Standalone INEOS EV coming in 2026

The second all-new model line from INEOS Automotive after the 2023 INEOS Grenadier will be a dedicated battery-electric off-roader.

And while the first INEOS EV won’t share its ladder-frame platform or mechanicals with the new INEOS Grenadier wagon or the upcoming Grenadier dual-cab 4x4 ute, it will have genuine off-road credentials and at least a familial resemblance.

That’s the inside line from INEOS Automotive execs, including the greenfield start-up’s automotive head of engineering, Oliver Schlipf.

Schlipf told carsales that previous reports that INEOS would electrify a ‘shortie’ version of the Grenadier are mistaken.

Instead, the first zero tailpipe emissions INEOS production vehicle will be a battery-electric 4x4 wagon which will slot in underneath the Grenadier in terms of size.

“This is a completely new car. For sure, you will recognise it’s [from] the same company, the same family, but it’s a new car,” Schlipf told carsales.

The INEOS engineering chief confirmed the new vehicle would be smaller than the Grenadier but would not be drawn on its exact size, performance or range targets. Insiders describe it as “three-quarters the size”.

“It is a battery-electric [vehicle] on a skateboard [platform]... But still with the goal to have best-in-class 4x4 [capabilities],” Schlipf told carsales.

“From an engineering perspective, it will be a challenge definitely to have a very good 4x4 [performance] on a skateboard [platform]. [But] Even the specification is not completely done. We’re still trying to figure out the right spec – we’re in the design phase,” he revealed.

Schlipf would not elaborate on technologies the new EV would use, but ruled out exotic solid-state batteries. He confirmed INEOS is, however, looking at a range of existing and emerging battery chemistries and EV drivetrain technologies.

“We are still finding the right partners,” he commented.

INEOS commercial director Mark Tennant was a little more forthcoming on the new model range.

“One swallow does not make a summer. We cannot be a credible OEM with one product line. We’re doing a [Grenadier] ute; the bakkie [South African term for a ute] is coming next. We are working on a BEV as well.

“It will have off-road very close to the centre of its capability. It will have a decent ground clearance and we are pretty close to signing off exterior design,” Tennant stated.

The first battery-electric INEOS will come to market in 2026, Tennant confirmed.

On a different wave of the Grenadier’s global launch in Scotland last month, INEOS confirmed it was working on an EV for 2026 with leading automotive industry supplier, Magna.

Unlike the ladder-framed Grenadier, the INEOS EV will be based on a skateboard platform with a flat brick-shaped battery pack amidships and suspension and motor subframes attached at either end.

That makes it almost certain that INEOS has signed on for Magna Steyr’s FM29 platform, which is also planned to underpin the Fisker Ocean EV and at least two Chinese SUVs.

The move will give INEOS a shortcut to EVs in terms of both time and investment, leaving it freer to develop its fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) on the Grenadier’s ladder-frame chassis.

It will also give the INEOS EV an 800-volt power system, with either one or two electric motors delivering up to 400kW of power, 600km of range and the potential for three rows of seating.

“We have three models planned: this [the Grenadier], the FCEV and a more user-friendly EV model,” Tennant told carsales in a separate interview.

“We can confirm we are not doing a BEV on this [Grenadier] platform.”

A move to Magna would mean the EV would be the first INEOS vehicle not built at the Hambach factory in France, which INEOS chief Jim Ratcliffe leveraged out of Daimler’s hands after the smart factory had already been retooled for the Mercedes-Benz GLB.

Magna already makes cars for everybody from BMW and Jaguar to Mercedes-Benz and Toyota, while also working on self-driving EV technology with both Lyft and China’s BAIC.

As yet unnamed publicly, the INEOS EV will have less off-road ability than the Grenadier, which stretches its abilities via a ladder-frame chassis and live axles at both ends.

The EV will employ fully independent suspension all round, with far less wheel travel than the Grenadier can muster, though its electric motors will give it the electronic equivalent of locking differentials.

“We don’t want to be a one-trick pony and we want to broaden the offer and for that we need a zero-emission vehicle and that right now means a BEV,” Tennant said.

“We are working on a BEV for 2026. It won’t be ladder frame. It will be skateboard and smaller and lighter and very capable off-road.”

The INEOS EV won’t be as utilitarian as the Grenadier either, and should also deliver the kind of niceties, comfort and infotainment systems now taken for granted in modern vehicles.

“The creature comforts, that is where that market is going and we need to be mindful of that. The consumer wants more focus on equipment levels at the end of the market our BEV targets, and they go off-road less,” said Tennant.

“Twelve-way electric seats, well that’s not what the Grenadier is about, but it could be what the customers want on this BEV. But as a new brand, we need to have a thread that runs through INEOS, so it will be off-road capable.”

In the meantime, despite building a Grenadier-based EV prototype, INEOS has ruled out a hybrid version of its inaugural model – at least for the foreseeable future.

With its six-cylinder BMW-sourced engines, the potential to use the German marque’s four-cylinder plug-in hybrid system in the Grenadier is not lost on Schlipf.

“I would not completely say we will never do it, but at the moment we don’t really think a hybrid engine with the additional weight really suits the purpose of our vehicle... “We know we are not building a vehicle for everybody,” he stated with a smile.

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