British automotive startup Ineos may renege on deals with both the UK and Portuguese governments and ... [+]
The newest auto maker in Britain, Ineos Automotive, might not be British for long, with confirmation that it is negotiating with Daimler to take over the smart plant to built its Grenadier SUV.
It today suspended plans to build the Grenadier in Bridgend, Wales, in favor of negotiating with Daimler over its Hambach smart plant in eastern France. It has also suspended development of a chassis factory in Portugal.
The Grenadier, which looks for all the world to be a mild, but unashamed visual upgrade on the classic Land Rover Defender, would have been built next to a Ford engine plant which has been scheduled for closure this autumn.
Ineos already has a financial arrangement with Daimler through its sponsorship of the Mercedes-AMG ... [+]
Ineos, which also sponsors the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team that won the first Formula One race of 2020 via Valtteri Bottas, was due to employ 200 people in the Grenadier’s initial wave, then up to 500 people longer term. It had already broken ground on both the Welsh and Portuguese plants.
However, having sold half of its smart business to China’s Geely last year and looking to sell the rest, Daimler put the Hambach plant up for sale last week.
The smart factory in western France has recently been refurbished to build larger SUVs, which would ... [+]
It had already prepared the site for Mercedes-Benz’s own larger SUV production, so a deal would make sense for both Daimler and Ineos, especially with a potentially chaotic Brexit looming, as most of the Grenadier’s major parts come from the European continent.
The chassis, stamping, painting and assembly could all be managed in one site at Hambach, instead of pulling major pieces together from across Europe.
Negotiations with Daimler only began in the last few days, which explains the hasty shutdown of Ineos’s other facilities.
Ineos confirmed only that new options have arisen for it recently, despite committing to state-sponsored deals in both Wales and Portugal.
The Ineos Grenadier has been developed to be more rugged than the Land Rover it very much looks ... [+]
"Some new options, such as this one with the plant in Hambach, have opened up that were simply not available to us previously," said Dirk Heilmann, the chief executive of Ineos Automotive, told the BBC.
"We are therefore having another look - and reviewing whether the addition of two new manufacturing facilities is the right thing to do in the current environment.
"Safety is of course paramount, but we also have an obligation to do what is right for the business - and so need to assess these new opportunities in order to maintain or improve on our timelines," Heilmann said.
The Ineos Grenadier will be built in both wagon and pick-up versions. Photo: Ineos
That didn’t please Britain’s Economy Minister Ken Skates who told the BBC it would be “a real blow if Ineos reneged on its very public commitment.”
"I have told the CEO that abandoning Bridgend at this late stage, after so much effort and money has been invested in preparing the site, would be a terrible decision for Wales and the UK," he said.
"We have impressed on the company in no uncertain terms the importance of honoring its commitment to Wales and to deliver on its promise to build a British icon here in Britain."
Ineos Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe created his new car company after Land Rover moved its Defender ... [+]
Ineos, the chemicals company owned by Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, began recruiting to build its own rugged off-roader as soon as Ratcliffe saw Land Rover move the Defender upmarket.
“The Grenadier project started by identifying a gap in the market, abandoned by a number of manufacturers, for a utilitarian off-road vehicle,” Ratcliffe, the Chairman of INEOS, said.
“This gave us our engineering blueprint for a capable, durable and reliable 4x4 built to handle the world’s harshest environments.”
Oddly, the Grenadier is similar in size to the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, but uses an Italian-assembled, eight-speed transmission from Germany’s ZF and six-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines from BMW.
Ineos has said the car, which will initially sell as a five-door wagon, will cost around £40,000 in the UK when it goes on sale in 18 months and the company would break even at 25,000 cars a year.
The majority of the engineering work has been done by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria
Ineos would not be the first UK startup carmaker to abandon the UK. Brexiteer James Dyson planned to do the same thing with his electric car after moving the company’s headquarters to Singapore. He has since abandoned plans to make electric cars, admitting he underestimated the cost of development.
