Ineos expansion plans include 2 more SUVs and maybe a U.S. factory

The Financial Times' Future of the Car summit assembled 82 speakers from all over the transportation cosmos for three days of panels. One of those speakers was Lynn Calder, CEO of Ineos Automotive, and she had stories to tell about the company's plan "to stick to what we know but get bigger."

As covered by Motor Trend, what Ineos knows (for now) is hardcore off-roaders, and the road to expansion adheres to that singular core competence. The first step in expansion after the Grenadier wagon and Quartermaster pickup will be the Fusilier midsize SUV, revealed in February and due on the market in 2027. Engineered on a skateboard platform — a departure from the ladder-frame chassis of its larger siblings — the Fusiler will be offered as a battery-electric vehicle and a range-extended EV.

Offering details on the powertrains, Calder said the BEV would get about 250 miles on a charge, likely a number derived on the WLTP cycle, Ineos being English and the summit being held in London. The REV variants would get a smaller battery good for about 170 miles on its own, the fuel-powered generator used only to replenish the pack, not turn the wheels.

After that, the automotive arm of the Ineos petrochemical conglomerate is plotting two more SUVs to bracket the Grenadier — one larger, one smaller. These reportedly won't be as all-out focused on the trail as the Grenadier. We're just guessing, but if the Grenadier/Quartermaster pair are Wrangler/Gladiator competitors, the larger truck might go more explicit on the luxury to challenge the Grand Cherokee L. We're not sure where the smaller SUV lands. The Grenadier is 191.2 inches long, about three inches beyond a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. The Fusilier is 178 inches long, 10 inches longer than a Wrangler two-door, eight inches longer than a Defender 90, five inches longer than a Bronco two-door. Clearly, 13 inches is plenty of room to slot in another four-door model with a slightly different focus, or who knows, maybe it's a two-door even shorter than the Fusilier. Calder didn't say what kinds of architectures these two new vehicles would sit on, however, like the Fusilier, they'd be engineered to accept different kinds of powertrains.     

To make the most of these plans and the balance sheet, Calder said the company's considering a U.S. factory. At the moment, Ineos owns a single plant in Hambach, France. With the States already accounting for the most Grenadier and Quartermaster orders, building here would help feed the growth aspirations and avoid the 25% tariff on importing the Quartermaster from France. Or, hey, if Ineos could make that small, hard working, reasonably priced pickup that an increasing number of truck buyers have been begging for for at least 15 years, Ineos could build a bank vault next to that U.S. factory.

The decision on a local facility could be a couple years out, depending on where the Fusilier will be built. The Hambach plant is said to max out at 50,000 Grenadiers and Quatermasters annually, combined, when on three shifts, but those are larger vehicles than the Fusilier, built on a different platform. Wherever the factory ends up — China being the mentioned alternative — it will begin to fulfill Ineos Automotive's goal of 300,000 sales per year globally with ten years.