First revealed a year ago, the Ineos Grenadier is the spiritual successor to the classic Land Rover Defender SUV, discontinued back in 2016. Land Rover itself has nothing to do with the new car and even made attempts to interfere with the implementation of this project (just a rejected claim for copying the design is worth it).

2022 Ineos Grenadier

Grenadier is the brainchild of Jim Ratcliffe, head of the English chemical concern Ineos and a big fan of the classic Defender. In 2017, he founded the automotive division Ineos Automotive, assembled a development team – and is moving hard towards his goal. About 130 prototypes have already been built and are being tested in different parts of the world. And now the company has presented the interior of the future car.

He’s unusual, to say the least. According to the developers, they drew inspiration from the design of aircraft cabins, ships and even tractors, where functionality is paramount and design is secondary. So in the Grenadier’s salon, as stated, “there is everything you need and nothing more.”

On the centre console, there are large buttons and handles installed at a great distance from each other so that they can be confidently used blindly or with winter gloves. The captions to them are made in large, deliberately simple type, easy to read.

The ceiling console is designed in a similar style, and it is on it that the control buttons for the off-road arsenal are located. There are also eight reserve toggle switches, which can be used to control additional equipment, so as not to “collective farm” buttons anywhere. A media system with a touch screen (12.3 inches) was still not without, but much more surprising is the modest screen instead of the instrument cluster. There are no details about him yet.

Hard-wearing materials have been used for the interior trim, the Recaro front seats have water-repellent fabric upholstery, and there are even drainage holes in the floor. However, the developers far-sightedly decided to take away the bread from the tuning companies and immediately offered a more expensive leather interior with carpet on the floor as an option.

The usual hatch or panoramic roof is not provided, but you can order a pair of compact hatches in the ceiling above the front seats. Under the three-seater rear sofa, there is a sealed box for valuables, which it is better not to leave in the trunk. And there are actually no additional windows in the roof slopes, like the classic Defender: these are just niches in the body, in which powerful handrails are installed.

There are still no details about the technique. Long ago it was announced that BMW would supply the engines: we are talking about in-line six-cylinder engines, both diesel and gasoline, and, of course, reconfigured for the specifics of an SUV. Complete with engines from BMW, there will also be an automatic transmission with a characteristic selector. But the all-wheel-drive transmission, of course, will have its own – with a reduction gear, a center differential lock and forced locks of two cross-wheel differentials.

The 2022 ineos Grenadier will be produced in France – for this Ineos last year bought the plant in Ambach from the Daimler concern near the Franco-German border. Now they produce smart EQ ForTwo electric vehicles, and Ineos will continue to produce them on a contract basis, but this combination will not last long (smart moves to China). Acceptance of orders for Ineos Grenadier SUVs will open in October, with deliveries scheduled for July 2022.