Grenadier in US: Overland Expo, Loveland CO Aug 26-28, 2022

[stickshifter]

Wow, that's really good G-2 (intel). Thanks for that timeline.

Happy to help!

 

[Arkaig]

 

[MileHigh]

I discussed this with a gentleman from Ineos, and this is my recollection of the conversation:

1. A fleet of around 10 Grenadiers for test drives will tour the U.S. toward the end of 2022; he said they'd be in Colorado in November, and then start moving south to Arizona & New Mexico as winter in Colorado gets under way. I didn't ask about when they'd be in other regions of the country - sorry!

2. Ordering - with the required $4,500 ($5,000?) deposit - will begin in January 2023.

3. Delivery of vehicles will begin later in 2023, and these will be model year 2023 vehicles. He said that Ineos really wanted to deliver vehicles to North America in 2023 as promised. My guess is that vehicles ordered later in 2023 would be the model year 2024 (for delivery in 2024).

4. Pricing will likely not be in place until ordering begins in January 2023 - due to instability in markets & production chains, and fluctuations in inflation rates.

Who did you talk to about the model years? I talked to Wes, who said 2024 models in the US. And Q3/Q4 delivery would point to late year production- as most manufacturers switch over model years over the summer, not calender year. Wes seemed a senior guy there, the EVP (Brit) guy the only senior person to him, but I didn’t talk to him.

It would be nice to get clarification on that since the 2024 will undoubtably have some tweaks to it versus the 23.

 

[emax]

That doesn't help if they only have the 2023 model year at that point. Everybody who wants a model from the following year is free to wait until then.

 

[painter]

... since the 2024 will undoubtably have some tweaks to it versus the 23.

Agree. And I had hoped the NA version, being a later release date, might have some "improvements" to the initial RoW.

But, have to wonder, will there be enough time and is the manufacturing run large enough to make such early changes? Ineos might just plan for a year +/- for the first run without alteration - if they can -, call them all MY2023(model year) and target the sufficiently large enough reservation holders first.

Then introduce a MY2024 with tweaks. That would make the Q3/4 timing seems reasonable. Could be part of the risk for early adopters - would be nice if the purchase price reflected that. And who knows, in hindsight it might (!)

Whatever the timing, none of us is getting any younger. And end of ICE is coming. Waiting carries it's own risks.

 

[MileHigh]

That doesn't help if they only have the 2023 model year at that point. Everybody who wants a model from the following year is free to wait until then.

if you look at inventory in the US for BMW and Land Rover it is a mix of 2022 and 2023 models. So I would expect that any cars being sold in late 2023 will be labeled 2024 models. Of course with a new company, a new model, and the logistics issues, who knows.

it’s probably just largely an issue of semantics. Outside of how I mentioned that there could be some tweaks done during a normal summer retooling. It could be as simple as the number of colors and shades offered are different. I don’t think we are going to see any 2023 models in the US. Even if they are sold in late 2023.

 

[stickshifter]

Who did you talk to about the model years? I talked to Wes, who said 2024 models in the US. And Q3/Q4 delivery would point to late year production- as most manufacturers switch over model years over the summer, not calender year. Wes seemed a senior guy there, the EVP (Brit) guy the only senior person to him, but I didn’t talk to him.

It would be nice to get clarification on that since the 2024 will undoubtably have some tweaks to it versus the 23.

I talked with the British guy. But who knows - there was so much going on - it was pretty hectic - maybe he mispoke, or maybe I heard him wrong. I certainly heard some misinformation on other topics from some of the younger Ineos staff; for example, the engine is a 3.5 liter, and the transmission is the "heavy-duty" ZF transmission. In any case, it really doesn't matter for us American buyers right now: we cannot order a Grenadier until January 2023 (at the earliest); by then, we will have more information on which model year we will be getting, pricing, etc. Until then, I think worrying about which model year we may or may not get is wasting time. Of course, that's much of what we do on a car forum

 

[MileHigh]

One thing taking to Wes was, it sounds like he is buying one, and we talked about the exterior ‘cargo’ slots. He said the things that they have for attachment using that slot are more meant for static use- ie when your are parked and holding stuff. THe ‘flip’ or attachement system in the eye hooks isn’t meant to hold stuff while moving- BUT he implied that if you got a better attchment point, that the rail itself can hold a fair amount of weight. So we might be able to something like a spare gas can or a mount to carry a jack. (Ah, side mounted ‘machine guns’ I’m sure some idiot will think… ). Also, he didn’t know of replacement ‘gull‘ windows for the back to access the back or storage- but he thought that they could be 3rd party added.

ETA: I did forget to ask about what the specs were on the cargo attachment system.

 

[grenadierguy]

I discussed this with a gentleman from Ineos, and this is my recollection of the conversation:

1. A fleet of around 10 Grenadiers for test drives will tour the U.S. toward the end of 2022; he said they'd be in Colorado in November, and then start moving south to Arizona & New Mexico as winter in Colorado gets under way. I didn't ask about when they'd be in other regions of the country - sorry!

2. Ordering - with the required $4,500 ($5,000?) deposit - will begin in January 2023.

3. Delivery of vehicles will begin later in 2023, and these will be model year 2023 vehicles. He said that Ineos really wanted to deliver vehicles to North America in 2023 as promised. My guess is that vehicles ordered later in 2023 would be the model year 2024 (for delivery in 2024).

4. Pricing will likely not be in place until ordering begins in January 2023 - due to instability in markets & production chains, and fluctuations in inflation rates.

I was told that the configurator will be updated in January of 2023 with model year 2024. We won't get them till October so we get the model year newer. This was only for North America. As with anything, take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Caladan]

One thing taking to Wes was, it sounds like he is buying one, and we talked about the exterior ‘cargo’ slots. He said the things that they have for attachment using that slot are more meant for static use- ie when your are parked and holding stuff. THe ‘flip’ or attachement system in the eye hooks isn’t meant to hold stuff while moving- BUT he implied that if you got a better attchment point, that the rail itself can hold a fair amount of weight. So we might be able to something like a spare gas can or a mount to carry a jack. (Ah, side mounted ‘machine guns’ I’m sure some idiot will think… ). Also, he didn’t know of replacement ‘gull‘ windows for the back to access the back or storage- but he thought that they could be 3rd party added.

ETA: I did forget to ask about what the specs were on the cargo attachment system.

In terms of accessory attachment, I would think those door-mounted strips should be able to securely hold something like low-profile Go-Pro camera(s).

 

[DaveB]

Who did you talk to about the model years? I talked to Wes, who said 2024 models in the US. And Q3/Q4 delivery would point to late year production- as most manufacturers switch over model years over the summer, not calender year. Wes seemed a senior guy there, the EVP (Brit) guy the only senior person to him, but I didn’t talk to him.

It would be nice to get clarification on that since the 2024 will undoubtably have some tweaks to it versus the 23.

I have never understood why a vehicle manufacturer would designate models by season. Keeping in mind that summer for you is winter for us, and half the world. Calendar year is calendar year everywhere.

 

[bemax]

I have never understood why a vehicle manufacturer would designate models by season. Keeping in mind that summer for you is winter for us, and half the world. Calendar year is calendar year everywhere.

I guess that the season has nothing to do with it. Probably in the past they all manufacturers started the new production around January. Then one smart manager said "well we start the "new model" in Dezember, so we can sell it earlier than all others. The next manager went back to November to have the new model even one month earlier And so on...

 

[MileHigh]

I thought it was because demand was lowest in the summer, workers hardest to keep in the plant, so you might as well do the engineering to switch over things in and out.

It will be interesting on the particulars on the order series. I assume that you’ll have up to a date to order, but I wonder how ‘switchable’ their plant is (or parts suppliers) and how that will affect your rank order. I assume that they will bin together like models to a certian degree, and how much that jiggles our orders fulfillment. Interesting to think that I could go on Christmas vacation, or maybe even leaf pepping, in my own IG.

I mentioned to Wes that right now, my favorite config is the dark-green/white-roof/steel-wheels. He said that they expect the dark green to be one of the more popular colors…

 

[emax]

When a manufacturer converts a plant for a new model or product, this usually happens in the summer months, since it is easiest to schedule the plant holidays during this time due to the school holidays: most employees are on vacation during this time anyway.

Thus, after such a conversion, the production of a new car model will usually start in late summer/early autumn. From a marketing point of view, it then makes sense to designate a model whose production started in the second half of 2022 as “model 2023” and not as “model 2022”.

 

[MileHigh]

One thing that kind of hacked me off is that I bought two tickets for the event at $60+ total, but I never had to show the tickets to get in.... Considering that I pretty much was just looking at the IG, I really didn't roam around very much.

 

[USandPR]

One thing that kind of hacked me off is that I bought two tickets for the event at $60+ total, but I never had to show the tickets to get in.... Considering that I pretty much was just looking at the IG, I really didn't roam around very much.

I had to show my bar code ticket at the gate on Friday and they gave me a wrist band. Did you come through the front entrance or go "overland"?

 

[emax]

Means: Are you a front runner or an overlander ? ;-)