The Italian Army and the Austrian government have each ordered INEOS Grenadiers, the first time the vehicle has been bought by sovereign armed forces, according to INEOS Automotive.
Italy becomes the first NATO country to place a sizeable military order, with deliveries due to start early in 2027 through ATflow, the company’s regional distributor. The Austrian order went through a tender won by Valentin Tusch GmbH, a vehicle armouring and conversion specialist, which will supply Austrian defence and interior security forces with Grenadiers adapted for enhanced protection. First deliveries and trials there begin by the end of this year.
Mike Whittington, chief commercial officer at INEOS Automotive, said: “In a world where geopolitical tensions are rising, military forces are bolstering their capabilities and resilience, they need the best, modern equipment available. As a robust and highly capable vehicle, this is what the Grenadier was built for, to unremittingly serve armed forces in mission-critical roles.”
Neither contract value has been disclosed, and the company has not said how many vehicles either order covers.
The British interest in all this comes in the next line of the announcement. INEOS says it is in advanced procurement discussions with other European and NATO armed forces, including through the Team Grenadier consortium, which has been selected to go forward to the trials stage of the Ministry of Defence’s Light Mobility Vehicle programme. That competition will replace the British Army’s Land Rover fleet, is expected to be worth around £2 billion before VAT and could cover more than 9,500 vehicles.
Team Grenadier will be up against at least one other trials contender, since Babcock International has also been shortlisted with the General Logistics Vehicle, a family based on the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series and supported by Supacat in Devon.
The Grenadier has a particular resonance in the British debate about the Land Rover replacement. Sir Jim Ratcliffe commissioned it after trying and failing to buy the tooling for the old Defender from Jaguar Land Rover, and the vehicle is assembled at Hambach in France in a plant bought from Mercedes-Benz, having originally been intended for production in Wales. The sovereignty argument that both bidders are now making therefore cuts in different directions depending on which part of the supply chain is counted.
The Grenadier is already used by police forces, border patrols, special forces and emergency rescue services in a number of countries, though those are mostly smaller fleet purchases rather than army orders of the kind announced in Rome and Vienna.
Interesting but without actual numbers or contract value, a little bit suspect.
A strong contender, however, Land Rover will be a difficult political issue if the UK misses out on a brand of such distinction and long history with the British forces. Okay, the bulk of the bodywork will come from another country but all additional equipment will be assembled here in the UK. Another strong argument is the engine, which will be built in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, meaning employment and a vote-winner.
It’s mental that we are even having a discussion on it. JLR is the last UK manufacturer standing in the vehicle segment and it produces the worlds best sports utility vehicle that won the Dakar rally. This competition is Britains only hope for a UK product in the military that can be a world beater.
The competition is a long list of foreign made cars trying to claim to be British because they stuck a flag on the bumper and called it UK modified.
Supacat in particularly should be ashamed, I had higher expectations from them.
No doubt a bunch of generals and civil servants are currently engaged in a number of lunches with the US defence contractors submitting designs.
The UK should pass a law banning companies like Ineos and P&O from trying to claim foreign made ships and vehicles are British and unveiling them with union jacks painted on them.
HMG should trade mark the brand.
Worst of all I’m about to get a flood of comments from people on here that can’t afford to drive a JLR product tell me how bad it is and how amazing a Land Cruiser is because they watched a documentary in 1993 about Australian miners🤦♂️
My last three vehicles have all been JLR and they are amazing and my previous three were Toyota (not Land Cruiser) and they were very mediocre.
Defender is built in Slovakia, its not British either. And its a pile of crap and certainly not up to standard for a military vehicle. Its just a Chelsea tractor for the school run. Not even built on a ladder frame anymore. Shite.
The D7X-R version used in the Dakar rally is highly modified and uses a BMW 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 engine.
The military version won’t be the same.
LMV requirements are for Diesel engines.
So if JLR gets chosen for this contract, let’s hope the 6-cylinder version of the Ingenium engine is used and not the problematic 2.0 version
This is great news for France where all Grenidiers are made,
Got to love the end Brexiters of James Dyson and Jim Radcliffe that did everything they could to offshore manufacturing from the UK after Brexit.
But I’m sure Ineos will be along shortly to slap a Union Jack on the vehicle and tell us how British it is.
Just as I’m sure all the racists on here will be along shortly to tell me how Jaguar Landrover is an Indian company becuase it shareholder is based in Indian. So by the logic Ineos is a Monaco based company. 😂
Jim why would anyone be termed a racist for pointing out that Jaguar is an owned subsidiary by TATA since 2008. Where’s the racism in that? That term is thrown about by people far too much when not at all necessary. Thanks.
As above the new Defender is built in Slovakia!!!
It’s an excellent vehicle – the Land Rover Land Rover were too lazy to develop.
Interesting. Having looked into it the Grenadier seems to be the more suitable vehicle and ironically more like the original JLR Wolf. The Wolf II is a very capable vehicle, however it seems to be a civilian vehicle converted for military use. Fixing it in the field might be difficult given how complex it is. It pains me but I’d not go with the Defender. Sorry.
Great news for Ineos. Far better vehicle than the new Defender. The new Defender is total crap.