Ineos Grenadier four-wheel drive to help clear landmines

Ineos Automotive has announced a collaboration with the HALO Trust, the world’s largest charity devoted to the clearing of old landmines.

The world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance and weapons disposal organisation, the HALO Trust, is currently operating in 23 different countries around the world.

With a worldwide fleet of more than 600 four-wheel-drive vehicles, the joint British and American charity operates off-roaders in some of the most remote and inhospitable places on the planet.

Ineos has been working with the HALO Trust for the past two years, with an aim to test and develop the Grenadier through HALO’s operations around the world.

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Footage from Ineos below shows mostly Land Rover Defenders operating in the field, and some vehicles in the 4x4 fleet are said to be up to 40 years old.

The Ineos Grenadier project is said to be directly related to the discontinuation of Land Rover’s original Defender, which ceased production in January 2016.

According to company lore, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe sat around with some friends lamenting the loss of the iconic British four-wheel drive at a London pub called the Grenadier.

And from there, the idea was born to build a new, old-school, off-road four-wheel drive.

“All the knowledge and insight HALO is sharing with us is incredibly valuable to the engineering programme, and will ultimately help us create the toughest, most capable vehicle for all users” said Dirk Heilmann, CEO of Ineos Automotive.

Development of the Grenadier has progressed to the point of prototype production and testing, with more than 130 second-phase prototypes being deployed as part of the vehicle’s ongoing worldwide testing programme.

Up to 1.8 million kilometres of testing is slated for these prototypes around the world. 300,000 of those kilometres, or – 17 percent – will be off-road.

Ineos will initially supply one Grenadier prototype vehicle to one of HALO’s de-mining programmes as a shakedown test, and there are plans to develop a fleet of bespoke Grenadiers to suit the needs of the HALO Trust.

Developed by Magna-Steyr in Austria and built in Hambach France, the Grenadier will enter production in July 2022, with an Australian launch likely in the months and years to follow.

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