INEOS set to enter automotive industry with Land Rover-inspired 4×4

INEOS CEO Jim Ratcliffe leans against his Land Rover Defender. Source: INEOS

LONDON (ICIS)–INEOS is to push ahead with the building of a brand new 4×4 off-roader vehicle having completed a six-month feasibility study, the Swiss-domiciled chemicals major announced on Monday.

The company says it expects “to spend many hundreds of millions on the project” having in noticed a gap in the market in mid- 2016 following Jaguar’s decision to cease production of the Land Rover Defender in January 2016.

Despite CEO Jim Ratcliffe saying in June of 2016 that the plant would be built in the north of the UK if the project goes ahead, Monday’s announcement says “identification of a suitable manufacturing location” will be a part of the next phase of the project, adding the company will look at UK sites “alongside other European” locations.

INEOS has confirmed that the new vehicle will not be a replica of the Defender but will be influenced by it and will offer a “real and pure” alternative to “jelly-mould” sport utility vehicles (SUVs) currently being produced.

“I am a great admirer of the old Land Rover Defender and have enormous respect for its off road capability. Our new 4 x4 has been inspired by it,” said Ratcliffe.

“But whilst our off-roader might share its spirit, our new car will be a major improvement on previous models.”

The latest announcement comes as INEOS continues to expand its portfolio of work, having recently entered in to the shale gas industry as well as stepping up its gas operations in the UK.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals which contributes more than a third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle. ICIS tracks the movement of petrochemical raw material costs in auto production both globally and regionally with the weighted ICIS Basket of Automotive Petrochemicals (IBAP).

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