R.I.P. Scout26
When in 2015 Jaguar Land Rover announced that after 67 years it was ending production of the iconic Land Rover Defender, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe saw an opportunity. Ratcliffe knew JLR was working on a high-tech successor to the Defender, and he figured it would be a much more upmarket vehicle than the old one, leaving an obvious hole in the market. To fill it, Ratcliffe tried to buy the old Defender tooling, but JLR refused to sell. Undaunted, he decided to create his own Defender-style off-roader instead. Meet the Ineos Grenadier.--------------------------Much of the Grenadier's development work is being done is by Magna Steyr, which builds the Mercedes-Benz G-Class at its plant in Graz, Austria. The emphasis is on capability, durability, and utility, as the Grenadier is designed to be a true off-roader capable of working in punishing environments. "We are not building an SUV," say Ineos insiders. Jeep's Wrangler is one of the development team's benchmark vehicles in terms of both on- and off-road performance and capability.