Old school off-roader meets modern driving dynamics
 

The all new Ineos Grenadier’s progress toward an on-sale date continues. In September, with millions of kilometres of testing completed and tooling well under way for production, Ineos brought a prototype to New Zealand to show the Grenadier to an exclusive group of prospective buyers who had pre-registered on the brand’s website. The car park was full of late model Range Rovers, a current-model Defender, a Mercedes or two, an Audi A6 and a couple of Teslas.

The Grenadier was well and truly flying under the radar, but NZ4WD had an exclusive opportunity to attend the show-and-tell event.

Engineering, testing and proving processes have to be painstakingly thorough for an all-new automotive project these days. Grenadier prototypes have completed more than 1.5 million kilometres of testing in all environments from snow and ice in Europe to 50-degree heat in Australia’s outback. Our course was a gentle drive-around on rolling-contour farm paddocks at Jonkers Farm north of Auckland, and it was the final day of the tour.

Though the Grenadier will launch with petrol and diesel internal combustion power, it is also future proofed, with the ability to easily adapt to hybrid, EV and hydrogen power. Those versions are already on the design boards.

The drivetrain for these first versions is based around proven mechanicals from the likes of BMW (B Series diesel and petrol inline six cylinder engines which have repeatedly been named the ‘best in the world’ for refinement and smooth delivery of power and torque), ZF (whose 8HP eight-speed automatic transmission is rated the best of its type and is produced in versions suitable for rear wheel drive and four-wheel drive, rated for 300Nm to 1000Nm), and Mexican-based Tremec (the respected transmission specialists make the transfer case).

There is a central locking function for the drivetrain but the Carraro axles feature bespoke diff centres and have no locking function.

The prototype was shod with BF Goodrich all terrain tyres.

Long before the term SUV was coined, vehicles that would fit that category had massive load-carrying and towing capabilities. Today, few SUVs match the huge ratings of New Zealand’s favourite diesel double cab utes, which almost all feature robust leaf-spring rear suspensions. In contrast, the coil-sprung/live axle Grenadier will tow 3,500 tonnes, has an internal load space of more than 2,000 litres, and will winch 5,500 kg.

The Grenadier prototype was based in Melbourne and has now been freighted home. Throughout the visit it  remained as stealth-mode as it needed to be.