Elon Musk might be the most famous eccentric billionaire with a larger than life personality to have ventured into the highly competitive automotive market, however he isn’t the only one.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a much more reserved billionaire, is not as well-known but the car enthusiast and experienced adventurer is just as impactful. As one of Britain’s richest men, the chairman of chemicals company, Ineos, his estimated fortune equates to that of a GDP of a small country.
If it begs the question: what does one do with that much money? For Ratcliffe the answer is to plough it into a passion project—creating an brand new, class-leading, utilitarian, off-road 4×4.
Having witnessed many mainstream carmakers transition away from the rugged utilitarian vehicle, and into producing SUVs and Jumeirah Jane mobile, Ratcliffe identified a gap in the market for a new vehicle that was functional, capable and rugged enough to take on some of the world’s harshest environments.
Named the Grenadier, it takes its name from a mid-17th century military soldier that specialised in throwing grenades. Strong, sturdy and always in the thick of the action.
The roll out of the 4×4 won’t be until late 2021 and despite still being in development stages the folks at Grenadier are testing the vehicle in plain sight without camouflage wrapping or fake panels and will continue to put the prototypes through gruelling testing over a planned 1.8 million kilometres during the next year.
Grenadier’s inline six engine will come from BMW but the platform is it being built on was designed entirely from scratch for the project, which means there are no limitations or compromises that stand in the way of producing ultimate utilitarian 4×4. The designers and engineers were given a blank canvas and told to develop until their hearts were content—like it should be.
The Grenadier has its sights on conquered the hearts and minds of all types of customers.
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