Ineos Automotive tests Grenadier production at the Hambach plant

The first production phase has begun for the Ineos Grenadier, the rugged 4×4 designed to fill the void left by the original Land Rover Defender when it was replaced in 2020. Ineos is now in production trial phase in its plant in Hambach, France, where it is building batches of prototype vehicles to finalize factory processes before full production begins in July. Customers will be able to place orders in April, when full pricing is announced.

In 2020 Ineos Automotive decided to move production of the Grenadier from a proposed facility in Wales to one in France – at the time the move was described as “no headache” by the commercial director of brand, Mark Tennant, despite sabotaging 500 jobs for Britain’s post-Brexit car industry.

Ineos originally planned to assemble the Grenadier in Wales, near Ford’s soon-to-be-closed Bridgend plant. However, the company has instead taken possession of the Mercedes factory in Hambach – it is very close to the German border and allows easy transport of the BMW mechanics of the 4×4.

Before Ineos bought the factory, Mercedes’ parent company Daimler had to close the Hambach plant, which only produces the Smart EQ ForTwo. However, the electric city car will now be built alongside the Grenadier at the same factory, with Daimler contracting production of the car to Ineos. When production of Smart ceases, Ineos will have access to more equipment and facilities to ramp up production of its 4×4.

production trial

Ineos has now started building 130 prototype vehicles for its first phase of production testing, to refine the manufacturing process and iron out any missteps before building customers’ vehicles. The brand has taken around 15,000 reservations for the Grenadier so far, with customers able to finalize orders in April. The company has also appointed more than 100 retail and service partners to manage sales and support for the Grenadier.

Speaking on the production trial, Mark Tennant said: “We need to deliver vehicles to customers with 100% quality. We also have to be ready for problems – there will be problems, and we are ready for that”.

The Grenadier is manufactured on an adapted Smart production line, which spans 1,000 meters on four factory wings. The Hambach plant is said to be the first-ever carbon-neutral car factory and employs around 1,000 workers to build the Grenadier.

Since the Grenadier is significantly larger and heavier than the Smart, the supports along the production line have been reinforced, as has the building itself. Due to the car’s body-on-frame construction, the Grenadier is first built as a rolling chassis, before being married to its BMW-derived powertrain.

Mercedes previously invested €470m (around £395m) in the factory, and Ineos has since pledged more than €50m (£42m) – mostly to fund the upgraded production line and new body and paint facilities for its SUV.. The company also uses robots that were originally intended to produce Mercedes electric vehicles, which build the body and chassis of the car and use 600 measurement points to ensure they are built to the millimeter. For rust protection, wax is injected into the body of each Grenadier, and some parts are e-coated to prevent corrosion.

Currently, defective components are removed from the production line to be inspected by hand and using ultrasonic sensors, to identify errors in the process so they can be corrected for a full production. In addition to robot maintenance, inspections and component loading, the entire bodywork process is automated.

Moving from Wales to France

At the time, Ineos communications director Tom Crotty spoke to BBC Radio 5 about the company’s decision to move the Grenadier factory to the mainland. “We were looking to build in Wales and in the meantime we had an approach from Mercedes who we had a very good relationship with through Formula 1 – and who had a ready-made factory on the French border. -German at our disposal.

“It’s almost brand new,” he says. “They were going to use it to build a 4×4, they changed their business position and so we had a very simple business decision. Do we want to take the risk of building our own factory or do we want to take one that Mercedes already has built and ready to go? And it was a very simple business decision to make.

“He was the driver. We’ve heard a lot about how it went with Brexit or all sorts of other things – but that’s absolute nonsense. It was a very simple business decision. Someone presents you with a new, state-of-the-art factory, ready to go, against the risk of building your own.”

Crotty also commented on the relatively limited number of jobs the Welsh factory would have provided, compared to the rest of Ineos’ operations. He said: “We would have employed 200 people in Wales. We currently employ 6,500 people in the UK in our chemical plants – and we have just acquired the BP business, which extends this to around 1,000 more people. So we believe that we provide a large number of high quality jobs [for the UK].”

Speaking to Auto Express, Tennant said the company “understands” the negative reaction from some UK commentators to the company’s decision, but revealed taking over a pre-existing manufacturing plant was still an option at the moment. study.

“The business side of the argument that I think people will absolutely understand is that the whole industry has been completely turned upside down by what happened in 2020. The business benefit of buying an existing factory that has been given a recent investment, which is tailored to the product we are producing with a highly skilled workforce already in place, it is kind of a no-brainer to follow the path we have taken,” he suggested.

“It allows us to get to the start line, whatever the Covid, in about the same schedule as initially planned. It’s huge for us.

Q&A – Mark Tennant, Commercial Director, Ineos Automotive

Can you explain the financial advantage of choosing Hambach over the Bridgend plan?

I think the main benefit is sticking to our timing plan. We had the original plan that we were happy with before covid to rebuild with the Bridgend factory but the world changed in 2020. So a couple of things – on our end we were getting quite nervous about being able to innovate and put the builds in time with the closures in South Wales.

On Daimler’s side, they were clearly rethinking their strategy for Hambach. We looked extensively at the use of existing factory capacity in Europe and beyond earlier in the project and found nothing suitable. In the aftermath of covid they reconsidered and this presented itself as a possibility.

So before any Bridgend idea there was a search for a pre-existing factory to build the car in Europe?

Yes, we looked and beyond Europe to be honest. We have taken a deep look – capacity is not insufficient in terms of existing manufacturing facilities, overcapacity has been an issue in the industry for some time. But we went with the choices we made because everything available was too big, too old, too much investment, nothing really worked. When Hambach presented itself as an opportunity, it had received considerable investment to accommodate a new electric SUV that Mercedes was planning to build there, and so it suited us extremely well.

Would a deepening of the relationship with Daimler be possible?

It is an ongoing relationship. We were a main partner of the Mercedes-AMG F1 team, so we know them well. But it’s a stand-alone deal and I can’t speculate what will happen in the future.

So no technology advantage for you in terms of on-site EV technology?

I think our goal is to get the most out of Hambach in general. We will be contract manufacturing the Smart ForTwo for a period of time for Mercedes, and the focus is on providing the best quality product they rightly need at that time. From an alternative fuels perspective, this is clearly something we are looking closely at for Grenadier. You know about the memorandum of understanding we recently signed with Hyundai regarding fuel cells, and we always have an open mind about what the long-term future of alternative fuel technologies might be.

How does the decision to drop Bridgend and opt for Hambach affect the image of the company?

I think there is an emotional and commercial response. The emotional I understand particularly with the ongoing Brexit and the negative aspects of our decision not to go to Wales, and we were also torn as we were very happy with the plan we had.

The business side of the argument that I think people will absolutely understand is that the whole industry was completely bowled over by what happened in 2020 and the business benefits of buying an existing plant that received recent investments, which is suited to the product we produce with a highly skilled workforce already in place, it’s kind of a no-brainer to follow the path we’ve been on. Above all, Ineos is a company and the owners have a very commercial spirit. This allows us to get to the start line with covid in about the same time as originally planned. It’s huge for us.

Of course, we’re torn and we understand some of the emotional outpourings in the wake of the decision.

What aspects of the Grenadier remain British?

Ineos already employs around 6,000 people in the UK, Ineos Automotive is a UK company and we employ around 100 people – this is increasing rapidly as we get closer to production and we plan to double that number over the 12-18 coming months.

We are very proud to be British, but we are also pan-European. We have similar numbers in Germany, we have the engineering element done by Magna in Austria, despite the fact that we no longer do sub-assembly work in Portugal, we have kept an office and people there , mainly on the logistics side.

So I think we can still speak passionately about the fact that Ineos is a British company, but in the same way as with all major OEMs, the supply base is not parochial, it’s cross-border and we’re not no different from anyone, whether doing general or final assembly in the UK or not.

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