Ineos wants to conquer the all-terrain vehicle market with his brand-new Grenadier, but has yet to find a place to build it. It has interest in a Smart factory in France and is an important step closer to the acquisition.
Ineos is currently best known in the petrochemical industry, but with the arrival of its Grenadier it will also become a car brand. The Land Rover Defender lookalike only needs to be built somewhere, so Ineos is already busy finding a production facility. In July, it was announced that it has set its sights on the Daimler factory in Hambach, France. After all, Daimler wants to get rid of that and Ineos is eager to take over. Today, the employees in Hambach would have agreed to the takeover, it reports Automotive News based on reports in French media.
The 1,600 employees in the factory, where Daimler makes cars of the subsidiary brand Smart, will therefore probably build much larger cars. The Grenadier is a true colossus. Ineos boss James Ratcliffe wanted to bring together the best of several iconic off-road vehicles. He says that various models have been looked at, although it must be said that the whole resembles the primal Defender. The goal is to start production in 2022 and build 25,000 cars per year. Previously there were plans to do this in the home country – the United Kingdom – but now the Grenadier seems to be built on French soil. Before that, Smarts will roll off the band in Hambach for a while. Partly due to a partial takeover by Geely, the Smart production will be moved entirely to China.