Ineos Is Planning Smaller Off-Road SUVs, and They Might Even Be Based on Chinese Plug-In Hybrids

Ineos plans to partner with other automakers for its smaller models, instead of adapting the platform found under the Grenadier, according to Autocar.

The Fusilier is now scheduled to arrive in 2028 with a range-extender plug-in hybrid setup, and two other models are also planned.

A report last year from Autocar suggested that Ineos may work with Chinese automaker Chery, which is launching a PHEV off-road SUV called the iCar V27 this year.

British startup Ineos arrived in 2022 with an old-school off-roader called the Grenadier, meant to fill the niche left when Land Rover replaced the classic Defender with the far more modern follow-up. Ineos showed a smaller model called the Fusilier in 2024, promising electric and hybrid powertrains, but the company has said little about it since. Now, Ineos is looking to move forward with the Fusilier and plans on collaborating with other automakers on future models, according to a report from Autocar.

Ineos

In an interview with Autocar, Ineos Automotive CEO Lynn Calder laid out the brand’s approach for future models. “We’re not building any other cars from the ground up like we have with the Grenadier,” she explained.

Instead, the startup plans to rely on other automakers to help bolster its lineup. “Now for us, it is about technology sharing, and once we have got that set, we will be able to bring more models to market in shorter order,” she said. “We don’t plan to change the wheelbase of the Grenadier or do a huge amount more work on the Grenadier platform. So you won’t see a short-wheelbase Grenadier, but you will see a smaller 4×4.”

The Fusilier, originally due out in 2027, will now arrive “probably by 2028,” Calder said. Ineos appears to be ditching the EV option, focusing instead on a range-extender setup where the wheels are powered by electric motors, but a gas engine acts as a generator for the battery.

The iCaur V27.iCAUR

After the Fusilier, two more models are planned, Calder confirmed. She didn’t say which companies Ineos could partner with, but an Autocar report from last year claimed Ineos was talking with Chinese automaker Chery about potentially employing the range-extender setup used by Chery’s iCar brand. iCar (confusingly sold internationally as iCaur) builds a lineup of electrified boxy, off-road-oriented SUVs. Its first hybrid, the V27, uses a turbocharged 1.5-liter gas engine to charge a 33-kWh battery, allowing for 124 miles of pure-electric range and over 600 miles of combined range.

Range-extender setups, which many companies promote as a form of EV but in reality are plug-in hybrids, are becoming trendy, especially for trucks and SUVs. Jeep launches a range-extender system in the Grand Wagoneer Hybrid for 2027, Ram is readying the hybrid 1500 REV, Ford plans to bring back the F-150 Lightning as a range-extender, and Scout has seen the overwhelming majority of preorders for its Traveler SUV and Terra pickup optioned with the range-extender gas engine.

“It’s technology that will get us the regulatory benefit but without the inconvenience to our customers, so we can still sell the cars that they actually want to buy,” Calder said of the technology. To sell these future models, however, Ineos first has to survive. But Calder said things are looking up for the nascent brand, telling Autocar that orders for the Grenadier have increased by 20 percent in the first quarter.

Ineos doesn’t publish detailed sales results, but says it has delivered 35,000 units worldwide since the start of production in 2022. The United States is Ineos’s biggest market, making up 65 percent of sales. Ineos currently builds the Grenadier in France, and Calder said that to avoid import tariffs, which the Trump administration increased to 15 percent last year, the company plans to start production in the United States before the end of 2030.

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