The Ineos Grenadier will be built in Hambach, France.
Ineos will keep producing the Smart EQ there.
Production is expected to begin in late 2021.
Ineos took an important step this week in becoming an automaker, having purchased a factory for the production of its Grenadier SUV and truck. The plant in question is a Smart factory owned by Mercedes-Benz, with Ineos agreeing to maintain production of the Smart EQ at the site for a period of time, in addition to some other components. The Grenadier models, meanwhile, are scheduled to begin rolling off the assembly line at the plant in late 2021.
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The Grenadier SUV and truck were developed with help from Austria’s Magna Steyr, a longtime engineering and supplier giant best known in the U.S. for producing the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The Grenadier is expected to be powered by BMW gas and diesel engines, and prototypes have already been shown to the public earlier this summer.
“This acquisition marks our biggest milestone yet in the development of the Grenadier,” said Dirk Heilmann, chief executive fficer of Ineos Automotive. “Alongside the exhaustive testing program that our prototype vehicles are now undergoing, we can now begin preparations at Hambach to build our 4×4 from late next year for delivery to our customers around the globe.”
Gallery: In a Different Timeline, This Is Porsche’s Lineup (Autoweek)
Porsche’s main factory is in Zuffenhausen, Germany. But the real magic happens 12 miles down the road in Weissach. All new series production models are created there. That includes sketching, scale models, engine and chassis development and near-production prototypes. The satellite office has test rigs, wind tunnels and even a racetrack. Porsche recently took the cover off of several before unseen concepts between 2005 – 2019 called Porsche Unseen. Look for four categories: spinoffs, little rebels, hypercars and what’s next.
Porsche 911 Vision Safari
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2012 – Development Stage: Driveable Prototype
In the 1970s Porsche was a regular at the East African Safari, which took drivers almost 5,000 km through Kenya. Porsche decided to create this tribute in 2012.
Porsche 911 Vision Safari
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2021 – Development Stage: Driveable Prototype
The 911 Vision Safari features a raised suspension, reinforced wheel housings, massive bumpers and a spartan cockpit with a roll cage.
Porsche Macan Vision Safari
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2013- Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Porsche Macan is more at home in a mall parking lot than in the Outback, but the company says “there is a proper off-roader that is just waiting to be unleashed in the dust and mud.”
Porsche Macan Vision Safari
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2013 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
Inspired by the 911 Safari and 959 Paris-Dakar, the Macan Vision Safari has more ground clearance, chunky wheels and tires and a bunch of other accessories.
Porsche Boxster Bergspyder
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2014 – Development Stage: Driveable Prototype
In the ’50s and ’60s Porsche campaigned a few lightweight hillclimb cars. The Porsche 910 Bergspyder even won the European Hillclimb Championship in ’67 and ’68. The 909 Bergspyder came next, weighing just 846 pounds.
Porsche Boxster Bergspyder
Category: Spinoff – Year: 2014 – Development Stage: Driveable Prototype
With the Porsche Boxster Bergspyder, Michael Mauer and his design team paid tribute to those lightweight legends. It eschews modern comforts for supremacy on the mountains.
Porsche Vision 916
Category: Little Rebels – Year: 2016 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
The inspiration for the Vision 916 was the compact Porsche 916, a prototype built in the ’70s that never went into production.
Porsche Vision 916
Category: Little Rebels – Year: 2016 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
The Porsche Vision 916 EV gets four wheel-hub motors – a tribute to the first all-wheel drive Lohner-Porsche race car, which automobile designer Ferdinand Porsche developed all the back in 1900.
Porsche Vision Spyder
Category: Little Rebels- Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision Spyder takes cues from both the 550 Spyder and the 500-1500 RS Spyder. Hans Hermann took RS to the Carrera Panamericana race and won his class.
Porsche Vision Spyder
Category: Little Rebels- Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision Spyder’s midmounted engine features flat radiator grilles, red racing accents and “suggested” fins at the rear. The design study served as the basis for further development in the vertically stacked headlights.
Porsche 904 Living Legend
Category: Little Rebels – Year: 2013 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
As VW was getting ready to launch the XL in 2014, Porsche designers in Weissach were paying attention, especially to the carbon monocoque chassis.
Porsche 904 Living Legend
Category: Little Rebels – Year: 2013 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
This mid-engine concept has a low cockpit and flared wheel arches, in addition to its teardrop shape. Porsche says a high-revving V2 motorcycle engine would have been a suitable powerplant.
Porsche 919 Street
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2017 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
The 919 Street, as its name implies, is a street version of the Le Mans-wining 919 Hybrid race car. It was developed on the basis of existing technology “promising to make the exhilarating driving experience of the LMP1 race car available to amateur drivers.
Porsche 919 Street
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2017 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
The dimensions and wheelbase are the same as the race car and Porsche actually thought about building this for a few special customers. Unfortunately the LMP1 engine took a team of engineers to start.
Porsche 917 Living Legend
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2013 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
The 917 Living Legend was inspired by the Le Mans-winning Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood car of 1970. In 2013, to celebrate its return to the LMP1 class, the team created a modern interpretation.
Porsche 917 Living Legend
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2013 – Development Stage: 1:1 Clay Model
“The design had to clearly show the association with the Porsche 917 – as a new super sports car with explicit historic reference points,” explains Michael Mauer. “The Porsche 918 Spyder served as a technical basis for the drive and chassis architecture.”
Porsche 906 Living Legend
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2005 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The original Porsche 906 was a street-legal racing car to meet homologation requirements of the FIA’s new Group 4 Sports Car. Porsche says that even when designing future cars, it still looks to the past.
Porsche 906 Living Legend
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2005 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
“The design process for such visions is very free,” explains Michael Mauer. “It is not necessary to keep to pre-defined product identity characteristics. For example, the headlights were positioned in an air intake as a futuristic light source. When we were later developing an identity for our electric models, we took another look at these designs. The radical idea of simply integrating a light source in an opening instead of a glass cover seemed appropriate for us. We are now approaching this ideal.”
Porsche Vision E
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
Porsche has been in Formula E since 2019, but the Vision E is something closer to customer motorsport car, that could potentially use what the company has learned in the all-electric race series.
Porsche Vision E
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision E was designed as “a radically lightweight, single-seater race car for the race track.” It has one central seat and 800-volt technology. “An otherwise unattainable experience.”
Porsche Vision 918 RS
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision 918 is based on the street-legal 918 Spyder, which was the first production sports car to lap the Nurburgring in less than 7 minutes.
Porsche Vision 918 RS
Category: Hypercars – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
Porsche says its an evolutionary design, though it feels more revolutionary to us. This is what happens when you optimize a dramatic design for aerodynamics.
Porsche Vision 920
Category: Hypercar – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision 920 was designed as a hypercar for the road or as a possible racing car for customer motorsport based on the LMP1 race car.
Porsche Vision 920
Category: Hypercar – Year: 2019 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
Porsche designers were trying to combine company cues with “highly functional, aesthetically impressive features of the prototype racers.” It too has a central cockpit.
Porsche Vision Turismo
Category: What’s Next? – Year: 2016 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision Turismo is where the idea for a four-door super sports car called the Taycan germinated. “In view of the question of the proportions and the emergence of the topic of electric mobility, we discovered that the idea could be realised even better with a purely electric powertrain,” remembers Michael Mauer.
Porsche Vision Turismo
Category: What’s Next? – Year: 2016 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Vision Turimso brought us current Porsche design characteristics like the full-width light bar in the rear and the four-point headlights in the front.
Porsche Vision Race Service
Category: What’s Next? – Year: 2018 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The “Renndienst” or race service van seats six and is based on the classic VW race service van. “It was clear to Michael Mauer right from the start that a van from Porsche should not be conceived and designed as a puritan and practical bus, but had to step out into new territory.”
Porsche Vision Race Service
Category: What’s Next? – Year: 2018 – Development Stage: 1:1 Hard Model
The Race Service van gets flared wheel arches, a modular cabin with a central lounge chair for the driver. It’s fictional all-electric drivetrain is located under the floor, leaving more space for passengers, and tools, and parts.
“Hambach is the ideal facility for production of the Grenadier,” the company said. “One of Europe’s most modern automotive manufacturing sites, it is home to a highly experienced and capable workforce, has an excellent track record amongst Mercedes plants for the quality of its output, and recently benefited from a major investment to enable the production of larger vehicles. Additionally the site’s location on the French-German border, only 200km from Stuttgart, gives excellent access to supply chains, automotive talent and target markets. Manufacturing at Hambach ensures that Ineos remains on track to meet its plans to deliver the Grenadier to customers in early 2022.”
It remains to be seen just how wide of an audience the Grenadier will reach, and what the annual output will be. Ineos has yet to detail its plans for a sales and service network, but already has over 15,000 people who’ve registered their interest in the vehicle. The company has indicated that it will need to produce about 25,000 examples a year to be profitable, which is still a daunting target for an entirely new automaker. But at the same time Ineos is keeping its expectations grounded, and is not aiming to rival Wrangler production volume and sales worldwide.
Speaking of sales, Ineos indicated earlier this year that the Grenadier wagon will kick things off at around £40,000 at launch, which translates to about $53,500. That’s not entry-level Wrangler money, and it’s also not Range Rover money.
But, the Grenadier will still have to differentiate itself from the new Defender, which starts about $10,000 south of the $53,500 mark, taking that at face value at the moment. Perhaps like with other vehicles, less expensive versions of the Grenadier will appear over time.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s production activity enhanced in December but at its weakest level in 3 months as the financial state recovered from the coronavirus pandemic when its buying and selling companions struggled with mounting infections, according to two surveys. A month-to-month obtaining managers’ index issued Monday by a enterprise […]
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