2026 INEOS EV won’t be a compact SUV

INEOS Automotive’s global boss Lynn Calder has elaborated on the two model ranges that will join the INEOS Grenadier wagon and ute in 2026 and beyond.

Describing INEOS as a car-maker with “a lot of ambition”, Calder confirmed the company’s second model – a battery-electric off-roader – is on track for 2026 release and suggested our first look at the new model line could happen as soon as next year.

Importantly, she also confirmed the vehicle would be bigger than many pundits have suggested – a proper family-size 4x4 EV.

Calder was Down Under for the long-awaited formal Australian launch of the Grenadier. Speaking in an exclusive in-depth interview with carsales, she confirmed the INEOS EV was still on time.

“We’ve kept on schedule with the project. I’d say two and a half years out [from launch] design is almost complete. We’re almost [in the] very, very final tweaking stages of that. The engineering convergence and the packaging [is] well underway,” Calder revealed.

She described the vehicle as “a completely different concept” from the Grenadier wagon, which is now being delivered to Aussie customers, and the Grenadier Quartermaster dual-cab, which entered production two weeks ago.

“It’s not a body on frame, it’s a unibody. So therefore [we are] engineering a completely different concept, but [we still want] to try and get as much off-road capability out of it as we can with the aim of being the most off-road capable electric vehicle out there.”

Calder’s comments suggest the size difference between the new model and Grenadier has been overstated.

“What I can say is, yeah, we have set it smaller – [but] really only slightly smaller,” she added.

“This is not a compact SUV in any form. And actually, over time and when you see it next to the Grenadier, you’ll definitely see the sort of family resemblance in that it looks very much like maybe a slightly smaller brother.”

Even though Calder says demands of urban buyers won’t dumb-down the off-road capability of INEOS vehicles in future, city-slickers have dictated some packaging changes for the EV.

“One thing that will help the urban market is that it’s shorter [lower] to get into urban garages,” Calder explained.

“In Australia it’s not really such a big thing, but in Europe having 2.05 metres of height [Grenadier] is a problem for a lot of city centre [parking] garages. So, we’ve made sure that we remain under two metres.”

Calder said the third INEOS model line is coalescing and may arrive sooner than initially expected, thanks to the “impatience” of INEOS founder and Grenadier ‘architect’, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

“Yeah, we’ve got a few different ideas at the moment… Maybe something a little bit more compact, [aimed at] a little bit of maybe a younger audience would be the next thing that we would target,” she explained.

To carsales’ suggestion of an INEOS ‘Jimny’, Calder smiled: “Couldn’t possibly comment. [But] Yeah, it would be really nice to have potentially something [like that]. I mean, our vehicles are not cheap because – I’ve used the words – [they are] over-engineered.

“It would be nice to have something that’s maybe a little bit more accessible. That’s kind of where we’re going at the moment… but given the level of off-road capability we want to have and looking at multi powertrain options, it is not easy.

“That’s the kind challenge we’ve got going,” she confirmed.

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