Ineos is one of several startups that have managed to break into the U.S. market in recent years, but unlike other new carmakers (cough–Rivian, Lucid—cough), which have focused solely on electric vehicles and tech innovation, Ineos has gone in the opposite direction, building body-on-frame SUVs and pickup trucks with two solid axles and recirculating-ball steering boxes—equipment you’ll be hard-pressed to find on anything modern.
Those vehicles, the Grenadier Station Wagon and the Grenadier Quartermaster, have placed Ineos in a unique position in the U.S. market. I like to think of these things as highly elevated, far more refined versions of the Wrangler and the Gladiator, with much more interesting engines (all Ineos vehicles built so far use a turbocharged inline-six sourced from BMW). But they’re much more than that, as reviews from my colleagues David Tracy and Máté Petrány can attest.
It’s been nearly two years since Ineos sold its first Grenadier in the United States, and according to the company, there are no signs of expansion slowing. It has over 30 dealers in the country, with plans to reach 40 locations by early next year. To keep the momentum, it just celebrated the launch of a new headquarters in northern New Jersey, about an hour outside New York City. I was there, and it was … different.
“Headquarters” Means One Office Floor And A Four-Car Garage
When I arrived before the event’s start time on Wednesday afternoon, there was already a crowd gathered outside what Ineos calls the “Brand Experience Center Pavilion,” a four-car garage on the property of its new office builing that Ineos plans to turn into a sort of micro-dealership, where people will be able to visit to sit in the Grenadier, speak with a representative, and go on test drives. Pretty cool, but also pretty weird—you don’t usually see automakers offering up demos at their corporate headquarters. I guess that’s just the nature of startup thinking.
When I say “office building,” I don’t mean the entire building. Ineos is still a tiny company by car manufacturer standards. Of the four floors, Ineos occupies only the second. But it seemed to take up around 70% of the parking surrounding the building (on this day, anyway).
Usually, when I go to these types of events, I expect to see a few familiar auto journalist faces. I know a lot of people in this industry who will never turn down an opportunity to eat free food from a carmaker. But to my surprise, the only press at this event were I and a single local news affiliate, who was there to find out how Ineos ended up in New Jersey (always a fair question).
“We’ve chosen New Jersey because it’s absolutely where all the talent is and all of our neighbors, the European OEMs, are all based in and around us,” Ineos president of the Americas George Ratcliffe told me, in case you were wondering. “So it’s the right place to be.”
He’s right about the other OEMs. Jaguar Land Rover’s HQ in Mahwah is just a 15-minute drive away. BMW North America is even closer, just a 10-minute drive south. Ferrari North America, meanwhile, is a 30-minute jaunt southeast. The office building Ineos calls home was actually built on the site of the former Mercedes-Benz headquarters. Mercedes has since moved to Georgia, but Jersey remains a hotbed for the automotive industry. So it makes sense that Ineos came here from Raleigh, where it was previously based, to better attract and retain talent.
After a few corporate speeches expounding on the excitement of the brand’s future in beautiful Montvale, Ineos execs held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the pavilion before whisking everyone inside. Sadly, I neglected to take photos of the office floor itself (bad journalism by me, I know, and I’m sorry), but it wasn’t terribly exciting. Picture an open floor plan circling the outside portions of the floor, with some meeting rooms in the middle. If you’ve ever been in an office space before, none of this will be groundbreaking to you. The only change made for the event was the addition of a long bar where people could get drinks.
I spent most of my time in one of those meeting rooms, talking to a few executives about what the future holds for Ineos. And according to them, there are some big plans in the pipeline.
Ineos Still Really Wants To Build Its Smaller Model, But It Can’t Commit Just Yet
Back in early 2024, Ineos revealed its long-awaited third model, the Fusilier. Like the Station Wagon and the Quartermaster, it sports a rugged, squared-off look and promises similar 4×4 capabilities. But it was to use an electric skateboard-style chassis, offered as a pure EV or with an optional gas-powered range extender. The Fusilier was also smaller in size, with Ineos promising a lower price point than the cheapest Grenadier (which currently starts at $72,600 including destination).
But just five months after the Fusilier was revealed, it was delayed indefinitely.
“We’re still completely committed to bringing it to market,” CEO Lynn Calder told me. “We love the car, we love the design […] The reason that it’s on pause is effectively because of European legislation at the moment.”
Right now, the EU still has a ban on gas-powered cars—even if the gas is used to charge a battery in an EREV—starting in 2035. Europe seems to be slowly realizing that’s an impossible goal, and is showing signs of reconsidering that ruling. Calder is confident the EU will make a pivot, and would rather it happen sooner than later, for obvious reasons.
“We, along with other OEMs, [are] just trying to use our maximum leverage to make sure that [legislators] listen, and make the change today, not wait until the last minute, because 2035 in Europe is in automotive years, [basically] tomorrow.”
Like Scout with its upcoming truck and SUV, Ineos has realized there isn’t a huge market for a pure EV in this space right now, so it’s prioritizing the Fusilier with the range extender first, when that car does eventually enter production.
“The range extender is just a really great stepping stone because it’s effectively, it is an electric vehicle because it’s got a big battery in it, but it doesn’t have the range anxiety because if you’re going to do a long trip in it, you can fill it up with gas, and that’s the blocker for people,” Calder says. “Nobody wants to sit and wait by the side of the road for three-quarters of an hour.”
That said, the company isn’t abandoning the pure electric Fusilier entirely.
“Customers will always want choice, and they will always want to buy combustion cars, which is why we thought that’s what we would launch first; the EV will follow,” says Ratcliffe. “It’s cost us a lot to make the decision to pull back on the EV because we had spent a lot of money on developing it, so it’s engineered and it’s developed. We just haven’t brought it to market yet, which would take a year to two years, depending on how quickly we get going.”
It’s A Matter Of When, Not If, Ineos Starts Building Cars In America
Ineos says 65% of its sales come from the Americas–not entirely surprising, given the size and nature of its rugged, off-road-focused vehicles. Shipping cars to the U.S. from its lone factory in France wasn’t really an issue until this year, when tariffs started biting into the company’s bottom line.
“The tariff, when we went into the year, was about 2.5%,” says Gregor Hembrough, executive vice president for Ineos in the Americas. “In April, we saw ourselves out 27.5% tariff. It was a tough time for the auto industry, and we actually had to take a look around and say, ‘How do we absorb these costs amongst three channels, customers, our great retail partners, and ourselves alike?’ We’ve all had to take a little bit of it. As we went into August, we saw the EU and Trump administration take an agreement, and we are now looking at 15% tariffs to alleviate [the costs] a little bit. But it’s far greater than we ever expected, as well.”
As a small automaker that relies on U.S. sales, tariffs are obviously something Ineos would like to avoid. Last month, Calder revealed the company was scouting locations for a plant in America.
“We’re making plans for it every day, to be honest,” she told me. “We’re talking to quite a number of U.S. states about what our options are [and] how quickly could we get here. We’re really excited about that as our future.”
The reason it hasn’t picked a spot to build Grenadiers in the U.S., ironically, leads back to the EU’s combustion ban weariness.
“I think [a U.S. production ramp-up is] possible quite quickly. It’s all linked to the same discussion,” says Calder. “We need to get clarity on Fusilier. If we get clarity on Fuselier from the [EU] government and they actually do it today, rather than in three years time, then we can develop the Fusilier, finish it, and we will absolutely commit to doing that.”
From there, all of the puzzle blocks will fall into place, according to her.
“We fill our factory in France with [the Fusilier], and we’ll bring the Grenadier here because it’s just the most efficient thing to do. Produce where you sell, not produce somewhere else and then bring it in. I think the Fusilier will be a big seller in Europe, so make that there, make the Grenadier here.”
Top graphic image: Brian Silvestro
Translation: Of the available locations, this was the easiest commute for me.
More like: We want to hire people from established manufacturers, and all the people are here
I hope it’s a short term lease on this building. According to The Guardian the company is laying off several hundred people in Europe and is about €12 billion in debt.
The Seattle dealer for these is just across town from me, and boy do they have a lot of inventory. They look great, still see more Rivians, but honestly I see three or four of these a day at least.
Yes one of the largest dealership near me sells these now and I see a few but still see more Rivians.
I’m not likely to buy anything like one of these, so my opinion is surely moot.
The little(r) Fusilier is more interesting to me, especially if it eventually exists and is also electric. But let’s be honest: at $75K and up, only a handful of these will ever go anyplace bumpier than a Costco parking lot.
For no good reason I can imagine, there are tons of these here in SW FL.
Probably a ski area parking lot. The target market for these is the folks for whom a Suburban is too ordinary. They need a bit of off road capability to handle the winter road conditions and to stand out in the parking lot.
These look like the kind of knock-off of a prior-generation Defender that China would have made like 20 or 30 years ago, and they have less utility than a number of better priced body-on-frame mid-size and large SUVs and pickups that are available in the US.
The ability to have the frame painted a color other than black is cool, and it is a flex to spend $70K+ on something with such limited dealer support and history.
Let’s face it, just like the G-wagen, NOBODY in the US really buys these because they might be capable off-roaders. They buy them simply to show off that they CAN buy one, and they stand out from the sea of cookie cutter mainstream luxury C/SUVs.
Whether the dealer is convenient matters not in the slightest when you can just drive one of your 5-6 other cars.
Unless the tariff nonsense stops, I don’t see how these guys can survive. Though maybe jacking up the price just makes them that much more appealing to the $5,000 handbag set.
Those of us who would 100% take one off road cannot afford one and there will be so few that finding a used one in a few years will be harder than unicorn hunting.
You nailed it. And even then – is a BMW turbo REALLY what you want miles off the beaten track when this thing is 10-15 years old? Offroad recovery gets very, very expensive.
Ineos should’ve used the LS cruise and connect package for the US LOL
Maybe the diesel option could’ve been a Cummins 😉
Aside from those guys, Peugeot had their North American headquarters in Little Falls until 2021, and, of course, elsewhere in the state, Subaru of America is down in Camden, and Hyundai, Kia, and Nissan have their mid Atlantic/northeast regional offices in south Jersey, while Stellantis has moved their business center just across the bridge into northern Delaware
Shouldn’t that HQ be somewhere like Denver or LA?
Hmm, I live near Raleigh and had no idea Ineos had their US HQ here
same, i was just thinking that
Seems like a prime candidate for a knockdown-kit style assembly.
I really want one of these but the price is just so high that the Bronco/Wrangler/4runner/Land Cruiser look like a bargains.
Very much this–one can buy a hell of a lot of Bronco before hitting the base price of the Wagon.
Yeah these are cool but starting at 70k and it comes with a BMW engine that seems pretty meh powered for a modern SUV of this size and price. Also no idea on the reliability on these.
How long before the first LS swap kit exists?
I am really surprised the. y didn’t go a modern emission equipped crate engine route be it GM or Fjord. That seems like it would have been much better reliable option for an an offroader vs a more complex BMW turbo inline 6.
It’s a G-wagen competitor, not a competitor to any of those things. And it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the other silly Euro SUVs that don’t even pretend to have off-road capability, like the RR Cunnilingous or that God-Awful Bentley thing. And the G-wagen itself for that matter. And you can be a cosplaying cowboy in the pickup version – that is almost unique to them unless you want an EV. Not that the off-road ability matters in the slightest to 99% of owners.
Early talk and press suggested a lower price so I got my hopes up that it would be closer to being a competitor. I imagine as time goes on Ineos will go softer and more luxury for those reasons you mention.
Why northern New Jersey?
The density of malls, obviously, combined with the highest concentration of disposable income in the country. It’s a perfect combo!
I’ve seen a few around Birmingham, but it always feels like a subtle flex on anyone buying Land Rovers or G-wagens, which are plentiful.
I’m surprised that they didn’t want to stay in Raleigh as a strategic mid-Atlantic location that splits the difference between current customers and population trends, plus access to more affordable future manufacturing sites across the South as a whole.
I would guess that in order of importance these are very much part of it.
This, plus the talent in the area. One of their next dealers will be in manhattan, which should tell you what you need to know about the customers it’s targeting
True and the proximity to manufacturing and customers isn’t necessarily important — quicker access to the home country and experienced strategic management people are probably still more crucial.
I still do a doubletake when I see brand new HQs going up in some of the highest-cost parts of the country, though. But on the plus side, they have a Fleming’s downstairs for a nice, light lunch!
yep, 100% talent based. Their mfg and dealers can be anywhere really.
New Jersey because Las Vegas would be tacky?
I’d bet it has little to do with customer, manufacturing and dealer locations. The management talent pool in NYC is pretty much unrivaled. Based on the article, they’re trying to pull from more established brands (merc, BMW, etc) and that’s the place to go aggressive and pilfer talent from those brands without making people completely upend their lives.
“ Ineos says 65% of its sales come from the Americas…”
If they said Santa Monica I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a hit with the G-Wagen set.
You know that Hollywood/LA will be rolling with these in no time. We’ll have to have David do some of the testing since he can find them sitting in highway traffic waiting to move 5 miles in 2 hours.
There’s a lot of money on the west side of LA, and the prevailing look among the mid-20s-to-50s coastal set is “worn-in beachy” with a $150 beat-up corduroy jacket. I am not immune! The Grenadier is a way to get the old-school look Mom/Dad want with modern safety and convenience features that a 60/80-series Land Cruiser lacks. Plus it’s got that “in-the-know” factor a Bronco doesn’t.
I was recently in Franklin, TN visiting family and saw quite a few of these around town. They’re perfect for wealthy blue-collar-cosplayers who want something more rugged than their neighbors Range Rover. Just swap out the beat-up corduroy for a $600 waxed trucker jacket.
There’s a guy in my neighborhood with one, but he actually wheels it. He’s also got an older Defender, so this was right up his alley. They’re dope, but they’re so expensive.
They could work beside the ocean, leave their Jeeps behind.
Sell some fancy French cars. Watch the world die.
I live in Delaware and I’ve seen quite a few, I recall the first one had a license plate that was “NOTALR” or something along those lines. I assumed it was a LR Defender kit car or something. I didn’t know what it was — prob 2-3 years ago at this point but that got me hooked and I’ve seen proabbly 10 or so since then?
OK, but what about the Chicken Tax? Is that built in to the price?
Doesn’t apply to the SUV version, I assume its just built in to the pickup
I don’t follow closely enough, nor do I want to, but it feels like the whole Ratcliffe enterprise is massively overleveraged. Sir Jim went full Larry Ellison and bought a cycling team, bought an americas cup team, bought a controlling share in ManU, started a car company… and today the cycling team didn’t renew top riders and aren’t the world beaters they were as Sky, the americas cup team is in litagation over non-payment, ManU is repeatedly facing staffing cuts and price increases.
I’m sure there’s still ambition around the “we will continue building defenders in England” project to make more cars in France and the USA (but not England), I’m just not sure there’s the cash.
I thought owners don’t come shittier than the Glazers.
I was wrong.