My thinking is that I'm glad they are making the same rig everywhere in the world and not sourcing different parts depending on where we are. That's what Ford has done with the Ranger, and the results are a tangible difference in quality and capability between the RTW spec ranger and the NA spec one.
This is a very low-volume vehicle -- 30,000 units is a pittance compared to Jeep (Hundreds of thousands of Wranglers alone per year in the US). Assuming they max-out that 30,000 units, it won't all be in North America, but let's even be generous and say 90% of them are. When we get down to the brass tacks -- How many ships containers need to be full of parts to service those 27,000 Grenadiers? I'd wager that somewhere between 100 and 500 50-foot containers full of parts could stock a warehouse that wouldn't run out of key pieces in our lifetimes. The largest container ships can carry upwards of 20,000 containers, with bigger ships on the way, and so in the scale of global shipping it should be very easy for Ineos to keep things in stock for us in North America. FWIW, Triumph motorcycles have this model; it used to be a 2-3 week wait to get parts from the U.K., but a few years back they opened up a single warehouse in the USA, and now I can get parts delivered next business day even up here in Canada. So as long as the parts on stateside, which is a very small number of containers to ship, they will be easily available.
In other words, there will be no problem getting parts to the USA, and from there the excellent trucking and shipping infrastructure that allows fresh avocados to get from California to Vermont in February will kick in, and none of us will be wanting for parts (assuming they are produced and shipped). Sourcing American parts, at that point, from a practical perspective of availability is therefore not likely to be any advantage. But for the rest of the world -- well, it's a lot easier to get things from Europe to Asia and Africa than it is to get things from the USA to even Latin America, let alone places further afield, so I think relying on European parts suppliers makes a ton of sense for a vehicle that is "built for the world". For instance, if you travel to almost anywhere in Africa, there's a 90% chance you'll have to route through a European airport. That means wherever I happen to be on that continent, I can probably get the part I need to the nearest major city within a day or two.
The above is all assumptions of course -- assumptions based on rumours and the "old way" of doing parts distribution. Warehouses are relatively cheap, and with Ineo's promises of serviceability within 1 hour in so many places, I imagine they will have a parts distribution network to facilitate that experience. It's a much smaller task for Ineos than it is for the typical car company.
