2023 Ineos Grenadier review

Is the Ineos Grenadier the Defender you should be buying? Let's find out...

Love or hate the Land Rover Defender, its place in off-road history and fourbie folklore is undeniable.

Personally, I have countless Landie memories from growing up in southwest rural Britain with a collie on the passenger seat and a bale or two in the back, so it’s very much the former for me.

And, like many, it was with sadness that I learned JLR would put the iconic Defender out to pasture, ending a bloodline that effectively started in the 1940s.

Perhaps in denial of the looming end, like many enthusiasts around the world, you considered grabbing one of the extraordinarily expensive final editions and squirrelling it away in a shed somewhere.

Or perhaps you thought about picking up an older version to maybe restore or just hold onto for posterity’s sake.

Whatever romantic notion you may have considered to preserve the Defender in either its aluminium-bodied form or simply the memory, I bet you didn’t once think about approaching Land Rover and offering to buy the tools and manufacturing rights to save the model from an untimely end.

But that’s exactly what Ineos CEO Jim Ratcliffe did.

Despite having the backing of one of the largest industrial chemicals companies in the world, negotiations didn’t go well. Land Rover declined any offer from Ineos and the Defender’s fate remained sealed, but this only made Jim and his team more determined to offer the world something that Land Rover couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Five years later, the Defender name lives on in a milder monocoque model that has little in common with the original aside from a cool retro interpretation of its styling.

Undeterred to produce an heir to the traditional Defender throne, however, Ineos has produced something completely extraordinary – the Grenadier.

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Unlike the modern Defender that has reimagined the original boxy design through a contemporary lens, the Grenadier sails as close to Land Rover’s largely un-evolved design as the legal winds would allow it. In fact, the courts ruled in favour of Ineos following a challenge by JLR.

But under the incredibly similar façade including the flat panels, classic round headlights, garden-shed glasshouse and curved shoulder line lies a fascinating machine that couldn’t be more different to the now-defunct Defender.

Actually, it’s at this point that we will cease making comparisons with the Defender. At its international launch in Scotland, it took 30 seconds of driving to realise that the Grenadier does not deserve comparison to a model as dated and essentially flawed as the dear old Land Rover.

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Instead, Ineos’s first model is a paradox of traditionalist engineering and off-road purity, combined with deceptively modern and refined touches. Thank you, Land Rover, but Ineos will take it from here.

While every attempt was made to keep design and engineering in-house, the start-up needed to enlist the help of an established heavyweight to find the right drivetrain, and at the Grenadier’s core you’ll find a choice of BMW petrol and diesel engines.

Opt for the B57 straight-six 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel and the Grenadier has 550Nm and 183kW under the right pedal. Go for the B58 petrol equivalent and those figures shift to 450Nm and 210kW.

While both silky sixes are still fairly prolific in the BMW family, with the help of powertrain development specialist AVL, Ineos extensively remapped this pair of powerplants for its own purposes.

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In the case of the diesel, the rev limit was slightly lowered, while power and torque were pared back in the petrol; both in the name of longevity.

With both engines, an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission sends power to the dirt via all four wheels and a pair of live axles.

If you’re looking for a true objective comparison therefore, the Jeep Wrangler, Suzuki Jimny and Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series are the only models on the current market that roll on a full live-axle chassis but, as our first ride in the Grenadier demonstrated, it’s not really that simple.

By now it should be obvious that Ineos has confidence in the Grenadier’s all-terrain ability, choosing not the dry plains of South Africa or the Australian outback for its international debut, but the frozen and utterly inhospitable Scottish central Highlands in mid-winter.

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Here, you’ll find almost every nemesis for an aspiring 4x4 newcomer from saturated peat bogs through slippery rock gardens, deep ruts, mud craws, icy wading and even beaches – albeit freezing loch sands and not the kind we’re used to in the other hemisphere.

Whether you opt for the Trialmaster with 17-inch steel wheels or the Fieldmaster that wears 18-inch alloys, both are equipped with BF Goodrich T/A Baja Champion rubber providing a good basis for grip.

Just days before our arrival, the Central Highlands were plunged into a minus 10ºC cold snap but the following thaw had forced water up through the boggy soil, turning the surface into a slick of mud and slush.

The Ineos approach to progress in challenging terrain is not through electronics and insidious intervention of traction control, but honest and obvious mechanical grip.

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For almost all the steep inclines we attempted, low range and a locked centre differential (via a traditional mechanical lever) were sufficient to tackle very low-friction surfaces. For the really tough stuff, electrically locking front and rear diffs can be called on for substantially more traction.

It was only later when the way ahead turned rocky with strong streams of meltwater did we engage all locked differentials via the cool ceiling-mounted buttons. In some of the most challenging conditions Scotland could muster, the Grenadier made progress look easy.

An occasional knock from the rear suspension suggested the five-link set-up can bind at the limit of its travel but the Grenadier has a spooky ability to keep all four wheels in contact with the prevailing surfaces.

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Wheel articulation is good in all corners and the hill descent system is easily the smoothest we’ve experienced, carefully controlling vehicle speed rather than allowing the car to run away before intervening with a panicked attack from the ABS. Overall, the Ineos has commendable composure in even the nastiest conditions.

Exceptional off-road ability is what the Grenadier pertains to from the brochure to its utilitarian looks, so it’s perhaps not surprising that it delivers on those promises. Far more surprising, however, are its manners when it returns to the road.

A deeply compromised on-road ride is something all-terrain enthusiasts have long accepted in exchange for the toughness and ability of live-axle, ladder chassis vehicles, but the Grenadier demonstrates that there is another way.

While its suspension setup sends a little shudder through to occupants along with a bit of body roll too, its composure is absolutely the best that a twin live axle can deliver.

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A 12.3-inch touchscreen offers access to five main off-road information displays. Attitude displays the vehicle’s roll and pitch angles along with steering angle. The TMPS screen bundles transmission and gearbox temperatures with tyre pressure. Pathfinder offers additional Record, Follow (breadcrumb) and traditional roadbook navigation options. The Statistics screen has detailed trip information, while the Battery screen offers crucial power consumption and charging information.

It even usurps some independent leaf-sprung rear arrangements. In keeping with tough 4x4 hardware, steering is courtesy of a traditional steering box which provides a low-and-slow ratio – with damping – that is good for off-road negotiation and requires more than 3.5 turns lock-to-lock. This takes some getting used to on-road, with a little wander in-lane, but the precision is good with plenty of weight.

Seats are courtesy of Recaro and ultra-supportive but not intrusively bolstered and even verge on sporty, while the central switch panel is another interior centrepiece that initially appears to be style over substance but quickly proves itself as a practical highlight.

The tough industrial-looking switches even extend to the ceiling where the various off-road modes are located with a brilliant aesthetic and all with the same hose-out IP rating of the cabin.

Order a Fieldmaster and the delightful safari windows above each front seat are included. They can pop up for ventilation or lift out completely for unrivalled light and air.

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Like virtually every Grenadier feature, anything can be optioned to any variant for almost unlimited customisation possibilities.

For example, the safari windows standard to the Fieldmaster can be added to the Trialmaster, while the Trialmaster's dual locking diffs can be donated to the Fieldmaster for an additional charge.

But while there are plenty of traditional touches, the Grenadier also has one foot in the 4x4 future. There’s no instrument cluster, with only a warning light binnacle between the steering wheel and the road. Instead, all vehicle information is displayed on the central touchscreen.

Despite its initial utilitarian appearance, the Grenadier is not as austere as you might imagine – but then neither is its price. When the Grenadier was first announced, Australian pricing started at $84,500 before on-road costs but since then, global supply and logistics problems have pushed the point of entry up to $97,000 before on-road costs.

It seems a bit steep until you see what’s included.

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A steel ladder chassis is corrosion protected in a three-stage process including a final powder coating in black. Choose an optional colour however, and Ineos will donate to a corresponding charity. Red gives cash to the Halo Trust to remove land mines from war-torn communities around the globe, while the grey finish sends funds to the Rhino Orphanage in South Africa.

The Grenadier’s body is perforated along each flank with Airlineschiene – the railing used to secure commercial airline seats – allowing almost infinite accessory fixing options. A roof access ladder fitted to the asymmetric rear doors can support up to 140kg, a vertical towing interface is not limited to the commonplace ball hitch and can accommodate everything except a fifth wheel.

A dedicated electrical system management screen allows the vehicle’s power systems to be closely monitored – a genuine boon for campers and serious off-road modifiers. Chequer plate panels on the front wings are reinforced beneath to support the weight of an adult climber and your choice of rock sliders or side steps are part of the deal.

I was prepared to forgive the Grenadier a lot. Its off-road ability is so wonderfully versatile that a choppy on-road ride akin to the Wrangler would be acceptable.

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The odd switch that looks like it’s borrowed from another manufacturer would be equally alright for a brand that’s trying to focus on the big things in its infancy, as would a few squeaks and rattles in a hardworking foray model.

As it happens, the Grenadier asks for none of this preferential treatment and is unbelievably well-rounded and complete. But how different this story could have been.

Inside sources report that Land Rover’s Defender line and tooling was feeling its age as badly as the model itself, with tired presses and stretched jigs compromising the quality of finished products.

Although designing the Grenadier from scratch has been a monumental amount of work for the Ineos team, there’s not a single member who wishes they could have done it the ‘easy way’.

I can’t help but wonder what the Grenadier would be if Ratcliffe’s plan A had come off. It would have been a success in itself to see an iconic model preserved for a few more years but, in the face of adversity, Ineos has produced a machine that sets a new standard for off-the-shelf off-road ability combined with innovative refinement and manners.

The Ineos Grenadier is not just the machine the Defender could never have been, there’s really nothing else quite like it.

Specifications