The new Quartermaster pick-up and a chassis-cab variant for those who need to affix their own utility equipment will further boost appeal.
Still, “we recognise that one car line isn’t going to make the automotive business that it’s our vision to be, so we will invest in a portfolio of products and the technology they need,” Ineos Automotive CEO Lynn Calder recently said, referencing the “probably smaller” battery-electric SUV that will follow in 2025.
Anecdotal again, but I know a few people who dislike the Grenadier for looking like an old Defender. It does, but it also has a bit of G-Wagen, big Suzuki Jimny, early Toyota Land Cruiser… They can’t all look that different, can they?
Anyway, I think that regardless of how you feel about it, Ineos deserves admiration for having had the nous and the will to make it at all. Few firms would put up the resources and the nerve.
Maybe it takes a privately owned one like Ineos to do it, given the risks, ever-changing regulatory requirements and necessary long-term capital investment.
When it comes to the smaller SUV, Ineos will have to commit to buying about £15 billion worth of batteries. Who knows when it will start paying that back? Fair play to them for doing it.
Rolls-Royce’s customer base continues to get younger
A recent snippet about the Rolls-Royce Spectre: the average age of a Rolls customer is now just 43.
Granted, that doesn’t sound that young in isolation. It’s roughly when I started worryingly Googling ‘when does middle age start?’. But it’s young for an average car buyer.
“When I joined Rolls-Royce [in 2010], the average was 56,” CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös told me. “43 is spectacularly young, because [it means] for every one in their 60s, we need one who is 20.”
It’s funny how that translates to companies with a more youthful reputation. As Müller-Ötvös said: “Our buyers are now younger than Mini’s.”
