Ineos Automotive, the carmaker owned by richest industrialist and would-be Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has lined up several new model names to succeed its Grenadier SUV.
Ineos Automotive marketed the names Fusilier, Privateer, Brigadier, Quartermaster, Sapper and Gunner in a series of applications in January. Previous trademark activity had been around its Grenadier brand.
The Grenadier, inspired by the Land Rover Defender, has cost Sir Jim more than €500m (£440m) so far in accumulated losses for Ineos Automotive, according to its latest accounts.
It started rolling off the company’s production line in Hambach in France in October last year.
Costing £55,000, deliveries began in December. The engine was the brainchild of Sir Jim, who had the idea in a London pub also called The Grenadier.
It was originally to be made in Bridgend, South Wales, but the company was able to buy a factory made in Mercedes, which gave it better access to suppliers. The company denied that the decision was motivated by Brexit.
The model retained the rugged contours of the Defender, which ceased production in the UK in 2016.
But Jaguar Land Rover relaunched the model in 2019, albeit with a facelift and marketed to a more upmarket audience rather than the original farmer-focused one.
