Was just reading an article about them bailing on Wales and looking at a old Benz plant in France.

 

Yeah, that's the rumor. I wonder if Ineos is doing what Boeing does when they're coming up with a new line of aircraft? They reach out to various other areas about their interest in setting up a plant and see who offers the best incentives.

 

Given the bespoke nature of the construction, the heavy duty nature and the niche sales combined with theoretically good quality components I’d be extremely surprised to see a base model hit the US for less than $70k. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being $90k or even 3 figures.

Rationale:
There is no way they’re going to be able to produce it for Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited money. With the parts sharing and purchase power of Jeep combined with its mass production stamping and large market to recover initial costs I just don’t see how they could do it for the money people are hoping. Especially as this seems ever more heavy duty.
Heck, look at what high end non road legal side by sides cost... and they are mostly plastic with cheap small drivetrains.
Look at how much say a Morgan car costs in the UK or the USA. No way it will cost less than one of those and Morgan doesn’t exactly mint money...

 

I think part of the cost savings will be found in not having to spend as much on developing the creature comforts we have come to expect in new vehicles. Options may be limited to keep variations down. This vehicle sounds like it will be as analog of a vehicle as possible in this day and age. So, reduced time and money spent on developing an infotainment system (back to a simple single or double-DIN head unit?), perhaps manual seats and windows? All speculation, of course. There is nothing really new to this vehicle. No new tech or design in general.

I mean, I hope the price is around the $40k-50k mark, but I won't hold my breath. Hopefully this time next year, we'll see the production vehicle (maybe even some early reviews by notable journalists) and the price.

 

At first i didn't like it all that much but saw the passion that went into developing it and that won me over.

I think it'll be priced around 70k,

 

Preliminary pricing for the retail version of the Grenadier is expected to be mid-£40k. Current exchange rate for £45k is $58k. Pricier than I was hoping for, but not too much over. Costs of federalizing the vehicle for sale would probably peg it at $60k or more. About the cost of a fully-tarted up Wrangler or moderately-optioned 4-cylinder New Defender.

 

I tend to doubt we will see it here in the states. Personally, my next vehicle will be electric. I am really liking the Bollinger for it's clever use of electric tech to make a vehicle with an extraordinary amount of storage.

 

TL;DR:

OEM wheels will be either steel or aluminum alloy in both 17" and 18" sizes with a 6-lug pattern (in their display at 2:34), although the prototype vehicles shown had 5-lug wheels. One of the steel wheels displayed had an offset of +55mm. The BFGoodrich KO2 (optional?) tire displayed at 3:33 on the 5-lug steel wheel had a size of LT265/70R17.

Per the video, the brakes were the limiting factor in why 17" wheels are the smallest offered.

Ineos replied to a comment in the comment section that they plan to have a dealer in Colorado, so the USA market is in their plans so far.

 

Small-scale prototype manufacturing has begun. They've moved from the early "2A" prototypes to the "2B" prototypes. Nothing on the interior, yet, but that may be revealed within the next two months. Body is a mix of steel and aluminum. Video also talks about their new assembly site in Hambach, France they bought from Mercedes.

 

Will the Grenadier be a new "Old Defender"? Will it be the farmers' friend? Will it travel with sheep and pigs in the back? Given its projected price is similar to the New Defender I seriously suspect not. Maybe what it does is to create another competitor for the New Defender and the G-Wagen but not for the countless utes and second hand Land Cruisers that are the real workhorses that replaced the Series Land Rovers. Probably a great rock crawler for serious off roaders. But how big is the market?