavier and longer than a 4Runner.
That leaves plenty of space for the cabin, and for being simple and basic, the Grenadier is more comfortable than we imagined.
For starters, there is no conventional instrument cluster. There’s a small gathering of warning lights in front of the driver, with the rest of the essential information found inside the 12.3-inch multimedia display in the center of the short dashboard. That gives the driver a clear view of the front corners of the hood, and there’s a wide flat surface on the top of the inner door skin to act as an armrest.
The initial impression is one of surprising refinement, starting with the powertrain, but also in the surprisingly low interior noise levels and relatively smooth ride quality. The softly sprung Grenadier walks over bumps easily, allowing the tires to grip the ground for as long as possible over rough ground, and the body rolls far less than we’d expected.
We found almost no whining noises from any of its numerous cogs (though our prototype test cars didn’t have their diff locks fitted), and its mechanical engineering feels decades ahead of any old-school Defender.
Our drive was limited to the roads and trails in and around a muddy old mine, at speeds of up to about 50mph, but the Grenadier felt unstoppable even without its locking diffs. There’s simply no unibody or crossover-style 4×4 that can deliver the same wheel travel, effortless rigidity and calm robustness that the Ineos Grenadier has as a default position.
The ladder-frame chassis mates to some of the thickest suspension pieces outside earthmoving equipment, plus damper tubes that look like missile launchers, all attached to solid beam axles designed by Italian agricultural machinery engineers, Carraro.
Mechanical differential locks sit inside the solid axles, along with a center diff lock and the Tremec two-speed transfer case. The center lock engages via a mechanical lever in the cabin, while the axle-bound locks engage via buttons on the dash.
The Grenadier’s six-stud wheels are wrapped in Bridgestone Dueler H/T off-road tires to give it 10.3 inches of clearance on both the standard 265/70 R17 version and the optional 255/70 R18 tires. There’s also an optional BF Goodrich K02 off-road tire as an option.
With that big clearance, the Grenadier offers a 35.5-degree approach, a 36.1-degree departure and a 28.2-degree break-over angle. It can also ford 31.4 inches of water. BMW’s B58-series six-cylinder engine produces 281 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque in the Ineos. Though also used in cars like the 4 Series, the engine has been remapped for low-down, progressive torque delivery, just what you want for off-road work.
Both it and the European-only diesel engine are strong enough to tow up to 7,716 pounds while toting another 2,204 pounds of payload. Overlanders will be happy to know the roof can support 330 pounds, too, all while carrying five people.
You don’t want to crash in an Ineos Grenadier into anything, nor do you want to be crashed into by one, because its lightest version weighs more than 5,700 pounds. It doesn’t come with any digital niceties like lane-departure warnings, and given its off-road mission, it probably won’t any time soon.
It isn’t really meant for the school run either, though the 44-foot turning circle and the 3.5 turns of steering lock-to-lock are like those of a yellow school bus.
There are no figures on its emissions or fuel consumption yet, and Ineos hasn’t even said how big the gas tank is, but given the sheer scale of the thing, it’s unlikely to make for pretty reading. Some of its rivals, particularly Lexus’ GX are profligate too but expect the Grenadier to be thirsty at the pump.
The Ineos Grenadier turned out to be a shock to the system, and a Teutonic-feeling throwback to a simpler age. It feels like it has integrity dripping from every bolt, and there’s not a squeak from the cabin, even when it traverses ridges with two wheels dangling into space.
Its solidity is amazing, and it ought to be at that weight. That solidity outshines even the BMW straight sixes to steal the show. The Grenadier’s authenticity puts your mind at ease almost immediately, and the only weird bits include the two-spoked steering wheel.
It’s not the thing to fling around a mountain pass, because it feels like it would prefer to take the shortcut up and over. Its on-road cornering behavior tends to be more relaxed than enthusiastic, and though its brakes are strong, it won’t strain your neck through the corners.
Ratcliffe was right. There is a yawning chasm between vehicles like the Bronco, Wrangler and 4Runner and premium hardcore ones like the GX and G-Wagen.
The Grenadier is practical, large, looks and feels cut from solid billets of metal and it’s all backed by proven, silken powertrains that defy the outward simplicity. The only thing that threatens to hold it back is its unproven reliability in real-world service and its unproven support network in remote locations.
Ahead of its Q1, 2023 arrival Ineos is setting up its U.S. dealer network and exploring the potential for online sales. As of last fall, it was aiming for a goal of around 30 to 50 dealers open at launch and to provide a five-year, 60,000-mile warranty on U.S. Grenadiers. Exact plans, and a firm price, won’t be announced until later this year.
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