While you might be hearing of financial trouble for any number of new automaker start-ups, there’s one that’s doing just fine: Ineos Automotive.
Having opened pre-orders for its first vehicle, the gas-powered Ineos Grenadier Station Wagon SUV earlier this year, the company netted 5,000 orders for its SUV in North America in 30 days, bypassing the United Kingdom as the brand’s largest market.
And now comes Ineos’ follow-up to the Grenadier Station Wagon.
On Thursday, the automaker announced its second model, the Quartermaster, a double cab pick-up that shares its box-section ladder frame with the Grenadier, much as the Chevrolet Silverado shares its platform with every full-size pickup and SUV GM produces. Like the Grenadier Station Wagon, the Quartermaster Pickup is available in standard, Trialmaster and Fieldmaster trim.
Odds are unless you’re a diehard SUV enthusiast, you’ve probably never heard of Ineos Automotive, the automotive division of privately held Ineos, the world’s third-largest chemical company. It has $65 billion in annual sales, 25,000 employees, and 39 businesses in 31 countries. Run by CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos Automotive is the company’s newest division, founded in 2017 after the old-school Land Rover Defender went out of production.
Ratcliffe’s vision? Create a new, old-school SUV along the lines of the Defender, and build it using tried-and-true technology such as body-on-frame construction, and engineered with the intention of lasting 30 years. Now a reality, both the Grenadier and Quartermaster are powered by a BMW turbocharged inline 3.0-liter six-cylinder gas engine funneling 282 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque through an eight-speed ZF gearbox accompanied by a Tremac transfer case, Eaton differential lockers and Brembo brakes. Being a new automaker with relatively few outlets in the United States, Ineos wanted to be sure that the vehicle would be easy to service. So the company uses commonly available parts.
Given the shared genetics with the Grenadier, the Quartermaster pickup should possess the same off-road capability. A center differential lock and a two-speed transfer case are standard; front and rear differential locks are optional. It has 10.4 inches of ground clearance, a 31.5-inch wading depth and a similar breakover and departure angle to that of the Grenadier’s 35.5 degrees and 36.1 degrees, respectively, although the company didn’t reveal what the Quartermaster’s exact figures were. Not surprisingly, the Grenadier’s driveline carries over as well.
As for the bed, it measures 61.6 inches long and 63.7 inches wide with 4-foot, two-inch-wide tailgate. Payload is rated at 1,676 pounds, while towing is rated 7,716 pounds. Its bed comes with four tie-down points; utility rails are optional. And, of course, there will be any number of accessories.
But that is only the company’s opening salvo.
Ineos also unveiled the Grenadier Demonstrator, a Grenadier Station Wagon powered by BMW Group’s latest hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. Given Ineos Automotive's parent is a chemical company, it's little surprise that their electrically driven Grenadier would be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell rather than a lithium-ion battery pack.
Rather than use a storage battery to supply electric motors with electricity, a fuel cell electric vehicle (or FCEV) strips the hydrogen atom of its electron to power the car’s electric motors. The remainder of the atom is combined with oxygen to produce its only emission: water.
“Ineos produces 400,000 tons of hydrogen per annum and is committed to hydrogen as a key fuel of the future," said Lynn Calder, CEO of Ineos Automotive, in a statement.
The move is hardly a surprise, as Greg Clark, Executive Vice President, Americas at Ineos Automotive, said in May 2021 that hydrogen fuel cells, not batteries, would power their electrified variant. “That for us is a much more viable option then battery electric,” he said at the time.
While the company didn’t reveal any further information about the Grenadier Demonstrator, don’t expect it in showrooms any time soon.
While Daimler AG, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo are investigating fuel cells, and Toyota, Honda and Hyundai produce hydrogen fuel cell cars in limited numbers, many barriers remain to their implementation. The biggest issue remains how to safely store and move hydrogen. And bring the least-dense element in the universe, it requires more space to store. Then there's the matter of producing it, which is done using fossil fuels, not renewable resources.
Yet hydrogen can use existing power plants and machinery designed to run on coal, gas or oil with some modification. And U.S. truck-stop company TravelCenters of America recently formed eTA to supply alternative fuel to drivers at more than 270 locations nationwide.
But before a hydrogen fuel cell Ineos arrives, you’ll be able to buy a smaller battery-electric Ineos SUV, which is due to be manufactured at supplier Magna's assembly plant in Graz, Austria starting in 2026. And while Ineos was once adamant about producing fuel cell vehicles rather than battery-electric vehicles (or BEVS), reality has dictated otherwise.
“BEVs are perfect for certain uses, shorter trips, most private car journeys and urban deliveries, whilst Hydrogen FCEVs are more suited for longer trips, heavy duty cycles where batteries impact too much on payload and where long range between stops is necessary,” Calder said.
